19:00 UTC – 20:30 UTC
Online webinar
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies is pleased to host Fabrizio Speziale, Professor at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and a member of the Center for South Asian and Himalayan Studies (CESAH), Paris-Marseille, for a lecture entitled “The Rāwal: a sect of Muslim yogis in Colonial India.”
In early modern and colonial India, Muslims’ assimilation of knowledge and practices from the yogis was a layered phenomenon where different approaches, which reflected the needs of different groups of Muslim society, coexisted. This lecture looks at the emergence of Muslim branches of Nāth yogis and presents the first stage of an ongoing research on one of them, the Rāwal, which are referred to as a group of ascetics, astrologers and itinerant healers. Their members were renowned for treating cataracts, and according to colonial sources, some regularly visited Europe in the early 20th century to perform this operation. This lecture explores how Muslim yogis were perceived in the Indian society of the colonial period and the professional features of the Rāwal sect, where family played a key role, and women managed family properties when men travelled to perform their itinerant profession.
https://soas-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/94789544325?pwd=a2hTdnVnaExGeGpVUGxVeWtLNGdUUT09
Passcode: KMbCB8HTd4
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies was honoured to host the online recording of the Haṭhapradīpikā Symposium – Launch of the New Digital Edition that took place at the University of Oxford, Bodleian Weston Library on the 23rd February 2024.
This symposium showcases the collaborative outputs of the Light on Hatha Yoga Project, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) from January 2021 to January 2024.
This three-year research project brought together arts and humanities researchers in the UK and Germany to conduct outstanding joint research. The project has produced a digital critical edition and English translation of the Haṭhapradīpikā, authored by Svātmārāma in the early 15th century, which is arguably one of the most widely cited and influential texts on physical yoga, and is instrumental for the flourishing of haṭhayoga on the eve of colonialism.
Building on the success of the five-year ERC-funded Hatha Yoga Project at SOAS University of London, scholars Prof. James Mallinson and Dr Jason Birch of the University of Oxford have collaborated with Prof. Dr Jürgen Hanneder, Dr Mitsuyo Demoto, and Nils Jacob Liersch, PhD Candidate of Philipps-Universität Marburg to produce this critical edition and English translation based on over 200 manuscripts, written in a variety of Indic scripts. The oldest manuscript sourced for the project is dated 1496 CE, which is remarkably close to the date of authorship by Svātmārāma himself.
Beyond the principal investigators and senior researchers, this project has been supported by research assistants at the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, India.
Prof. James Mallinson, University of Oxford (00:00)
Welcome
The Composition of Svātmārāma’s Haṭhapradīpikā.
Nils-Jacob Liersch, MA PhD Candidate, Philipps-Universität Marburg (34:19)
Computer Stemmatics applied to the Haṭhapradīpikā.
Dr Mitsuyo Demoto, Philipps-Universität Marburg (01:04:11)
Development of the various recensions of the Haṭhapradīpikā.
Dr Jason Birch, University of Oxford (01:39:18)
Insights from the New Critical Edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā.
Prof. Jürgen Hanneder, Philipps-Universität Marburg (02:19:19)
Brahmānanda’s Commentary on the Haṭhapradīpikā.
Launch of the New Digital Edition. (02:54:17)
Hathapradipika.online (2024, Language: Sanskrit, English).
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies was honoured to host a book launch for The Amaraugha and the Amaraughaprabodha of Gorakṣanātha: The Genesis of Haṭha and Rājayoga by Jason Birch (University of Oxford). This is a recording of the lecture, which took place on Monday, 19th February, 2024.
This book introduces, critically edits, and translates one of the earliest texts of the Haṭhayoga tradition, namely the Amaraugha of Gorakṣanātha.
In this talk, Dr Birch will discuss the historical importance of the Amaraugha (12th century), the earliest known work to teach a paradigm that combined Haṭha and Rājayoga. These two yogas represent the basic dichotomy of physical and mental praxis that became a salient feature of medieval yoga traditions and is still something of a touchstone for many practitioners of modern yoga. A close reading of certain passages reveals how physical methods of yoga from a tantric Buddhist tradition were adapted for Śaivas and shifted the emphasis from celibacy to moving kuṇḍalinī.
The Amaraugha was one of the main sources of the Haṭhapradīpikā, which created a template for Haṭhayoga that was widely accepted after the fifteenth century. By looking through the lens of the Haṭhapradīpikā, it is possible to see how the practice of Haṭhayoga evolved after the Amaraugha, and to appreciate the contribution of this early work to traditions of Haṭhayoga in the early modern period.
Jason Birch was awarded his doctorate at the University of Oxford and is a Senior Research Fellow of the Light on Hatha project, hosted at University of Oxford and the University of Marburg, which recently published an online critical edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā (2024). He is co-Director of the Yogacintāmaṇi project at the University of Massachusetts Boston and an Associate Researcher of the Suśruta project at the University of Alberta. His publications include The Amaraugha and the Amaraughaprabodha of Gorakṣanātha: The Genesis of Haṭha and Rājayoga (2024), a co-authored book on plastic surgery in the Nepalese version of the Suśrutasaṃhitā (2023), and numerous articles in academic journals on the history of Haṭha and Rājayoga. From 2015 to 2020, he was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow of the ERC-funded Haṭha Yoga Project at SOAS University of London. He is a founding member of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies and the peer-reviewed Journal of Yoga Studies.
The Amaraugha and Amaraughaprabodha of Gorakṣanātha: The Genesis of Haṭha and Rājayoga is available for purchase via the EFEO Pondicherry. (Collection: Collection Indologie, Collection’s number: 157, Edition: EFEO, Institut français de Pondichéry (IFP), Publication date: 2024, Language: English and Sanskrit, Print length: 175 pages.)
To cancel your attendance, please contact us: cys@soas.ac.uk
19:00 UTC – 20:30 UTC
Online webinar
SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies is pleased to host Ayesha A. Irani, Associate Professor of Asian Studies at University of Massachusetts-Boston, for a lecture entitled “Yoga for the Bengali Darveś: Prescriptions of the Jñāna Pradīpa, A Seventeenth-Century Sufi Practice Manual.”
This paper focuses upon the Jñāna Pradīpa (“Lamp of Knowlege”), ascribed to Saiyad Sultān (fl. 1615–1645), the author of the Nabīvaṃśa (“The Prophet’s Lineage”). This Sufi practice manual provides insight into the devotional imaginaire and esoteric practices of the Bengali darveś. Reading the text in the context of other similar Islamic Bangla works suggests that the Sufis of Bengal employed various technologies of haṭha yoga and immortality practices that they recast within an Islamic framework.
https://soas-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/93839193380?pwd=L002ejV1dE5nbzNCaHRaYVF4S1hVUT09
Passcode: WnhbGGa9tf
The Study Tour 2023 will provide an extraordinary opportunity for students to meet the faculty of the School and participate in lectures as well as curated object-oriented learning with the foremost scholars of Yoga Studies.
– Jacqueline Hargreaves
SOAS University of London is pleased to announce a Study Tour 2023 exclusively for the students of the 270-hour Yoga and Meditation Education Certificate. The Study Tour 2023 will take place in London at the prestigious campus of SOAS University, which is centred in the heart of Bloomsbury. Students will experience first-hand our facilities and experience the vibrant and unique atmosphere that makes SOAS so special. The campus is located within walking distance of other important educational landmarks such as the British Museum, the British Library, and the Wellcome Institute.
The Study Tour 2023 will provide an extraordinary opportunity for students to meet the faculty of the School and participate in lectures with the foremost scholars of Yoga Studies. We will learn about current research projects, including the methods and outputs, which are continuing to shape our knowledge of the history and practice of Yoga.
We will visit the world’s most important academic library for the study of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and the Brunei Gallery, which exhibits SOAS’s incredible permanent collection of artworks and objects. We have a formal association with the British Museum, the British Library, and the Royal Asiatic Society, which allows us to offer exceptional access to the collections and curatorial expertise of these institutions. As such, we will engage with object-based study via lectures and contributions from a wide range of leading scholars and curators.
In addition, we will enjoy the talents of the broader SOAS community by listening to a music concert by the School’s music department, participating in a Yoga classes in the vibrant London yoga scene, and enjoy extracurricular activities with the inaugural cohort of students of the Yoga and Meditation Education Certificate.
To begin, on Sunday 25th June, we invite you to meet us at the front stairs of the SOAS Brunei Gallery for a tour of the Jaina Exhibition “Pure Soul”.
The learning outcomes anticipated for this course are:
SOAS University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Sq, London WC1B 5DQ, United Kingdom
On Sunday 25th June at 11:00am sharp, we invite you to meet us for orientation at the front stairs of the SOAS Brunei Gallery.
Unless otherwise stated, all of the lectures will be held in:
Room B102, Brunei Gallery
SOAS University of London.
