#78 – Keen on Yoga Podcast with Dr James Mallinson

Sir James Mallinson, 5th Baronet of Walthamstow (born 22
April 1970) is a British Indologist,  writer and
translator. He is recognised as one of the world’s leading
experts on the history of medieval Hatha Yoga.


Mallinson became interested in India by reading Rudyard
Kipling’s novel Kim as a teenager; the book describes an
English boy travelling India with a holy man. Mallinson is
described as “perhaps the only baronet to wear
dreadlocks. He let his hair grow out from 1988 on his
first visit to India during his gap year.


He is the co-author with Mark Singleton of  Roots of
Yoga. Penguin Classics. (A commented collection of
translations of yoga practice texts from the Sanskrit
traditions).


Currently Dr Mallinson is Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and
Classical and Indian Studies at SOAS, University of London.
His interest in yoga grew out of a fascination for India and
Indian asceticism. He spent several years living with Indian
ascetics and yogis, in particular Rāmānandī Tyāgīs.
Background

He took his BA in Sanskrit and Old Iranian at the University
of Oxford, followed by an MA in Area Studies (South Asia),
with Ethnography as his main subject, at SOAS. His doctoral
thesis, submitted to the University of Oxford, was a critical
edition and annotated translation of the Khecarīvidyā,
an early text of haṭhayoga.


Dr Mallinson has published eight books. All of which are
editions and translations of Sanskrit yoga texts, epic tales
and poetry. His recent work has used philological study of
Sanskrit texts, ethnography and art history to explore the
history of yoga and yogis.
Projects

Between September 2015-2020, Mallinson was the Principle
Investigator of The Haṭha Yoga Project (HYP), a
five-year research project funded by the European Research
Council and based at SOAS, University of London which aims to
chart the history of physical yoga practice by means of
philology, i.e. the study of texts on yoga, and ethnography,
i.e. fieldwork among practitioners of yoga.


From January 2021, Mallison has been the lead on three year
project entitled “Light on Hatha Yoga: A critical edition and
translation of the Haṭhapradīpikā, the most important
premodern text on physical yoga” funded by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German
Research Foundation Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).


He has been interviewed on yoga for BBC Radio on Beyond
Belief and for the Secret History of Yoga.


More information about Dr Mallinson’s work, his CV and
publications, many of them downloadable, can be
found here, and on his website: www.khecari.com






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