Yogi Heroes and Poets

Yogi Heroes and Poets PDF Author: David N. Lorenzen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438438923
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This book provides a remarkable range of information on the history, religion, and folklore of the Nāth Yogis. A Hindu lineage prominent in North India since the eleventh century, Nāths are well-known as adepts of Hatha yoga and alchemical practices said to increase longevity. Long a heterogeneous group, some Nāths are ascetics and some are householders; some are dedicated to personified forms of Shiva, others to a formless god, still others to Vishnu. The essays in the first part of the book deal with the history and historiography of the Nāths, their literature, and their relationships with other religious movements in India. Essays in the second part discuss the legends and folklore of the Nāths and provide an exploration of their religious ideas. Contributors to the volume depict a variety of local areas where this lineage is prominent and highlight how the Nāths have been a link between religious, metaphysical, and even medical traditions in India.

Yogi Heroes and Poets

Yogi Heroes and Poets PDF Author: David N. Lorenzen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438438923
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 249

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides a remarkable range of information on the history, religion, and folklore of the Nāth Yogis. A Hindu lineage prominent in North India since the eleventh century, Nāths are well-known as adepts of Hatha yoga and alchemical practices said to increase longevity. Long a heterogeneous group, some Nāths are ascetics and some are householders; some are dedicated to personified forms of Shiva, others to a formless god, still others to Vishnu. The essays in the first part of the book deal with the history and historiography of the Nāths, their literature, and their relationships with other religious movements in India. Essays in the second part discuss the legends and folklore of the Nāths and provide an exploration of their religious ideas. Contributors to the volume depict a variety of local areas where this lineage is prominent and highlight how the Nāths have been a link between religious, metaphysical, and even medical traditions in India.

Yogi Heroes and Poets

Yogi Heroes and Poets PDF Author: David N. Lorenzen
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 9789381406168
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description


Yogi Heroes and Poets

Yogi Heroes and Poets PDF Author: Professor Centre of Asian and African Studies David N Lorenzen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781441699091
Category : RELIGION
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
An exploration of the history, religion, and folklore of the Naths, a Hindu lineage known for Hatha yoga practice.

The Archaeology of the Nātha Sampradāya in Western India, 12th to 15th Century

The Archaeology of the Nātha Sampradāya in Western India, 12th to 15th Century PDF Author: Vijay Sarde
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000858111
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
This book studies Nātha sampradāya through archaeological evidence for the first time. Drawing on a pioneering approach to the study of ascetic traditions, it investigates not only the nature of the Nātha sampradāya’s religious architecture but also examines the extent to which they shared space with other religious groups such as the devotees of Siva and Sakti, Buddhism, and Islam, especially with the Sufi tradition. Focusing on western India, the book sifts through a variety of archaeological evidence and documentation of their temples, caves, and maṭhas. It critically analyses iconographic representations of ascetics on temple walls and sculptural representations of yogic postures or āsanas. Further, these representations are discussed within a pan-South Asian framework to highlight both the commonalities of the tradition across the subcontinent and the regional specificities, along with their chronological spread. Breaking new ground, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of religion, especially Hinduism, history, archaeology, and South Asian studies.

Monastic Wanderers

Monastic Wanderers PDF Author: Veronique Bouillier
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351399624
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
How have the premodern Shaiva ascetic sect of the Nāth Yogīs (known also as the Yogīs with splitted ears) succeeded in maintaining its presence and importance until today? This book intends to give a general survey of this sampradāya which is said to have been founded by the Siddha Gorakhnāth, known for his strong link to Haṭha Yoga. However, rather than to Yoga, the history and expansion of the Nāth sect are linked to its rich legendary corpus. Dealing first with the marks of belonging (such as the huge earrings worn by the fully initiated Yogīs) which give the sect its unity, the book then focuses on its organization and explores the dialectics between the wandering Yogīs and the monastic settlements. The Nāth monasteries belong to two categories: the pañcāyati maṭhs, collectively owned and managed by the sectarian authorities, which ensure the permanency of the sect, and the nījī maṭhs, owned on a personal basis and transmitted from guru to disciple, which permits innovative initiatives The book gives a detailed account of two pañcāyati monasteries, the Kadri Maṭh of Mangalore where its head’s enthronement is spectacularly performed every twelve years, and the Caughera Maṭh of Dang Valley in Nepal, the royal foundation of which gives a glimpse of the complex relationships that can exist between monasteries and kingdoms. It then focuses on three nījī maṭhs: Amritashram in Fatehpur (Rajasthan), Ashtal Bohar in Rohtak (Haryana) and the Gorakhpur mandir (UP). Each of them shows a different mode of adaptation to a modern context and attests of the present importance and continuity of this pluri-secular tradition of asceticism.

Is This Yoga?

Is This Yoga? PDF Author: Anya Foxen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429750587
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This book provides a rigorously researched, critically comparative introduction to yoga. Is This Yoga? Concepts, Histories, and the Complexities of Contemporary Practice recognizes the importance of contemporary understandings of yoga and, at the same time, provides historical context and complexity to modern and pre-modern definitions of yogic ideas and practices. Approaching yoga as a vast web of concepts, traditions, social interests, and embodied practices, it raises questions of knowledge, identity, and power across time and space, including the dynamics of "East" and "West." The text is divided into three main sections: thematic concepts; histories; and topics in modern practice. This accessible guide is essential reading for undergraduate students approaching the topic for the first time, as well as yoga teachers, teacher training programs, casual and devoted practitioners, and interested non-practitioners.

Sayings of Gorakhnath

Sayings of Gorakhnath PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190935103
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Sayings of Gorakhnath presents a translation of late-medieval texts in Old Hindi, traditionally attributed to one of the founders of the Order of Nath Yogis. The Naths are associated with the creation and development of hatha yoga, with important historical and ideological links to Hindu tantra and alchemy. The texts gathered in this collection on the one hand provide a criticism of religious authority based on external knowledge lacking personal experience, while on the other hand they celebrate the path of yoga and its methods of engagement with the subtle body and its centres of occult energy and miraculous powers. The ultimate goal of the style of yoga described in the Sayings of Gorakhnath concerns the attainment of immortality and divinization of its adepts. This is achieved by redirecting the trajectory of the seminal fluid, which in the process transforms into the elixir, the amrt. In order to accomplish that goal, a regime of yogic practices is suggested, consisting of the assumption of a steady posture, breathing exercises, mantra chanting, and meditation. Djudjevic and Singh's translations are preceded by an introduction and accompanied by notes, which contextualize and elucidate the subject matter.

Yoga in Transformation

Yoga in Transformation PDF Author: Karl Baier
Publisher: V&R unipress GmbH
ISBN: 3737008620
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 631

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Book Description
This volume explores aspects of yoga over a period of about 2500 years. In its first part, it investigates facets of the South Asian and Tibetan traditions of yoga, such as the evolution of posture practice, the relationship between yoga and sex, yoga in the theistic context, the influence of Buddhism on early yoga, and the encounter of Islam with classical yoga. The second part addresses aspects of modern globalised yoga and its historical formation, as for example the emergence of yoga in Viennese occultism, the integration of yoga and nature cure in modern India, the eventisation of yoga in a global setting, and the development of Patañjali’s iconography. In keeping with the current trend in yoga studies, the emphasis of the volume is on the practice of yoga and its theoretical underpinnings.

Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies

Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies PDF Author: Suzanne Newcombe
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351050737
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 718

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary resource, which frames and contextualises the rapidly expanding fields that explore yoga and meditative techniques. The book analyses yoga and meditation studies in a variety of religious, historical and geographical settings. The chapters, authored by an international set of experts, are laid out across five sections: Introduction to yoga and meditation studies History of yoga and meditation in South Asia Doctrinal perspectives: technique and praxis Global and regional transmissions Disciplinary framings In addition to up-to-date explorations of the history of yoga and meditation in the Indian subcontinent, new contexts include a case study of yoga and meditation in the contemporary Tibetan diaspora, and unique summaries of historical developments in Japan and Latin America as well as an introduction to the growing academic study of yoga in Korea. Underpinned by critical and theoretical engagement, the volume provides an in-depth guide to the history of yoga and meditation studies and combines the best of established research with attention to emerging directions for future investigation. This handbook will be of interest to multidisciplinary academic audiences from across the humanities, social sciences and sciences. Chapters 1, 4, 9, 12, and 27 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Roots of Yoga

Roots of Yoga PDF Author: James Mallinson
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141978244
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 647

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Book Description
'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