Sinister Yogis Contributor(s): White, David Gordon (Author) |
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ISBN: 0226895149 ISBN-13: 9780226895147 Publisher: University of Chicago Press OUR PRICE: $34.65 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2011 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Religion | Hinduism - General - Religion | Buddhism - History - History | Asia - India & South Asia |
Dewey: 294.561 |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 8.9" (1.10 lbs) 376 pages |
Themes: - Religious Orientation - Hindu - Religious Orientation - Buddhist - Cultural Region - Indian - Cultural Region - Asian |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Since the 1960s, yoga has become a billion-dollar industry in the West, attracting housewives and hipsters, New Agers and the old-aged. But our modern conception of yoga derives much from nineteenth-century European spirituality, and the true story of yoga's origins in South Asia is far richer, stranger, and more entertaining than most of us realize. To uncover this history, David Gordon White focuses on yoga's practitioners. Combing through millennia of South Asia's vast and diverse literature, he discovers that yogis are usually portrayed as wonder-workers or sorcerers who use their dangerous supernatural abilities-which can include raising the dead, possession, and levitation-to acquire power, wealth, and sexual gratification. As White shows, even those yogis who aren't downright villainous bear little resemblance to Western assumptions about them. At turns rollicking and sophisticated, Sinister Yogis tears down the image of yogis as detached, contemplative teachers, finally placing them in their proper context. |
Contributor Bio(s): White, David Gordon: - David Gordon White is Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of several books, including The Alchemical Body, Kiss of the Yogini, and Sinister Yogis, all published by the University of Chicago Press. |