A Critical Edition and Translation of Sivanandasarasvati’s Yogacintamani

FAIN: RQ-279768-21

University of Massachusetts, Boston (Boston, MA 02125-3300)
Shaman Hatley (Project Director: November 2020 to present)
Jason Eric Birch (Co Project Director: February 2021 to present)
James Mallinson (Co Project Director: February 2021 to present)

Preparation for print and digital publication of an annotated translation from Sanskrit of an influential work written by Sivanandasarasvati, a 16th-century Hindu monk and teacher. (36 months)

In the late sixteenth century, a learned Hindu monk of northern India named ivnandasarasvat attempted a grand new synthesis of teachings on yoga. Drawing on more than ninety Sanskrit sources, his erudite exegetical work, The Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Yoga (Yogacintmai), was the first major effort to integrate Patañjali’s philosophical yoga with Hahayoga, body-centered practices that anticipate the postural yoga so popular today globally. ivnanda’s magnum opus offers a unique window into the philosophy and practice of yoga in early modern India, at the height of the Mughal empire and on the eve of colonialism. His work addresses far-reaching questions that remain relevant today, such as “What is yoga?” and “Who should practice it?” A collaborative effort, this project aims to produce a critical edition and English translation of The Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Yoga on the basis of manuscripts collected from libraries across South Asia, including one copied in the author’s own lifetime.