agree that yoga, like every other social product, be seen as syncretic from the outset, containing multiplicity of definitions and “a interpretations.” The arrival of yoga in the West in the modern period, starting in the mid- to late- nineteenth century, was the result of a complicated transnational journey. Scholars of yoga now largely agree that this journey was the combined product of inventive and retrospective reconstruction of a so-called yogic tradition of India by modern Indian pioneers, “classical” along with key dialogical exchanges between these Indians and crucial Western interlocutors. Beginning in the century, yoga was and reconstructed both within “deconstructed and beyond South Asia, leading to the emergence of a new transnational tradition.” Contemporary yoga is constituted by systems that developed as a consequence “heterogenous of encounters between Indian yoga reformers engaged with modern thought, [and] Europeans and Americans interested in topics ranging from metaphysics to an fitness,” during increasingly modern and globalized nineteenth century. Various intellectual modernizers, both Indian and Western, were interested establishing legitimacy in the West as a philosophical, contemplative and ethical tradition of ancient yoga’s provenance. Swami Vivekanada is one of the key figures credited with this feat. Following his famous address to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, Vivekananda gave a series of lectures in the US, offering a modern, rationalist, ascetic and contemplative interpretation of yogic spirituality. Using a selective reading of which Yogasutras Patanjali’s reified the text as central to the study and practice of yoga, Vivekanada constructed an essentialized, monolithic and ostensibly version of history that “authentic” yoga’s “classical” today constitutes its most predominant the time it was discovered, more than narrative: “From four thousand years ago, Yoga was perfectly delineated, formulated and preached in India.”
agree that yoga, like every other social product, be seen as syncretic from the outset, containing “a multiplicity of definitions and interpretations.” The arrival of yoga in the West in the modern period, starting in the mid- to century, was the result of a complicated transnational journey. Scholars of yoga now largely agree that this journey was the combined product of inventive and retrospective reconstruction of a so-called “classical” yogic tradition of India by modern Indian pioneers, along with key dialogical exchanges between these Indians and crucial Western interlocutors. Beginning in the nineteenth century, yoga was “deconstructed and reconstructed both within and beyond South Asia, leading to the emergence of a new transnational tradition.” Contemporary yoga is constituted by “heterogenous systems that developed as a consequence of encounters between Indian yoga reformers engaged with modern thought, [and] Europeans and Americans interested in topics ranging from metaphysics to fitness,” during an increasingly modern and globalized nineteenth century. Various intellectual modernizers, both Indian and Western, were interested establishing yoga’s legitimacy in the West as a philosophical, contemplative and ethical tradition of ancient provenance. Swami Vivekanada is one of the key figures credited with this feat. Following his famous address to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, Vivekananda gave a series of lectures in the US, offering a modern, rationalist, ascetic and contemplative interpretation of yogic spirituality. Using a selective reading of Patanjali’s Yogasutras which reified the text as central to the study and practice of yoga, Vivekanada constructed an essentialized, monolithic and ostensibly “authentic” version of yoga’s “classical” history that today constitutes its most predominant narrative: “From the time it was discovered, more than four thousand years ago, Yoga was perfectly delineated, formulated and preached in India.” late-
GodrejWPSA2015.docx