[INDOLOGY] Fwd: New Bibliography of EDMAC, LEDMAC and eLEDMAC Editions

[Dominik Wujastyk]

An article
​"Yogic Identities: Tradition and Transformation" ​
by Jim Mallinson just went up on the Smithsonian's research online website:

   - ​http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp​

I
​ntroduction:

The earliest textual descriptions of yogic techniques date to the last few
centuries BCE and show their practitioners to have been ascetics who had
turned their backs on ordinary
society.1<http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote1>These
renouncers have been considered practitioners of yoga
*par excellence* throughout Indian history. While ascetics, including some
seated in meditative yoga
postures,2<http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote2>have
been represented in Indian statuary
3 <http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote3>since
that early period, the first detailed depictions of Indian ascetics
are not found until circa 1560 in paintings produced under the patronage of
Mughal Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) and his
successors.4<http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote4>These
wonderfully naturalistic and precise images illuminate not only
Mughal manuscripts5<http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote5>and
albums but also our understanding of the history of yogis
6 <http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote6> and
their sects. Scholars have argued for these paintings’ value as historical
documents;7<http://asia.si.edu/research/articles/yogic-identities.asp#footnote7>their
usefulness in establishing the history of Indian ascetic orders bears
this out. The consistency of their depictions and the astonishing detail
they reveal allow us to flesh out—and, sometimes, rewrite—the incomplete
and partisan history that can be surmised from Sanskrit and vernacular
texts, travelers’ reports, hagiography, and ethnography​


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