27. James Mallinson | The Source Texts of Haṭha Yoga

In this episode we welcome back Jim Mallinson for an update on
his pioneering research into the earliest Sanskrit texts of Haṭha
Yoga. We review some of the major findings from the 5-year ERC
Haṭha Yoga Project and learn about his latest project, the Light
on Hatha Yoga Project (2021–2024) which will produce a critical
edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā. We discuss the latest methods in
digital Sanskrit philology and the challenges of working with
large amounts of manuscript data. We then dive into the
Amṛtasiddhi, the "Attainment of Immortality," to learn about this
fascinating and important tantric source text for the Haṭha Yoga
Traditions, giving a rich preview for Jim's upcoming online
course, YS 206 | The Amṛtasiddhi: Haṭha Yoga's Source Text.


 
Speaker Bio


Dr. James Mallinson is Reader in Indology and Yoga Studies at
SOAS University of London. His research focuses on the history
and current traditional practice of yoga and his primary methods
are philology, ethnography and art history. Dr. Mallinson led the
Haṭha Yoga Project (2015–2021), a six-person research project on
the history of physical yoga funded by the European Research
Council. The project’s core outputs will be ten critical editions
of Sanskrit texts on physical yoga and four monographs on its
history and current practice. Together with Professor Jürgen
Hanneder (University of Marburg), Dr. Mallinson is now leading
the Light on Hatha Yoga Project (2021–2024) which will produce a
critical edition of the Haṭhapradīpikā.


Among Dr. Mallinson’s publications are The Khecarīvidyā of
Ādinātha, a Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of an
Early Text on Haṭhayoga (Routledge, 2007), a revision of his
doctoral thesis, which was supervised by Professor Alexis
Sanderson at the University of Oxford, where Dr. Mallinson also
read Sanskrit as an undergraduate, Roots of Yoga (Penguin
Classics, 2017, co-authored with Mark Singleton) and The
Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: The Earliest Texts of the
Haṭhayoga Tradition (École française d’Extreme-orient,
Pondicherry, 2021). Dr. Mallinson has spent more than ten years
living in India with traditional ascetics and practitioners of
yoga, and at the 2013 Kumbh Mela was awarded the title of Mahant
by the Rāmānandī Saṃpradāya.



Links


YS 206 | The Amṛtasiddhi: Haṭha Yoga's Source Text

https://soas.academia.edu/JamesMallinson

The Amṛtasiddhi: Haṭhayoga’s Tantric Buddhist Source Text

Haṭhayoga's Early History: From Vajrayāna Sexual Restraint to
Universal Somatic Soteriology