Hindu Asceticism and Religious Movements
From Tapas to Modern Yoga - Sādhus’ Understanding of Embodied Practices - Daniela Bevilacqua
Daniela Bevilacqua [+]
Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA, ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon
Daniela Bevilacqua received her PhD in 2015, in Civilizations of Africa and Asia from Sapienza University of Rome and in Anthropology from the University of Paris Nanterre. Her PhD research was published by Routledge (2018) under the title Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India: The Śrī Maṭh and the Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya in the Evolution of the Rāmānandī Sampradāya. She is a Associate Researcher at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA, ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon. Her research has aroused particular interest because of its methodology and results. Her article, “Let the Sādhus Talk. Ascetic understanding of Haṭha Yoga and yogāsanas”, published in Religions of South Asia, (Vol 11, n. 2, pp. 182-206) has been translated in German, French and Portuguese. She has been invited to give lectures in various universities (Cambridge, London, Haifa, Prague, Turin, Milan) as well as to present her research in various yoga teacher training courses and yoga studios. She has published several articles in peer review journals and book chapters for publishers like Routledge and Palgrave on Hindu asceticism, female asceticism, etc. She is currently editing two volumes, one forthcoming for Amsterdam University Press and another will be a special issue of the Journal of Yoga Studies (JoYS).
Description
Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive introduction to Indian asceticism by considering Vedic and Brahmanical textual sources. It then describes different philosophical and religious streams that developed in the Hindu religious landscape (Sāṃkhya-Yoga, tantric and devotional traditions) demonstrating the complexity of Hindu renunciation and of the substratum that paved the way to the establishment of different yogic methods. The importance of the concept of sampradāya (religious order) and paramparā (lineage) will be explained, as well as the role of patronage in the development of ascetic orders. A brief introduction to warrior ascetics will also be given.