[INDOLOGY] yamas and niyamas

[patrick mccartney]

Dear Friends,

A recent respondent of mine asserted that 'service' and 'compassion' were 2
of the 10 yamas and niyamas. I guess ahiṃsā *could* be indirectly
translated as 'compassion' for others by being 'non-violent', however,
'service' as in 'seva' does not find any mention in the PYS list, which is
what my respondent was referring to.

While the ideas of 'service' and 'compassion' show a lack of critical
understanding of the normative, institutionalised convention, I find it
fascinating how these canonised ideas evolve in a meme-like way,
unregulated in the minds of yoga practitioners (my respondent is a
professional yoga teacher). As *many* practitioners of modern yoga assume
this list has 'stood the test of time' and is as an a priori concept, this
has made me think about the historicity and development of the yamas and
niyamas as singular ideas, and as a conjoined pair.

Might it be correct to say that they were first standardised in the PYS as
10? Were there any other lists that had a greater or lesser number prior to
the PYS?  (I'm thinking in a similar way to the development of the
ṣadcakratantra, and how there were other texts that discussed alternate
numbers/locations, etc)

Might someone be able to  lead me to a better understanding of the
development of the yamas and niyamas? I looked through the search option of
the list but couldn't really find any discussion that pertained
specifically to my request. Although the discussions on whether some texts
place a concept in the yama as opposed to the niyama category are quite
interesting.


Thank you.


All the best,

Patrick McCartney, PhD
Fellow
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200


Skype - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp:  +61 414 954 748
Twitter - @psdmccartney


academia <https://anu-au.academia.edu/patrickmccartney>

   -

Linkedin
<https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241756978&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile>

Edanz <https://www.edanzediting.com/expert/anthropology/patrick-mccartney>

#yogabodyANU2016 symposium <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X80KxW2bb0w>
<http://chl.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/658/yoga-and-body-past-and-present-symposium?#tab>

Ep1 - Imagining Sanskrit Land <https://youtu.be/jMi7tkPBbJ4>

Ep 2 - Total-am <https://youtu.be/7tAp8m9RHPU>

Ep 3 - Jalam ≠ Chillum <https://youtu.be/cLZeuCT_mwQ>

Ep 4 - It's Time to get Married
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B3un7aHEAc>

A Day in our Ashram
<https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ek+din+hamaare+ashram+mein>

Stop animation short film of Shakuntala
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVqBD_2P4Pg>

Forced to Clean Human Waste <http://youtu.be/y3XfjbwqC_g>

One of my favourite song <http://trinityroots.bandcamp.com/track/all-we-be>s

The Philosophy of Cycling
<http://elibrary.com.ng/UploadFiles/file0_2221.pdf>


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20161124/ed119d50/attachment.htm>