- Sanskrit, Yogis, Yoga, Religion, Mughal painting, Persian and Indian Miniature Painting, and 40 moreHistory of Indian Painting, Hinduism, Philology, South Asia (History), Yoga Philosophy, Tantra, Anthropology of the Body, Sanskrit language and literature, Medieval Indian History, Asceticism, Hindi Literature, Hindi/Urdu, Hathayoga, Oriental Studies, Tantric Studies, Saivism, Hatha Yoga, Religious Studies /Indology, Hindu Shakta Tantra, Goddess Cultures In India, South Asia, Vedanta, Oral Traditions, Codicology, Manuscripts, Indology, Kashmir Shaivism, Shaiva Tantra, Mantra, Śaivism, Gorakhnath, Hat Yoga, Response to Mark Singleton, Yoga Body Mark Singleton, South Asian Studies, Ancient Indian Art and Architecture, Vaishnavism, Textual Criticism, Indian studies, and Tantric Buddhismedit
- Boden Professor of Sanskritedit
A comparison of descriptions of yogi insignia in Old Hindi Prem Kathās and their depiction in statuary and Mughal-era painting.
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Summary of history of haṭha yoga.
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A brief account of the Yogabhāskara, a haṭhayoga manual from a Vaiṣṇava bhakti tradition which was thought to be lost until a manuscript of it was found in Jaipur in 2019.
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In this paper I trace the use of the term haṭhayoga from its Buddhist origins as a term for the restraint of ejaculation in Vajrayāna sexual ritual to its use in non-Buddhist Indic texts to refer to physical yoga practice broadly... more
In this paper I trace the use of the term haṭhayoga from its Buddhist origins as a term for the restraint of ejaculation in Vajrayāna sexual ritual to its use in non-Buddhist Indic texts to refer to physical yoga practice broadly conceived. The paper has been published as chapter 6 (pp.177–199) in Hindu Practice, ed. Gavin Flood, pub. OUP 2020.
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The Sanskrit term haṭhayoga denotes a variety of yoga in which physical practices predominate. These practices include therapeutic cleansing techniques, complex bodily postures, diverse methods of breath control, and esoteric techniques... more
The Sanskrit term haṭhayoga denotes a variety of yoga in which physical practices predominate. These practices include therapeutic cleansing techniques, complex bodily postures, diverse methods of breath control, and esoteric techniques for manipulating the body's vital energies. Haṭhayoga first appears in the Indian textual and material record about 1000 years ago. By the 18th century it had become central to yoga more broadly conceived. Its methods were incorporated into many mainstream Hindu religous traditions, and they form the basis of much of the yoga practised around the world today.
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This article shows that the Amṛtasiddhi, the earliest known text to teach any of the practices and principles distinctive of haṭhayoga, was written in a tantric Buddhist milieu.
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A piece I wrote for the Idler Magazine in early 2018 after visiting the yogi monastery at Dhinodhar in Kutch.
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The article introduces the term 'non-tīrtha' as a new analytical category to designate Jaina sacred sites that have vanished or do not yet exist, according to the cyclical Jaina conception of history. It presents new evidence on two... more
The article introduces the term 'non-tīrtha' as a new analytical category to designate Jaina sacred sites that have vanished or do not yet exist, according to the cyclical Jaina conception of history. It presents new evidence on two different Digambara 'non-sites': Māmoṃ (Bhāmauna) and Tumain (Tumbavana). The Digambara temple of Māmoṃ has completely disintegrated, but is still listed as a tīrtha in Jaina pilgrimage guides, while the non-tīrtha of Tumain is not listed, despite its numerous ancient Jaina sculptures, pillars, and other historical remains. The article presents evidence for the long-sought location of a Jaina temple, and a previously unpublished 10th to 11th century Vaiṣṇava copper-plate inscription, featuring one of the oldest known epigraphic records pertaining to the history of yoga.
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A note to the RISA email list debunking claims of antiquity for the modern practice of sūryanamaskāra.
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In recent decades the relationship between tantric traditions of Buddhism and Śaivism has been the subject of sustained scholarly enquiry. This article looks at a specific aspect of this relationship, that between Buddhist and Śaiva... more
In recent decades the relationship between tantric traditions of Buddhism and Śaivism has been the subject of sustained scholarly enquiry. This article looks at a specific aspect of this relationship, that between Buddhist and Śaiva traditions of practitioners of physical yoga, which came to be categorised in Sanskrit texts as haṭhayoga. Taking as its starting point the recent identification as Buddhist of the c.11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, which is the earliest text to teach any of the methods of haṭhayoga and whose teachings are found in many subsequent non-Buddhist works, the article draws on a range of textual and material sources to identify the Konkan site of Kadri as a key location for the transition from Buddhist to Nāth Śaiva haṭhayoga traditions, and proposes that this transition may provide a model for how Buddhist teachings survived elsewhere in India after Buddhism's demise there as a formal religion.
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Major revision of paper given at 2013 Yoga in Transformation conference in Vienna.
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School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London David Gordon White's wide-ranging scholarship on tantra, yoga and alchemy has inspired many students and scholars to undertake research in those fields. White worked as an... more
School of Oriental and African Studies, The University of London David Gordon White's wide-ranging scholarship on tantra, yoga and alchemy has inspired many students and scholars to undertake research in those fields. White worked as an assistant to Mircea Eliade and his doctorate from the University of Chicago was in History of Religions. His research methodology, true to this scholastic heritage, is not as deeply rooted in textual criticism as that of the current vanguard of scholars working on tantra and yoga, whose philological studies rarely reference his work. The accessibility of his books and articles, however, together with his engaging writing style and the excitement that imbues his scholarship, mean that indologists specialising in other fields, and authors addressing non-scholarly audiences, frequently draw on his publications. White's prominence in the study of yoga and tantra requires all scholars working on those subjects to address his work.
In its classical formulation as found in Svātmārāma’s Haṭhapradīpikā, haṭhayoga is a Śaiva appropriation of an older extra-Vedic soteriological method. But this appropriation was not accompanied by an imposition of Śaiva philosophy. In... more
In its classical formulation as found in Svātmārāma’s Haṭhapradīpikā, haṭhayoga is a Śaiva appropriation of an older extra-Vedic soteriological method. But this appropriation was not accompanied by an imposition of Śaiva philosophy. In general, the texts of haṭhayoga reveal, if not a disdain for, at least an insouciance towards metaphysics. Yoga is a soteriology that works regardless of the yogin’s philosophy. But the various texts that were used to compile the Haṭhapradīpikā (a table identifying these borrowings is given at the end of the article) were not composed in metaphysical vacua. Analysis of their allusions to doctrine shows that the texts from which Svātmārāma borrowed most were products of a Vedantic milieu - bearing testament to Vedānta’s newfound interest in yoga as a complement to jñāna - but that many others were Śaiva non-dual works. Because of the lack of importance given to the niceties of philosophy in haṭhayogic works, these two non-dualities were able to combine happily and thus the Śaiva tenets incorporated within haṭhayoga survived the demise of Śaivism as part of what was to become in the medieval period the dominant soteriological method in scholarly religious discourse in India.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 7 moreShaivism, Hatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, Gorakhnath, and Naths
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In the first part of this paper I summarise what constituted early (11th- to 15th-century) haṭhayoga. I then show how, in contemporaneous taxonomies of yoga, Śākta techniques were grouped separately from haṭhayoga, under the name laya.... more
In the first part of this paper I summarise what constituted early (11th- to 15th-century) haṭhayoga. I then show how, in contemporaneous taxonomies of yoga, Śākta techniques were grouped separately from haṭhayoga, under the name laya. Next I show how in the Haṭhapradīpikā, the text which became haṭhayoga’s locus classicus, the Śākta techniques of layayoga were for the first time included under the rubric of haṭha and how the purpose of haṭhayoga was realigned to be more in keeping with that of laya. I then identify the practitioners of early haṭhayoga - who were ascetics not Śāktas - and show how they have continued to be its torchbearers. In the final part of the paper I attempt to locate these developments in their wider context.
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Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 5 moreHatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
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Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 5 moreHatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
Open-access critical edition of the Amṛtasiddhi, the first text of the haṭhayoga tradition, together with an introduction and annotated translation, and a critical edition of the Amṛtasiddhimūla.
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Introduction, consisting of analysis of the teachings and historical context of the Amṛtasiddhi, a description of the witnesses and a discussion of the constitution of the text. The book is available to buy from the EFEO... more
Introduction, consisting of analysis of the teachings and historical context of the Amṛtasiddhi, a description of the witnesses and a discussion of the constitution of the text. The book is available to buy from the EFEO (https://publications.efeo.fr/fr/). It will be made freely available as an open access publication in December 2022.
Institut Français de Pondichéry, 2021 (ISBN 978-81-8470-242-2)
École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2021 (ISBN 978-2-85539-245-5)
Institut Français de Pondichéry, 2021 (ISBN 978-81-8470-242-2)
École française d’Extrême-Orient, 2021 (ISBN 978-2-85539-245-5)
Research Interests: Philology, Buddhism, Hinduism, Tibetan Studies, Indian studies, and 15 moreYoga Meditation, Textual Criticism, Sanskrit language and literature, Tibetan Buddhism, Tantra, Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Buddhist Sanskrit Manuscripts, Sanskrit Philology, Buddhist Tantra, Tibetan Language, Hatha Yoga, Shaiva Tantra, History of yoga, Hindu Shakta Tantra, and Vajrayana Buddhism In Tibet
Published by Penguin Classics on January 26th 2017 (April 11th in the US).
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Research Interests: Mimesis, Yoga, Oral Traditions, Codicology, Orality, and 9 moreBrahmanism, Manuscripts, Indology, VEDA, Kashmir Shaivism, Shaiva Tantra, Mantra, Shastra, and Dharmasutras
... RICHARD GOMBRICH EDITED BY ISABELLE ONIANS SOMADEVA VASUDEVA WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COM WWW.NYUPRESS.ORG ... tatah. sa gatv¯a vidy'Aârth¯ı puram. P¯at.aliputrakam sis.eve... more
... RICHARD GOMBRICH EDITED BY ISABELLE ONIANS SOMADEVA VASUDEVA WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COM WWW.NYUPRESS.ORG ... tatah. sa gatv¯a vidy'Aârth¯ı puram. P¯at.aliputrakam sis.eve Vedakumbh'A¯akhyam up¯adhy¯ayam. yath¯aAvidhi. tatrastham. ...
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An important message to our readers: The asanas in this book should not be attempted without the supervision of an experienced teacher or prior experience. Many of the other practices should not be attempted at all. The ideas expressed in... more
An important message to our readers: The asanas in this book should not be attempted without the supervision of an experienced teacher or prior experience. Many of the other practices should not be attempted at all. The ideas expressed in this book should not be used to diagnose, ...
Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantric Studies, Sanskrit, and 8 moreTantra, Vedanta, Hatha Yoga, Saivism, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 5 moreHatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 5 moreHatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
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Research Interests: Philosophy, Asceticism, Yoga, Tantra, Vedanta, and 5 moreHatha Yoga, Yogis, Śaivism, Non-dualism, and Gorakhnath
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A podcast looking at the Indian government's promotion of yoga as part of its international "soft power" in the light of recent discoveries about yoga’s history.
https://www.tortoisemedia.com/audio/modis-warrior-pose/
https://www.tortoisemedia.com/audio/modis-warrior-pose/
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Yoga is big business. Its worth $10bn a year in America alone. Does the growth in yoga's popularity, particularly in the West, mean that its spiritual content and religious roots are being neglected? Can yoga be practised aside from these... more
Yoga is big business. Its worth $10bn a year in America alone. Does the growth in yoga's popularity, particularly in the West, mean that its spiritual content and religious roots are being neglected? Can yoga be practised aside from these roots? Are there even dangers in doing so?
Ernie Rea is joined by Jim Mallinson from SOAS, University of London, Suzanne Newcombe from the charity Inform and Ramesh Pattni from the Hindu Forum of Britain.
Ernie Rea is joined by Jim Mallinson from SOAS, University of London, Suzanne Newcombe from the charity Inform and Ramesh Pattni from the Hindu Forum of Britain.
Successful project proposal for AHRC DFG Collaborative grant: "Light on Hatha Yoga: A critical edition and translation of the Hat.hapradīpikā, the most important premodern text on physical yoga.
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This is a revision of the project proposal submitted for a European Research Council Consolidator Grant in 2014. The proposal was successful and the project started on October 1st 2015.
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To be published in Objects, Images, Stories: Simon Digby’s historical method, ed. Francesca Orsini and David Lunn. Oxford: OUP.
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The Amṛtasiddhi is the first text to teach many of haṭhayoga's central principles and practices. This paper shows that it was composed by Vajrayāna Buddhists.
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Handout for lecture given at Harvard 17th November 2017. The lecture is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGc-MEb5Mg
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University L'Orientale, seat of Procida (Naples), 13-20 September 2018: intensive reading seminar on the Amṛtasiddhi led by James Mallinson (SOAS) and Péter-Dániel Szántó (University of Oxford). This workshop is sponsored by the ERC grant... more
University L'Orientale, seat of Procida (Naples), 13-20 September 2018: intensive reading seminar on the Amṛtasiddhi led by James Mallinson (SOAS) and Péter-Dániel Szántó (University of Oxford). This workshop is sponsored by the ERC grant 647963 at SOAS university