Yoga In Modern India
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Yoga In Modern India
''Yoga in Modern India'' is a 2004 book by the anthropologist Joseph Alter about the history and practice of yoga in the 20th century. It was one of the first scholarly studies of modern yoga. The book won the 2006 Association for Asian Studies' Coomaraswamy Book Prize. Book Synopsis In ''Yoga in Modern India: The Body between Science and Philosophy'', the anthropologist Joseph Alter examines three main themes in the history and practice of yoga in the 20th century: Swami Kuvalayananda's medicalisation of yoga; naturopathic yoga; and the influence of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on the development of yoga as exercise. The book begins by setting yoga in its historical context, at once one of Hinduism's six schools of philosophy and a modern fitness activity. Alter discusses the way haṭha yoga in particular has been called a science in India, requiring it to be distanced from religion. This was accomplished by Kuvalayananda's investig ...
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Joseph Alter
Joseph S. Alter is an American medical anthropologist known for his research into the modern practice of yoga as exercise, his 2004 book ''Yoga in Modern India'', and the physical and medical culture of South Asia. Biography Joseph S. Alter was born in Landour, Uttarakhand, in the north of India. He gained his PhD in 1989 from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is known for arguing, in his own words, that "The invention of postural yoga in late nineteenth- and early twentieth century India is directly linked to the reinvention of sport in the context of colonial modernity and also to the increasing use of physical fitness in schools, gymnasiums, clinics, and public institutions." Alter further suggests in his ''Yoga in Modern India'' that "Yoga was modernized, medicalized, and transformed Yogendra.html" ;"title="y Yogendra">y Yogendra, Kuvalayananda and others] into a system of physical culture." He ...
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Amarolī
''Vajroli mudra'' (Sanskrit: वज्रोली मुद्रा ''vajrolī mudrā''), the Vajroli Seal, is a practice in Hatha yoga which requires the yogi to preserve his semen, either by learning not to release it, or if released by drawing it up through his urethra from the vagina of "a woman devoted to the practice of yoga". The mudra was described as "obscene" by the translator Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vasu, and as "obscure and repugnant" by another translator, Hans-Ulrich Rieker. The mudra is rarely practised in modern times. It was covered in the 1900s by the American sexologist Ida C. Craddock, the resulting legal proceedings against her leading to her imprisonment and suicide. The explorer Theos Bernard learnt and illustrated the posture associated with the mudra. The pioneer of modern yoga, Krishnamacharya, gives impractical instructions for the mudra, demonstrating in Norman Sjoman's opinion that he had never tried the practice. Context Hatha yoga is a b ...
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Andrea R
Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew. Origin of the name The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that refers to man as opposed to woman (whereas ''man'' in the sense of ''human being'' is ἄνθρωπος, ''ánthropos''). The original male Greek name, ''Andréas'', represents the hypocoristic, with endearment functions, of male Greek names composed with the ''andr-'' prefix, like Androgeos (''man of the earth''), Androcles (''man of glory''), Andronikos (''man of victory''). In the year 2006, it was the third most popular name in Italy with 3.1% of newborns. It is part of the Italian male names ending in ''a'', some others being Elia (Elias), Enea (Aeneas), Luca (Lucas), Mattia (Matthias), Nicola (Nicholas), Tobia (Tobias). In recent and past times it has also been used on occasion as a female name in Italy and in Spain, where it is con ...
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Elizabeth De Michelis
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (other), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth (other), lists various princesses named ''Elizabeth'' * Queen Elizabeth (other), lists various queens named ''Elizabeth'' * Saint Elizabeth (other), lists various saints named ''Elizabeth'' or ''Elisabeth'' ** Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Film and television * ''Elizabeth R'', 1971 * ''Elizabeth'' (TV series), 1980 * ''Elizabeth'' (film), 1998 * '' Elizabeth: The Golden Age'', 2007 Music * ''Elisabeth'' (Elisabeth Andreassen album) * ''Elisabeth'' (Zach Bryan album) * Elizabeth (band), an American psychedelic rock/progressive rock band active from 1967 to 1970 * ''Elizabeth'' (Lisa album) * ''Elizabeth'', an album by Killah Priest * "Elizabeth" (Ghost song) * "Elizabeth" (The S ...
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Mark Singleton (yoga Scholar)
Mark Singleton is a scholar and practitioner of yoga. He studied yoga intensively in India, and became a qualified yoga teacher, until returning to England to study divinity and research the origins of modern postural yoga. His doctoral dissertation, which argued that posture-based forms of yoga represent a radical break from haṭha yoga tradition, with different goals, and an unprecedented emphasis on āsanas, was later published in book form as the widely-read '' Yoga Body.'' Singleton was a senior research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, working on the European Research Council-funded Hatha Yoga Project. As an editor of scholarly texts and essays on yoga, his works have been widely praised and well received by scholars. ''Gurus of Modern Yoga and Roots of Yoga'' are both considered important contributions to the field of yoga. Education and career Practitioner Singleton spent three years in India in the 1990s learn ...
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Yoga (philosophy)
Yoga philosophy is one of the six major important schools of Hindu philosophy,Maurice Phillips (Published as Max Muller collection), The Evolution of Hinduism, , PhD. Thesis awarded by University of Berne, Switzerland, page 8 though it is only at the end of the first millennium CE that Yoga is mentioned as a separate school of thought in Indian texts, distinct from Samkhya.David Lawrence (2014), in The Bloomsbury Companion to Hindu Studies (Editor: Jessica Frazier), Bloomsbury Academic, , pages 137-150 Ancient, medieval and modern literature often simply call Yoga philosophy Yoga.Knut Jacobsen (2008), Theory and Practice of Yoga, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 100-101, 333-340Mikel Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga – An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, , pages 43-46 and Introduction chapter A systematic collection of ideas of Yoga is found in the ''Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'',Larson, p. 21–22. a key text of Yoga which has influenced all other schools of India ...
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Hindu Nationalism
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of political thought, based on the native social and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" is a simplistic translation of . It is better described as "Hindu polity". The native thought streams became highly relevant in Indian history when they helped form a distinctive identity about the Indian polityChatterjee Partha (1986) and provided a basis for questioning colonialism.Peter van der Veer, Hartmut Lehmann, Nation and religion: perspectives on Europe and Asia, Princeton University Press, 1999 p. 90 These also inspired Indian nationalism, Indian nationalists during the Indian independence movement, independence movement based on armed struggle,Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb ''Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia'', 1895–1945, Published by Routledge, 2003 p. 78 coercive politics,Bhatt, Chetan, ''Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths'', Berg Publishers (20 ...
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Physiology
Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organ (biology), organs, cell (biology), cells, and biomolecules carry out chemistry, chemical and physics, physical functions in a living system. According to the classes of organisms, the field can be divided into clinical physiology, medical physiology, Zoology#Physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, cell physiology, and comparative physiology. Central to physiological functioning are biophysics, biophysical and biochemical processes, homeostasis, homeostatic control mechanisms, and cell signaling, communication between cells. ''Physiological state'' is the condition of normal function. In contrast, ''pathology, pathological state'' refers to abnormality (behavior), abnormal conditions, including human diseases. ...
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Anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its beginnings in prehistoric times. Anatomy is inherently tied to developmental biology, embryology, comparative anatomy, evolutionary biology, and phylogeny, as these are the processes by which anatomy is generated, both over immediate and long-term timescales. Anatomy and physiology, which study the structure and function of organisms and their parts respectively, make a natural pair of related disciplines, and are often studied together. Human anatomy is one of the essential basic sciences that are applied in medicine, and is often studied alongside physiology. Anatomy is a complex and dynamic field that is constantly evolving as discoveries are made. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of ...
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Subtle Body
A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various Western esotericism, esoteric, occultism, occult, and mysticism, mystical teachings. This contrasts with the mind–body dualism that has dominated Western thought. The subtle body is important in the Taoism of China and Indian religions, Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, mainly in the branches that focus on tantra and yoga, where it is known as the ''Sūkṣma-śarīra'' (). However, while mostly associated with Asian cultures, non-dualistic approaches to the mind and body are found in many parts of the world. Subtle body concepts and practices can be identified as early as 2nd century BCE in Taoist texts found in the Mawangdui tombs. It was "evidently present" in Indian thought as early as the 4th to 1st century BCE when the Taittiriya Upanishad described the Panchakoshas, a series of five interpenetrating sheaths of ...
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Colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism can also take the form of settler colonialism, whereby settlers from one or multiple colonizing metropoles occupy a territory with the intention of partially or completely supplanting the existing population. Colonialism developed as a concept describing European colonial empires of the modern era, which spread globally from the 15th century to the mid-20th century, spanning 35% of Earth's land by 1800 and peaking at 84% by the beginning of World War I. European colonialism employed mercantilism and Chartered company, chartered companies, and established Coloniality of power, coloniality, which keeps the colonized socio-economically Other (philosophy), othered and Subaltern (postcolonialism), subaltern through modern biopolitics of Heterono ...
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Yoga Journal
''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events and materials such as DVDs on yoga and related subjects. The magazine grew from the California Yoga Teachers Association's newsletter, which was called ''The Word''. ''Yoga Journal'' has repeatedly won Western Publications Association's Maggie Awards for "Best Health and Fitness Magazine". It has however been criticized for representing yoga as being intended for affluent white women; in 2019 it attempted to remedy this by choosing a wider variety of yoga models. The magazine was acquired by Outside in 2020. Beginnings ''Yoga Journal'' was started in May 1975 by the California Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA), with Rama Jyoti Vernon as President, William Staniger as the founding editor, and Judith Lasater on the board and serving as ...
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