Roots of Yoga
'An indispensable companion for all interested in yoga, both scholars and practitioners' Professor Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson
Despite yoga's huge global popularity, relatively little of its roots is known among practitioners. This compendium includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads and the Mahabharata, and from the Tantric, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, with many pieces in scholarly translation for the first time. Covering yoga's varying definitions, its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, as well as models of the esoteric and physical bodies, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of knowledge.
Translated and Edited with an Introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton
James Mallinson is Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Civilization at SOAS, University of London. He has edited and translated several texts on hathayoga from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries CE. He has also spent several years living with traditional Hindu ascetics and yogis in India and in 2013 he was honoured with the title of 'mahant' by the Ramanandi Sampradaya.
Mark Singleton (Author)
Mark Singleton is Senior Research Fellow in the department of Languages and Cultures of South Asia, SOAS, University of London. He was a consultant and catalogue author for the 2013 exhibition 'Yoga: The Art of Transformation' at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, and has served as co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Group at the American Academy of Religions. His previous publications include three edited volumes of yoga scholarship and the book Yoga Body, the Origins of Modern Posture Practice.