Dear List Members,

I am pleased to announce that the Journal of Yoga Studies has published a special issue (Vol. 4) entitled, Yoga and the Traditional Physical Practices of South Asia edited by Daniela Bevilacqua and Mark Singleton. It contains a collection of fourteen peer-reviewed articles by scholars on topics of Indian yoga, dance, exercise and martial arts, as well as likely exchanges with Chinese and Tibetan physical practices.

The Table of Contents is as follows:

Yoga and the Traditional Physical Practices of South Asia:

Influence, Entanglement and Confrontation

INTRODUCTION

Daniela Bevilacqua and Mark Singleton

I. PRELUDE

1. Premodern Yogāsanas and Modern Postural Practice: Distinct Regional Collections of Āsanas on the Eve of Colonialism.

Jason Birch and Jacqueline Hargreaves

II. YOGIS, ACROBATS OR DANCERS?

2. Yogi Sculptures: Complex Āsanas Across the Deccan.

Seth Powell

3. Royal Amusements, Sports, Acrobats and Yogic Practices According to the Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā.

Saran Suebsantiwongse

4. Dance as Yoga: Ritual Offering and Imitation Dei in the Physical Practices of Classical Indian Theatre.

Elisa Ganser

III. MARTIAL ARTS, POLE AND EXERCISE

5. Zurkhāneh, Akhāṛā, Pahlavān, and Jyeṣṭhī-mallas: Cross Cultural Interaction and Social Legitimisation at the Turn of the 17th Century.

Philippe Rochard and Oliver Bast

6. Poles apart? From Wrestling and Mallkhāmb to Pole Yoga.

Patrick S. D. McCartney

7. Uncovering Vyāyāma in Yoga.

Jerome Armstrong

8. Prostration or Potentiation? Hindu Ritual, Physical Culture, and the “Sun Salutation” (Sūryanamaskār).

Stuart Ray Sarbacker

9. Managing Wind and Fire: Some Remarks from a Case Study on Kaḷarippayaṟṟụ.

Laura Silvestri

10. Firm Feet and Inner Wind: Introducing Posture in the South Indian Martial Art, Kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆.

Lucy May Constantini

IV. EXCHANGES WITH CHINA AND TIBET

11. Is There Such a Thing as Chinese Yoga? Indian Postural Therapies in Mediaeval China.

Dominic Steavu

12. Knowledge Transfer of Bodily Practices Between China and India in the Mediaeval World.

Dolly Yang

13. Tracking the Illusory Magical Wheel: Physical Yoga in Tibetan Tantra and Dzogchen.

Ian Baker

AFTERWORD

14. The Embodiment of Meaning and the Meaning of Embodiment: Theoretical and Methodological Concerns in the Study of Postural Practice.

Joseph Alter

This special issue and past volumes of the Journal of Yoga Studies are open access and can be downloaded at: https://journalofyogastudies.org

With best wishes,

Jason

Jason Birch (DPhil Oxon)

Senior Research Fellow, SOAS University of London

Visiting Research Associate, University of Alberta

Co-Director of the Yogacintāmaṇi Project, University of Massachusetts Boston

Honorary Associate of Asian Studies, University of Sydney

https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/jason-birch

https://soas.academia.edu/jasonbirch

http://hyp.soas.ac.uk