Why Yoga? A Cultural History of Yoga

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Why Yoga? A Cultural History of Yoga

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WHY YOGA? A Cultural History of Yoga takes a critical look at yoga as culture and yoga's role in society. It is about how people - now as then - use the symbolic power of yoga to find a place within society and culture. Yogis in the past…. The book is among many other things a fascinating historical examination of extraordinary customs and unusual social groups. We hear about such past milieus’ sometimes bizarre yoga practices and lifestyles, how they are turned into powerful symbols profoundly impressing the rest of society. We hear how yoga specialists use the yoga image to struggle for social recognition among competitors and other social groups. Thus we hear about Jain ascetics, aristocratic warriors, Buddhist monks, Brahmin high castes, Tantric immortals, ecstatic Shamans, snake charmers, Mughal mercenaries, temple cults, fakir contortionists, rural Lumpen-proletarians, enlightened princes, naked philosophers, colonial gurus, wrestling monks, and semi-divine yogis who can fly. …and yogis today…. But we are also introduced to more conventional and familiar lifestyles of modern times: fitness trainers, intellectual Orientalists, middleclass females, Hindu missionaries, fashion models, bourgeois cultural elites, stressed executives, home going housewives, spiritual entrepreneurs, cultural intermediaries, counterculture youths, petty-bourgeois business people, academic specialists and Hollywood stars. They all are culturally engaged with yoga for different reasons and rewards. …why do they practice yoga?….