Transnational Exchange and the Genesis of Modern Postural Yoga

Abstract

This chapter will explore the emergence of posture practice (āsana) as the primary facet of yoga in the modern, globalized world. Prior to the modern period, āsana was rarely treated as the principal aspect of a yoga sādhana. In the medieval systems of haṭhayoga, from which it is sometimes claimed that today’s popular forms derive, posture was subordinate to other practices, such as breathing (prāṇāyāma), purification (kriyā), concentration (dhāraṇā), and sound work (nāda). During the 1920s and 1930s, postural yoga began to be assimilated into the modern yoga project begun by Vivekananda. Perhaps most importantly, Shri Yogendra and Swami Kuvalayananda developed postural systems greatly informed by Western science and medicine, and by the international physical culture movement. Over time, āsana became modern, scientific, and legitimate in the eyes of the world, thanks to their efforts and to those of others, such as Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. Āsana also interacted and partially merged with Western traditions of therapeutic gymnastics, “spiritual” movement and dance, while shedding many of the esoteric aspects and bizarre practices of the original haṭhayoga.