Yoga: Historical and Critical Perspectives

The course treats yoga traditions in premodern time and their transformation during late 19th century and 20th century to specialisations of modern yoga. On the basis of contemporary research within the field of history of religion, the course focuses on the development of various yoga traditions from a historical point of view. This entails studying the new ideas and practices that occurred during the first millennium B.C.E, and that were first expressed in the Upanishads and the new religions Buddhism and Jainism and later in the form of classical Hindu yoga and hatha yoga, to the varieties of different forms of yoga that are found today. Special focus will be given to the development of modern forms of yoga, and on clarifying the underlying processes connected to globalization and modernity that have made this development possible.