Yoga Body
The two main studies in this area to date, by Elizabeth De Michelis and Joseph Alter, have focused on both these moments in the history of transnational yoga, but they have not offered a good explanation of why āsana was initially excluded and the ways in which it was eventually reclaimed.[YB 3] Next it explores in detail the impact of the international physical culture movement on India in the early 20th century, at a time of rising Indian nationalism, in reaction to British colonialism.[3] The historian Jared Farmer, in Reviews in American History, writes that the book does a great service in enabling study of "this creolized tradition",[4] he neither provides a single clear narrative, nor states which of the many causal factors he identifies are the most important."[4] Farmer suggests that Singleton may, by looking towards factors in British India, have overlooked some American contexts, and states that "Yoga Body deserves controversy, which I mean as a sincere compliment."[5] The yoga teacher Jill Miller, reviewing the book on Gaiam, observes that Singleton showed how many modern asanas were "derived during an environment of Indian neo-nationalism and infused with doses of European gymnastics, bodybuilding and the Christian agendas of the YMCA.""[8][YB 10] Admitting himself no expert on modern yoga, he identifies a series of medieval sources that describe non-seated asanas, from mayurasana (the peacock) in the 10th century Vimānārcanākalpa onwards.[10] Remski observed that there were ad hominem attacks on Singleton: he was labelled "a debunker, a cultural appropriator, a 'junior scholar from England', and a pro-colonial revisionist intent on delegitimizing the Indian roots of postural practice."[1] Remski notes that most of these emerged and vanished on social media, their ephemerality indicating their "intellectual poverty", but their presence demonstrating Yoga Body's reach to a non-academic audience, "and its sting.He suggested instead that it made more sense[1][2] to speak of adaptation, reframing, reinterpretation (and so on) rather than invention, insofar as these terms foreground the ongoing processes of experimentation and bricolage that characterise the recent history of globalised yoga, and keeps us away from debates about the genealogies and ultimate origins of particular postures.
UstrasanaMark Singletonmodern yogaOxford University Pressyoga as exercisehatha yogaasanasasceticVivekanandavinyasasgymnasticsphysical cultureIndian nationalismsaffronisingmarketingāsanaElizabeth De MichelisJoseph AlterfakirscharlatanryyoginscolonialismHarmonial GymnasticsKrishnamacharyaMysorecontortionistsbodybuildersB. K. S. IyengarSamakonasanaThomas DwightScribner's MagazineJournal of Hindu-Christian StudiesJared FarmerReviews in American HistorycreolizedMatthew Remskisurya namaskārabodybuildingmartial artsAstānga yogaPatañjaliaṣṭāṅga dandavat pranāmJames Mallinsonsūrya namaskāreureka momentAṣṭāṅga yogamayurasanaVimānārcanākalpaRoots of YogaVrikshasanamindful yogaFrank Jude Bocciosyncretismad hominemYoga KoruntaB.K.S. IyengarLight on YogaprefaceAndrea JainGudrun BühnemannparamparahagiographicRemski, MatthewFarmer, JaredMallinson, JamesSingleton, MarkList of asanasStanding asanasDownward dogLotus positionMeditation seatsSun SalutationTree poseWarriorDrishtiNamastePranayamaVinyāsaHasta VinyasasTeacher trainingBritish Wheel of YogaEuropean Union of YogaAndré Van LysebethYoga AllianceTherapyYoga using propsAccessible yogaTrauma-sensitive yogaRestorative YogaYoga nidraInternational Association of Yoga Therapists • Richard MillerJanice GatesCompetitive yogaInternational Day of YogaAsana JournalYoga JournalYoga brickYoga matAngela FarmerHugger MuggerYoga pantsLululemonEarly modern yogaRaja YogaPierre BernardHarmonial gymnastics/yogaMarguerite AgnielMary Bagot StackGenevieve StebbinsB. C. GhoshK. V. IyerSeetharaman SundaramParamahansa YoganandaAutobiography of a YogiHot yogaScience of yogaSexual abuse by yoga gurusYoga and cultural appropriationIn advertisingFor childrenFor womenGeeta IyengarYoga tourismHybridsNaked yogaAnne Cushman