What makes The Roots of Yoga so extraordinary?

First of all, Singleton and Mallinson will bring serious scholarship to the topic of yoga—welcome any time, but especially now when the popular press is spotlighting events like John Friend’s fall from grace or Bikram Choudhury’s lawsuits. Mark Singleton earned a Ph.D. in South Asian Religion from Cambridge University. He has written and edited several books, including Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. He is also a longtime hatha yoga practitioner. James Mallinson is a linguist and ethnographer who’s spent more than 10 years traveling and studying in India. An Oxford Ph.D., he has published many scholarly works and also translated two of the Yoga Samhitas for a general audience.

Second, the book will feature all-original translations, including many works that have never been translated before. The Roots of Yoga has the potential to become a companion book, one that offers fresh understandings over a lifetime of practice.

Perhaps most exciting of all, Singleton and Mallinson promise that the book will be written not just for other scholars but also with teachers and practitioners in mind. “Roots of Yoga is the book I wish I’d had available to me when I started my investigations into yoga,” says Singleton.

It’s also extraordinary (or maybe just plain cool) that this project has made its way to Kickstarter, which uses the power of social networking to support creative, independent ideas. This is a revolutionary way of doing business, bypassing traditional gatekeepers and allowing the community to get behind projects or products they believe in. Kickstarter projects require clear goals and a time limit—if pledged amounts don’t add up by a certain date, the project isn’t funded. (While that may sound harsh, it’s actually less risk for everyone involved.)

Several creative yogis have asked for Kickstarter funding for projects from exotically designed yoga mats to a yoga bus for spreading good vibes across the country. Almost half of all Kickstarter projects get funded. Why do people contribute? In many cases, a donation gets you something of equal or even greater value in return: a cool yoga poster or a handwritten poem. Backers of The Roots of Yoga project can get a signed first edition … and even (for $10,000) a trip to the Kumbha Mela.

Or how about the simple knowledge that you’ve supported something of value for the yoga community? In other words, how about generating some positive karma? Priceless!

What have you heard about the Roots of Yoga project? Would you support a project like this through Kickstarter?

YogiBeard: ...

I cannot help thinking that it is a bit funny that we are so eager to get to know yoga through artefacts. We crave the written material produced by who know who in a distant past, in a distant culture and in a distant reality. Now the old relics will be translated and interpreted from outside of its original context, by modern academic schoolars, with a western mindset from the other side of the globe.

If this book can help to deconstruct some of our self created western ideas about yoga, I am all for it. But I believe that going to the Kumbh Mela is a much better way to get close to the roots of this tradition. After all this is actually getting in to the tradition rather than looking at it from the outside. However the the guy that wins the ticket should be warned. The Kumbh Mela is shocking. You might have to rethink everything you thought you knew about yoga.

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August 05, 2012