16:00
Gresham College
October 5
In this lecture, Jim Mallinson draws on texts, art history and fieldwork to trace the history of the role of the body in yoga over its 2,500-year history.For its first 1,500 years the body is to be transcended; yoga’s aim is an almost death-like mental stillness equated with liberation. Then the body starts to be cultivated to attain power and immortality. While charting this transformation, Prof. Mallinson highlights parallels between yoga’s premodern goals and modern pursuits of longevity, perfection, and transcendence.