Brian Campbell

bcampell@ucdavis.edu
REL 108: Histories of Yoga
Religious Studies, Sproul Hall
UC Davis

Histories of Yoga

Ascetics Performing Tapas, 19th century. The British Museum No. 2007,3005.4

“Yoga is to be known through yoga. Yoga arises from yoga. One who is vigilant by means of
yoga delights in yoga for a long time.” –Patañjalayogaśāstra 3.6
(translated by James Mallinson)

“Only that which has no history can be defined.” –Friedrich Nietzsche

“There is neither a first word and there are no limits to the dialogic context (as it extends into the
boundless past and the boundless future). Even past meanings, that is, those born in the dialogue
of past centuries, can never be stable (finalized, ended once and for all)–they will always change
(be renewed) in the process of subsequent, future development of dialogue." –Mikhail Bakhtin
Course Description:

Yoga has become an increasingly popular physical practice primarily focused on

performing sequences of “poses” and other physical culture techniques such as building strength,
maintaining “healthiness,” and losing weight. Yoga’s recent boom in popularity isn’t limited to
the United States alone. In fact, yoga is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon and an industry
estimated to be worth 80 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2018.
Remarkably, most yoga practitioners, let alone teachers, know little of yoga’s larger
cultural and religious contexts or its varied histories. This lacuna raises serious questions about
legitimacy, traditional knowledge, and cultural ownership. Yoga isn’t just a highly contested,
complex, and polyvalent Sanskrit word, but has over the last two thousand years come to signify
a number of conceptions, systems, lineages, practices, and even goals. This course aims to
survey some of the most influential of these histories, intellectual genealogies, religious
affiliations, and ultimately motivations behind yoga as a contemporary, complex, and
multifaceted phenomenon. We will try to answer how one can make sense of yoga’s multiple
instantiations, variant practices, and heterogeneous discourses. Can beer yoga, dance yoga, hot
yoga, Khemetic yoga, and even "goat yoga" all be forms of the same thing?
We begin our journey by surveying yoga’s early ascetic origins in ancient India, and then
move on to exploring foundational texts that help to define yoga as a philosophical, ethical,
religious, physical, and–more often than not–soteriological system of refinement, power, and
spiritual liberation. The goal of this class is to become aware of yoga’s historical origins and
varied usages to help understand the “how” and “why” of yoga’s transformation, adaptation, and
evolution through history.
The academic approach to understanding yoga includes investigating the socio-cultural,
political, and religious connections that help the scholar to compare, contrast, and understand
the subject in question in greater depths. Yoga’s ubiquitous social presence demands an
explanation. This course aims to do just that.

*This is an upper division undergraduate course with no prerequisites*

Course Objectives:
1- Introduce students to key concepts and approaches in the study of yoga
2- Develop skills for thinking critically about yoga, religion, and socio-cultural phenomena
3- Develop critical thinking and active reading skills through analyzing primary and secondary
sources.
4- Develop understandings of terminology and major questions and directions in the study of
yoga
Required Texts: A course reader with all of the required readings will be available. This is the
easiest and most economical way to cover the broad range of sources and texts we will be
covering.

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Grading
Attendance and Participation 20 points
Bi-Weekly AQCI 20 points
Midterm Exam 30 points
Final Paper 30 points

Attendance and Participation: Attending class, reading the assigned materials, and actively
participating in class are required in order to receive a passing grade. Tardiness is not acceptable,
but situations do arise. Therefore, every unexcused instance of being tardy (up to 5 minutes late)
will be counted against your final grade by half a point, and every unexcused absence will be
worth 1 point against your final grade. Please don’t come to class if you are over 10 minutes late.
Three or more unexcused absences will be an automatic F in the class.

Bi-Weekly Reading Responses AQCI: Argument, Question, Connection, Implication. This

assignment starts with selecting a quote from any of the readings we have done in the past two
weeks. You will then present an argument for, against, or in someway engaging with the
author’s quote in an original thesis statement. This portion should not exceed a single well
formed paragraph. The Question section poses a single question (one or two sentences
maximum) that would problematize the quote you previously suggested in someway, as well as
support your argument. The connection section of the paper is the longest (at least two
paragraphs) and will require you to connect the quote, your argument, and your question in
relation to any other reading we have done in the class thus far. Your connection must be on
topic and should highlight that you are thinking seriously about understanding the topics and
concepts presented. The last section, implication, roughly 1-2 paragraphs, should highlight your
understanding of what your argument means and what its implications are in the study of yoga,
religious studies, or a related field such as comp lit, anthropology, sociology, etc. The entire
AQCI response paper should be no more than two pages single-spaced. An example of an AQCI
will be given to you in class.

Midterm Exam The midterm is a comprehensive multiple choice and free response exam
covering the topics from readings and lectures. There will be several questions to choose from
when writing the free response portion.

Final Paper The final paper is a chance for you to showcase what you have learned in a final paper
of 9-11 pages (double spaced) on a subject of your choosing which relates to what we have
learned in class. Please note: all topics for final papers must be approved. This is a wonderful way
to synthesize what you’ve learned and put it in relation to something else you study. Examples
range from comparing and contrasting various methods and goals of yoga through time, to
exploring the historical continuity and (dis)continuity in yoga. The paper must engage with the
scholarship we have read in class. This is an opportunity for you to use your creativity, interest,
and newly acquired knowledge about yoga's diverse histories.
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Extra Credit up to 10 points maximum
Students may choose from various extra credit projects worth a maximum of 5 points each, but
with a maximum of 10 points extra credit available in all. To be sure, you can only earn 10
points towards your final grade and you have only three attempts to do so. These projects
include:
* writing a 3-4 page (double spaced) “book review” from a list of accepted books, chapters, and
articles on yoga, or an approved suggestion.
* Attending a yoga class, broadly defined, and writing a 3-4 page (double spaced) analysis
of what is being taught in relation to what we are learning in class.
* Interviewing a yoga teacher or practitioner, broadly defined, and writing up a 3-4 page
(double spaced) summary of their position in relation to what we are learning in class.
* Attending an academic lecture on yoga and writing up a 3-4 page (double spaced) summary.

This class is being offered with two goals in mind. The first is to present you with a
comprehensive view of how yoga developed in ancient India, over two thousand years ago, and
what types of historical conditions and processes have prompted yoga's contemporary popularity
and global reception. The second goal of the class is to introduce you to critical terms and
concepts in the academic study of religion by focusing on how yoga specifically, and religions in
general, persist and change through time. The course will focus on themes such as production,
adaptation, adoption and aggregation, instantiation, legitimizing strategies, and dissemination.
Becoming more acutely aware and fostering a sense of historical consciousness encourages critical
thinking, open-mindedness, and the examination of multiple discourses and epistemologies. A
historical perspective, especially one that involves the investigation of religion, is crucial to
understanding "how" and "why" various forms of religious, national, political, ethnic, and cultural
fundamentalisms are gaining popularity world-wide.

Critical Terms and Concepts for the Study of Religion by Week

Week 1: academic study of religion, sources, yoga, Indic religion,

Week 2: religious authority, legitimacy, primary and secondary sources, sūtras, commentary
Week 3: religious goals, shared conceptions
Week 4: tantra, exegesis, hermeneutics, religious innovation
Week 5: religious appropriation, internalization, shared presuppositions
Week 6: haṭha yoga, mystical language, the (im)possibility of translation
Week 7: orientalism, colonialism, etic (mis)representations, emic representations
Week 8: transnationalism, innovation, aggregation, bricolage
Week 9: cultural fashions, contemporary exoticism, essentialization
Week 10: commodification, branding, advertising, cultural ownership, identity, long durée

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Some Orienting Questions:
–What is/isn’t yoga and who has/gets to determine yoga’s definition(s) and usage?
–Why is yoga so popular?
– Where does yoga come from and why did it develop?
– Is yoga a religious practice? If so, can Muslims, Christians, and adherents of other faiths practice
yoga? If not, why do so many people think it is?
–Who owns yoga and who can teach it?

Course Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to the Course

1.1 The Yogic phenomenon: Surveying Historical Accounts, Exploring Definitions
* Mallinson, James and Mark Singelton. "Introduction and Chapter 1." in Roots of Yoga.
2017. pp. ix-45.

1.2 Pre-Classical Yoga: Buddhists and Brahmins and Yoga as the "Earmark" of Law
* Bronkhorst, Johannes. The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism. 1998. [Part Three and
Conclusion] pp. 57-84.
* Fitzgerlad, James L. "A Prescription for Yoga and Power in the Mahābhārata." in Yoga in
Practice. 2011. pp. 43-57.
* Primary Source: Olivelle, Patrick. Āpastamba sūtra 25.8 in the Dharmasūtras. 1999. pp.
315-319.

Week Two: Birth of "Classical Yoga"

2.1 Patañjali: Sanskrit Grammarian and Yogi?
* Jacobsen, Knut A. "Patañjala Yoga" in the Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. III.
2011. pp. 745-757.
* Bühnemann, Gudrun. "Nāga, siddha, and sage: Visions of Patañjali as an Authority on
Yoga." in Yoga in Transformation. 2018. pp. 577-592.

2.2 Sānkhya, Yoga, The Emergence of "Citta," and The Yoga Sūtras as Synthesis
* Bryant, Edwin. “Yoga and Sānkhya,” “Patañjali’s Yoga,” “Patañjali and the Six Schools
of Indian Philosophy,” “Yoga Sūtras as Text,” “The Commentaries on the Yoga Sūtras.”
in The Yoga Sūtras: A New Edition, translation, and Commentary. 2009. pp. xxv-xxxv.
* Primary Source: Bryant, Edwin and Pandit Rajmani Tigunait. The Yoga Sutras
Translated The Himalayan Institute. pp. 1-6.

[AQCI Number 1 due: Early Visions of Yoga]

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Week Three: Classical Yoga as Practice
3.1 Practicing Patañjala Yoga and Stated Goals: Liberation and Siddhi
* Larson, Gerald James. “Patañjali Yoga in Practice.” in Yoga in Practice. 2011. pp. 73-88.
* Maas, Philip. "Sthirasukham Āsanam: Posture and Performance in Classical Yoga and
Beyond." in Yoga in Transformation. 2018. pp. 51-58 and 85-89.

3.2 Buddhist, Jain, and Early Vedāntic Yogic Practices

* Wallace, Vesna A. “The Six-Phased Yoga of the Abbreviated Wheel of Time Tantra
according to Vajrapāṇi.” in Yoga in Practice. 2011. pp. 204-222
* Dundas, Paul. “A Digambara Jain Description of the Yogic Path to Deliverance.” in
Yoga in Practice. 2011. pp. 143-161.
* Cole, Colin. "Asparśa Yoga." in The Soteriology of Gauḍapāda's Māṇḍūkya
Kārikā. 1972. pp. 155-162.

[AQCI Number 2 due: Systematized Yoga as Philosophy and Practice]

Week Four: Tantra: Innovations and Conceptions

4.1 Kuṇḍalinī, Ādhāra, Granthi, Bindu, and the Cakra system(s)
* Padoux, André. “What do We Mean By Tantrism?” in The Roots of Tantra. 2002. pp. 17-
24.
* Mallinson, James and Mark Singleton. "The Yogic Body." in Roots of Yoga. 2017. pp.
171-184.
* Rastogi, Navjivan. “The Yogic Disciplines in the Monistic Śaiva Tantric Traditions of
Kashmir: Threefold, Fourfold, and Six-Limbed” in Ritual and Speculation in Early
Tantrism. 1992. pp. 247-270.

4.2 Midterm Exam

Week Five: The Rise of Haṭha Yoga

5.1 Links Between Tantra and Haṭha
* Kiss, Csaba. "The Matsyendrasaṃhitā a Yoginī centered 13th C. Yoga text."
especially "The Yoga of the MamSa." in Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of
the Nāths. 2012. pp. 1-22.
* Mallinson, James. "The Amṛtasiddhi: Haṭhayoga's tantric Buddhist source text." 2016.
pp.1-14

5.2 The Birth of Haṭha Yoga and the Āsana Tradition

* Mallinson, James. “Haṭha Yoga” in the Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. III. 2011.
pp. 770-781.
* Birch, Jason. "The Meaning of “haṭha” in Early Haṭhayoga." in the Journal of the
American Oriental Society. 2011. pp. 527-548
* Primary Source: Mallinson, James. "The Dattātreya Yogaśāstra." 2013. pp. 1-9
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Week Six: Haṭha Yoga, the Nāth Yogis, and Early Foreign Receptions
6.1 Haṭha yoga, Nāth Yogis, Alchemy, and Mystic Power(s)
* Mallinson, James. "Yoga and Yogis." in Namarupa Issue 15 Vol 03, March 2012
pp. 2-27.
* Mallinson, James. “Siddhi and mahāsiddhi in early haṭhayoga.” in Yoga Powers
Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration.
2011. pp. 327-342.

6.2 Early Foreign Receptions of Jogis/Yogis: The Mughals 14th C. and the British
18th C.
* Baṭṭūṭa, Ibn. "Encounter with Jogis" Selections from The Reḥla of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa:
India, Maldive Islands, and Ceylon translated by Mahdi Hussain. Oriental
Institute, Baroda. 1976.
* Singleton, Mark. "Fakirs, Yogins, Europeans." in Yoga Body: The Origins of
Modern Postural Practice. 2010. pp. 35-55.
* Ernst, Carl. "Accounts of Yogis in Arabic and Persian historical and travel texts."
in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (33). 2007. pp. 409-422.

[AQCI Number 3 due: Religions and Yoga: Institutionalization of Practice and

Ideology]

Week Seven: Orientalism, A Fascination with the Exotic, and Self-Representation

7.1 Orientalism, Dangerous Dreams, and Constructing the "Other"
* Said, Edward. “Introduction,” “Empire, Geography, Culture,” and “The Native Under
Control.” in Culture and Imperialism. 1993. pp. xi-xxviii, 3-14, and 162-168
* Djurdjevic, Gordon. "The Idea of India in the Imaginary of Western Occultism." and
"Conclusions." in India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on
Modern Western Occultism. 2014. pp. 1-19 and 137-141.

7.2 Self Representation: Moves from East to West and Modern Hinduism
* Fischer-Tiné, Harald. “Arya Samaj” in the Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. V.
2013. pp. 389-396.
* Vivekānanda, Swami. Opening Speech and the Parliament of World Religions,
Chicago 1893. and, "Preface," "Introduction," and "Chapter 1" in Rājayoga. The
Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol. 1. 2018.

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Week Eight: The Creation of Modern Postural Yoga
8.1 The Gurus: Krishnamacharya and Iyengar
* Smith, Frederick. "Krishnamacharya." in the Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Vol. V.
2013. pp. 498-501.
* Singleton, Mark. “Transnational Exchange and the Genesis of Modern Postural Yoga” in
Yoga Travelling: Bodily Practice in Transcultural Perspective. 2013. pp. 37-56.

8.2 Yoga Moves West: Early American Receptions

* Michelis, Elizabeth De. "Modern Yoga: History and Forms." in Yoga
in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives. 2008. pp. 17-35.
* Deslippe, Philip. "The Swami Circuit: Mapping the Terrain of Early
American Yoga." in Journal of Yoga Studies Vol. 1. 2018. pp. 5-39.

[AQCI Number 4 due: The Creation of an ‘Other’ and of Modern Hinduism}

Week Nine: The Rising Popularity of Modern Postural Yoga, Why?

9.1 The Rising Popularity of Yoga
* Altglas, Véronique. selections from “Introduction,” “Religious Exoticism and the
new petite Bourgeoisie” and "Conclusion." in From Yoga to Kabbalah: Exoticism
and The Logics of Bricolage. 2014. pp. 1-7, 21-23, 282-291, 324-333.

9.2 But, is Yoga Religious? Yoga Studios, Yoga Spaces

* Mallinson, James. "Yoga and Religion." lecture at UK Hindu Christian Foundation
2013. pp. 1-11
* Newcombe, Suzanne. "Spaces of Yoga: Towards a Non-Essentialist Understanding
of Yoga." in Yoga in Transformation. 2018. pp. 551-570.

Week Ten: Globalization, Commodification, Reactions, and the Future of Yoga

10.1 Yoga Pants, Selling Products, and Business Models
* Jain, Andrea. “Preface” and Chapter 4 “Branding Yoga” in Selling Yoga: From
Counterculture to Pop Culture. 2014. pp. ix-xviii, and 73-94.

10.2 Cultural Ownership, HAF’s Campaign to “Take Yoga Back” and the future?
* Shukla, Aseem. “The Theft of Yoga” in The Washington Post Sunday April 18th, 2010.
* Nicholson, Andrew. “Is Yoga Hindu? On the Fuzziness of Religious Boundaries.” in
Symposium: Fuzzy Studies, Part 6. 2013.

*final paper due by midnight on our scheduled final exam day*