Dear Finnian, Dear Mark, 

I would be very grateful, if you could send me the pdf of your papers. My thoughts go in the same direction and on Sunday I will talk a bit about it. 

With best wishes, 

Joanna

---

Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz

Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia Studies

Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw  

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00-927 Warszawa , Poland

Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

College of Human Sciences

UNISA

Pretoria, RSA

Member of Academia Europaea  

https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz

wt., 4 maj 2021 o 16:52 Mark McLaughlin via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> napisał(a):

Dear Finnian,

I am very excited to read your article. I cover some of the same territory (though likely much more broadly) in an article on samādhi burial practice coming out this month in Journal of Hindu Studies. I'm certain your work in this article will be very helpful as I push forward on the book project.

All best to you and congrats on the article.

Mark

On Tue, May 4, 2021 at 10:07 AM Finnian Moore-Gerety via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear colleagues—

I’d like to draw your attention to the new issue of History of Religions (vol. 60, no. 3 February 2021), which features my article “Between Sound and Silence in Early Yoga: Meditation on ‘Om’ at Death.” Pushing back against Johannes Bronkhorst’s contention that Brahmans played no role in the formation of early yoga, this article examines a mantra-based contemplative praxis that was central to Brahmanical constructions of yoga from the late Veda up through Patañjali and beyond. I hope my contribution will be of interest to list-members—especially in light of the upcoming online symposium at the University of Alberta on Bronkhorst’s Greater Magadha hypothesis.

Yours, 

Finnian

Abstract

This article examines the history of yoga with attention to mantras and sacred sound. It argues that meditation on the syllable “om” at the moment of death, which is central to the construction of early yoga, has roots in a much older technique from Vedic sacrifice called the “yoking” (yukti). In this rite, the practitioner employs a contemplative praxis with om in order to ascend to the sun and attain immortality. Sacrifice thus furnishes an ancient link in the chain of Indian soteriologies associated with om, death, and solar ascent—a genealogy that extends from the Vedas up through foundational yogic discourses. By examining the interplay between sound and silence in contemplative practices around the sacred syllable, this article aims to explain how om first became integral to early yoga, to emphasize the importance of mantra meditation in the formation of yogic traditions, and to invite a reappraisal of the role of Brahmans in the formation of early yoga.

Finnian M.M. Gerety

Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies

[Affiliated] Faculty of Contemplative Studies and Center for Contemporary South Asia

Brown University

www.finniangerety.com

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--

Mark McLaughlin, PhD
Senior Lecturer of South Asian Religions
Department of Religious Studies
William & Mary
Williamsburg, VA

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