The Histories and Philosophies of Yoga

Catalog description

The course offers a broad and roughly chronological survey of the thought and practice of Yoga in India. This will involve zooming in and out of some of India's most paramount and influential Yogic traditions and considering their diverse range of answers to the following questions: what is Yoga as both a goal and a practice, who is the ideal Yogi, what are their most fundamental aims, and what kind of worlds do they inhabit? Text traditions examined will include select Vedic sources, early Buddhist texts, Epic literature, the Yogasutras of Patanjali and its commentaries, the Puranas, the Tantras, medieval Jain and Islamic texts, and the Hathayoga text tradition.