Brief about the course:
Historically, the Sanskrit terms “yoga” and “yogi” have very little in common. Whereas the former has one of the widest semantic fields of any word in the Sanskrit lexicon--ranging from “warfare” to “magical art,” to the more familiar denotations of meditation and postures associated with pātañjala and haṭha yoga--the latter has most often been employed to denote a powerful, but also dangerous and ultimately sinister figure more often associated with the dark arts than with quietest ascetic practice. In our meetings, we will examine the historical relationship between these two terms as represented in myth, image, and doctrine.

Session 1: Yoga and Warfare in Ancient India
Session 2: The Bodies of the Yogi
Session 3: Tantric Yogis and Tantric Yoga
Session 4: Mughal, Modern, and Colonial Accounts of Yogis