Yoga scholarship/Yoga history

Yoga history is often written by those with strong ties to a particular guru or yogic system. Only recently has truly scholarly attention been focused on this subject. Elizabeth De Michelis has done a meticulous job of presenting her thesis. She shows how a typical Modern Postural Yoga class, her terminology to differentiate modern yoga from classical yoga, is a type of healing ritual of modern secular religion. We gain historical insight in to the development of yoga in the West that explains why many are more interested in postural yoga as an end in itself. I recommend this book as essential to anyone interested in the history of modern yoga.

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An Insightful Analysis of the East/West Dialogue in Yoga

I highly recommend this book. It is clearly written, the scholarship is in depth and any serious scholar of modern Indian religions should read it. She clearly demonstrates that eastern and western ideas were fusing in India (particularly in Bengal)during the British Raj, and she shows how this contributed to the development of modern yoga movements. Included are profiles of some of the most influential thinkers and religious leaders in yoga (Vivekananda, Keshab Chandra Sen, Ramakrishna etc.) and detailed analysis of their contributions and influences. This book is a veritable gold mine of information for the religious scholar. Unfortunately, even such a great book has a flaw and I would be remiss not to point it out. She oversetimated the influence that western esotericism had on the formation of the modern yoga traditions and underestimates the influence that already existing Indian philosophies had on the development of yoga. What I think she failed to see was that western esoteric ideas were not transposed onto exisiting Indian religions, but were points of articulation with almost identical strands of mystical thinking in the indigenouse yoga traditions and the philosophy of advaita vedanta. They contained many elements in common, as most mystical traditions do. The crossover of ideas was an act of translation of perspectives between cultures at a level that there were already almost identical metaphysical ideas, namely in the mystical traditions of both. Other than this overstimation, the work is brilliant and should be read by anyone attempting to understand the roots of not only modern yoga, but of new age spirituality and modern Hinduism.

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