It’s often said that yoga is a 5000 year old tradition from India but what about the practices we do today? Is there really a direct link to the ancient past, or is the story more complicated? Today yoga is virtually synonymous in the West with the practice of asana. In spite of the immense popularity of yoga worldwide there is little evidence that asana has ever been the primary aspect of any Indian yoga practice tradition, including the mediaeval, body-oriented hatha yoga. How did this strange situation come about? What can we learn from the modern history of asana? What does it mean for our practice today?

Mark Singleton has a Ph.D. in Divinity from the University of Cambridge. He has written extensively on yoga, notably the books Yoga in the Modern World, Contemporary Perspectives (the first ever collection of scholarship on modern yoga) and Yoga Body, The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, (which Yoga Journal said “should be on the reading list of every serious student and teacher training program”). A new collection, entitled Gurus of Modern Yoga, will appear with Oxford University Press next year. His current work focuses on the translation of early Sanskrit hatha yoga texts. He is a certified yoga teacher in the Iyengar and Satyananda traditions. He teaches at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“massive, irrefutable, fascinating and often hilarious evidence.”
Wendy Doniger, Times Literary Supplement

“...groundbreaking, pioneering work...I recommend it very highly to all serious practitioners and students of modern yoga.”
Carlos Pomeda, founder of Yoga Wisdom for Modern Life.

“Any serious asana practitioner who wishes to understand the place of asana in the greater tradition of yoga will do well to read it carefully.”
Gary Kraftsow, the founder of The American Viniyoga Institute, author of Yoga for Wellnessand Yoga for Transformation.

“This book should be required reading for every yoga teacher in the US today.”
Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D., Physical Therapist, author of 8 books and yoga teacher.

“an outstanding scholarly work which brings so much insight and clarity to the historic and cultural background of modern hatha yoga. I highly recommend this book, especially for all sincere students of yoga.”
John Friend, Founder of Anusara Yoga