The Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā: Preliminary Notes on an Early Text on Yoga

This essay aims to present the current state of research on the Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā, an ancient text on yoga which describes, with an exceptional depth of detail and a high level of bodily technicality, internal yogic practices. The study of the Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā was initiated as part of the ERC-funded AyurYog project, which was led by Dagmar Wujastyk (2015–2020), whose central aim was to examine the link between yoga and classical Indian medicine, two distinct fields of knowledge in the Sanskrit tradition. Not only does chapter Ten (called yogacikitsā) of the Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā describe “therapy in the context of yoga practice,” but it also appears to integrate within its discourse the practice’s physical and mental effects on the body at each stage of the yoga process, thus reflecting an empirical knowledge of physiology. This essay introduces the dating, authorship, textual history, and reception of the text. It provides preliminary research on parallel passages in other works, and proposes that the Dharmaputrikā Saṃhitā is a textual testimony of ancient yoga practices referred to as the “yoga of Hiraṇyagarbha.” On the basis of the critical edition, which is yet to be published, it offers the reader an annotated and detailed summary of the work’s content, along with various discussions of important questions raised by broader considerations on the history of ancient yoga.

EDITORIAL: Mṛtyuñjaya, the Conqueror of Death, in the year of Covid–19.

EDITORIAL: Mṛtyuñjaya, the Conqueror of Death, in the year of Covid–19.

Book Review of Biography of a Yogi (Foxen, 2017).

Biography of a Yogi: Paramahansa Yogananda and the Origins of Modern Yoga. Anya P. Foxen. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. 238 pages. First published in 1946, Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda has to date sold over four million copies. It is by far Yogananda’s most popular book and has been translated into thirty-three languages. Aside from South Asian religio-philosophical texts, Autobiography of a Yogi is perhaps the most widely read publication on the life of a yogi of all time.

Book Review of Roots of Yoga (Mallinson and Singleton, 2017).

Roots of Yoga. Translated and edited with an introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton. London: Penguin Books, 2017. Paperback. xl + 540 pages

Book Review of Selling Yoga (Jain, 2014).

Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture. Andrea R. Jain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 240 pages. Selling Yoga, Andrea Jain’s influential monograph, is not a recent publication in the field of yoga studies. Having first been published six years ago, it has already been receivedby the academic community. Nonetheless, it still deserves thorough discussion,especially in light of expanding academic research on yoga.

Book Review of Yoga in Transformation (Baier, Maas, et al. Eds., 2018).

Yoga in Transformation: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Edited by Karl Baier, Philipp A. Maas, and Karin Preisendanz. Vienna: Vienna University Press, 2018. 630 pages; 55 figures. The Yoga in Transformation volume pulls together extended research papers from an eponymous conference held at the University of Vienna in 2013. Featuring sixteen peer-reviewed chapters from world-leading scholars, the volume is a valuable resource for academic yoga studies—probably more at graduate than undergraduate level, given its original research content. The collection is divided into two sections. The first, titled “Yoga in South Asia and Tibet,” features mostly studies on texts, while the second, titled “Globalised Yoga,” focuses on developments in the twentieth century and is more interdisciplinary, including textual research, anthropology, sociology, affect theory, and art history.