India

Contesting Yoga’s Past: A Brief History of Āsana in Pre-modern India

Contesting Yoga’s Past: A Brief History of Āsana in Pre-modern India

October 14, 2015

On Wednesday, October 14, Seth Powell, a PhD candidate in the Committee on the Study of Religion, delivered a presentation on the history of yoga postures (āsana) in pre-modern India. To put this history in context, Seth began his talk by situating the ubiquity of yoga in the modern world and highlighting some of the recent controversies surrounding the authenticity and antiquity of yoga traditions.

According to a recent...

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India's Changing Religious Landscape

India's Changing Religious Landscape

March 4, 2015

What does the religious landscape look like in an emerging India with a rapidly growing middle class? Is better prosperity giving rise to a new form of spirituality, in which new-age Gurus are occupying an increasingly central role?

These were among the questions discussed at this week’s CSWR café by Kalpana Jain, a CSWR resident.  Jain described her own experience of observing an obscure spot in a neighboring park grow into a thriving temple after some people set up a small idol and started praying there daily.  The experience is part of larger picture of India today,...

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