The Story of Yoga

Description

How did a venerable Indian spiritual discipline turn into a £20 billion-a-year mainstay of the wellness industry? What happened along yoga’s winding path from the caves and forests of the sages to the gyms, hospitals and village halls of the modern West?

This comprehensive history sets yoga in its global cultural context for the first time, leading us on a journey from arcane religious rituals and medieval body-magic, through Christianity and the British Empire, to Indian nationalists and the twentieth-century West. Yoga has now become embedded in powerful social currents including feminism, digital media, celebrity culture, the stress pandemic and the quest for authentic identity.

Shearer’s revealing history boasts a colourful cast of characters past and present, in an engaging tale of scholars and scandal, science and spirit, wisdom and waywardness. This is the untold story of yoga, warts and all.

Reviews

‘This is a tale of what happens when East and West meet, and about a shift from the sacred to the secular. [Yoga’s] journey west gives Shearer a compelling cast of characters.’ — The Sunday Times

‘Erudite, scholarly and engrossing.’ — The Sunday Telegraph

‘A clear-eyed, elegantly written and wonderfully informative history of yoga … Shearer’s remarkable book is a wide-ranging and rather sobering discussion on the nature of authenticity.’ — The Spectator

‘Amid a sea of guidebooks, historian Alistair Shearer has provided a worthwhile counterpoint, [offering] advice as important as any guru’s techniques.’ — Financial Times

‘A quick-witted and erudite chronicle of the Hindu practice that is now a lucrative staple of “wellness” in the West.’ — The Wall Street Journal

‘This is a compelling history of how an amazing ancient art became an integral part of western life.’ — The Irish Times

‘Shearer … writes with exquisite sensitivity about the teacher-student relationship.’ — Hindustan Times

‘An ambitious book indeed … [with] a scholarly side, and a catchy journalistic verve.’ — Religion

‘This is a fascinating survey not only for practitioners of the world’s burgeoning Wellness industry [but also] for general readers anxious about the fate of civilisation itself.’ — Asian Affairs Journal

‘Erudite, informative and witty … I cannot over-emphasize the grace and humour of the text as well as its seriousness of purpose.’ — Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network

‘The history of East meeting West through yoga is as complex and enigmatic as it is important. Alistair Shearer unfolds the narrative with just the right combination of scholarly rigour and compelling prose.’ — Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda and The Life of Yogananda

‘The Story of Yoga offers an absorbing chronicle of the rise of yoga, tracing its evolution through history to its rapid global proliferation today, with insights into the challenges on the way ahead. Exceedingly accessible and engaging, this is the definitive account of the remarkable growth of one of the world’s most popular and beneficial human activities.’ — Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire

‘Frequently amusing, but always scholarly and engaging, Shearer’s study deftly works it way through the history of yoga, from the purity of Patanjali’s Sutras to the mix’n’match brands endorsed by modern celebrities.’ — John Zubrzycki, author of Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic

Author(s)

Alistair Shearer is a cultural historian specialising in the art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent; a former lecturer at SOAS University of London; and a teacher of meditation and the psychology of yoga. He has had a dozen books published, including a widely acclaimed translation of the Yoga Sutras.