Undergraduate Courses

840:321 YOGA: ITS HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY (3)

While Yoga conjures up images of bodily postures and stretches in popular western culture, this aspect of yoga is only the third and preliminary step of the eight steps outlined in the Yoga Sutras, the classical ancient Indian treatise on the practice of Yoga. This course will have three components.  The first will consist of a close reading of the original Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, with par­ticular attention paid to the pre-modern commentaries of the text, thus exposing students to the traditional un­derstanding of the practice of classical Yoga and its goals.  The second component of the course will consist of an analysis of the history of Yoga in India, consider­ing its variegated expressions in some of the classical traditions of the subcontinent.  The third component will be a consideration of Yoga’s transplantation to the West.  Additionally, Students will have the optional op­portunity of attending a Yoga class on campus.