142162 UE Yoga in the tantric traditions (2021S)

The practice of the mental and physical techniques of Yoga is not tied to any particular religion but is found in many of the Indian religious traditions, be they Jaina, Buddhist, Vaiṣṇava or Śaiva.
These practices were and are widespread. They were transmitted even across sectarian borders, often probably in personal encounters, but also in the form of texts and mnemonic verses, as textual studies have revealed.
In this course, we will read a text passage dealing with yogic topics such as yogic physiology including the bodily channels (nāḍī) and breaths (prāṇa), the individual soul (jīva) present in the body, and the practice of breath-control (prāṇāyāma), by which liberation from transmigration can be achieved. This text passage has been handed down in several works of different traditions, in Śaiva texts (several recensions of the Kālottara, Svacchandatantra, Tantrasadbhāva, Wṛhaspatitattwa, Agnipurāṇa chapter 214) and in certain Vaiṣṇava text (Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, Pārameśvarasaṃhitā), which were transmitted across the Indian subcontinent and, in case of the Wṛhaspatitattwa, as far as the Indonesian Archipelago.
We will focus on the versions found in the Sārdhatriśatikālottara, a Śaiva Siddhānta work composed not later than 950 CE, and the Sanatkumārasaṃhitā, a Pāñcarātra work difficult to date due to its heterogeneity.