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.