Agi (Agnes) Wittich

Tirumūlar yoga reveals the practices through which one may achieve longevity and immortality. Prolonging life aids the yogi to accomplish yoga’s final transcendent state of consciousness, samadhi, in which the yogi’s consciousness is absorbed into the god Śiva. Although a person’s lifespan is determined by the time of their conception, birth, and actions, life expectancy can be prolonged by certain yogic techniques. This is attested to in Tirumūlar’s seminal text Tirumantiram, in which he claims to have reached samadhi and to have lived for thousands of years. Tirumūlar details four yoga systems – Aṣṭāṅgayoga, Khecarīyoga, Candrayoga, and Paryaṅgayoga – that are meant to preserve life energy. These systems include practices designed to retain vital energies such as breath and semen retention, awaken and elevate the life force, and lead to immortality. The yoga’s final immortal state of samadhi resembles a deathlike state, which is said to be the ultimate blissful state of living.

Contemporary yoga is popularly represented in various media by a fit, white woman. Yoga Journal is a magazine recognized by many as an industry cornerstone and an institution in and of itself. It represents the distinctive face of yoga. By analyzing the visual and textual content of the Yoga Journal magazine covers, from its first issue in 1975 to issue 313 (January 2020), we describe the produced and consumed portrait of yoga. By focusing on the cover themes, together with the objects and persons depicted, we recognize three phases of development that have contributed to the understanding of the changing image of yoga in the media. While, in the initial phase, yoga was represented as a mystical and mysterious spiritual discipline that originated in the Orientalized East, in the later phase, it was depicted first as a global and universal phenomenon and then as a mainstream everyday fitness regime. Yoga's depiction in the last phase is compatible with the scholarly representation of contemporary yoga as posture and body centered, but not with its earlier depictions. We found that in its mature phase, the yoga body, which is criticized for its lack of inclusiveness, emerged to become omnipresent. We conclude that the newly formed face of yoga is problematic , both for its female readers, who are encouraged to conform to a unique body type, and also for the yoga community, which encounters an appearance-based restriction of access.

עבודה זו עוסקת ביוגה של טירומולר Tirumūlar כפי שהיא מופיעה בחיבורו הטירומנדירם Tirumantiram . החיבור משוייך לקאנון של השאייוויזם הטמילי של דרום הודו והתחבר כנראה במאה ה 8. הטקסט נכתב בטמילית ספרותית וכולל מעל ל 00333 בתי שיר העוסקים במגוון - -נושאים. מחבר הטקסט נחשב לאחד מתוך 30 נאיאנמאר משוררים קדושים שנדדו ברחבי טמיל – נאדו וחיברו שירי דבקות ומסירות לשיווה שהיווי ביטוי לעבודת האל. בנוסף נחשב טירומולר
לאחר מתוך 88 הסידהה 0 קדושים טמיליים שהשיגו את מצב החסד העליון.

This thesis deals with the Tirumūlars' Yoga as it appears in the Tirumantiram. Part of the Tamil Śaiva Canon of South India, written in literary Tamil and including over 3,000 hymns about various topics, is possibly dated to the 8th century. The author is one of 63 Nāyaṉmār – poet saints who wandered around Tamil Nadu and composed devotional poems to God Śiva. Moreover, Tirumūlar is one of 18 Siddha – Tamil saints that attainedthe highest state of Bliss.

The present work is the result of an honest inquiry into the positioning of women in yoga, both in the past and in the present, concerning historical and social developments while considering their implications on the yoga discipline and on female practitioners likewise. Yoga has its ancient roots in Hindu scripture and yet it is ever so popular in today's culture

The Iyengar tradition encourages women to continue practicing yoga during pregnancy, thus rejecting celibacy and abstinence as requirements for contemporary yoga practitioners. Since the 1960s, Geeta Iyengar (1944-2018), the eldest daughter of the founder of the tradition, BKS Iyengar (1918-2014), learned how to adjust and accommodate yoga practices during pregnancy, which she later developed, systematized, and spread worldwide. This paper recognizes several strategies that the Iyengar tradition uses to legitimize these innovative practices as authentic and authoritative. It ties itself as part of a continued success of guru-disciple lineage, paraṃpara, that goes back to sage Vamana ṛsi. Also, the tradition recognizes itself as a continuation of an ancient yoga tradition, which it locates in specific philosophical disciplines and Sanskrit texts, such as the Upaniṣads, Āyurveda manuals, and Śaiva and Buddhist texts. Like other contemporary yoga traditions, the IY tradition self-identifies as part of an ancient lineage that derives directly from sage Patañjali's teachings. Moreover, the IY tradition holds that women have practiced yoga since the dawn of time, even when pregnant, establishing this claim on mythological figures, such as Kausalyā, Sītā, Sujātā, Madālāsa, which appear in the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata, and the Mārkaṇḍeya purāṇa. However, another strategy of legitimization is through the usage of Sanskrit names of yoga postures. Thus, through using heavily loaded Sanskrit terminology, the Iyengar tradition presents these novel practices as ancient and authentic. The findings are drawn from Iyengar literature (1966-2018) and 51 interviews with Iyengar teachers worldwide, conducted from 2015 through 2018.

Tirumūlar yoga reveals the yoga practices through which one may achieve longevity and immortality. Prolonging life is designed to aid the yogi in accomplishing yoga’s final transcendent state, samādhi, in which the yogi's consciousness is absorbed into god Śiva. Although a person’s life span is determined by the time of conception, birth, and later actions, life expectancy can be prolonged by certain yogic techniques. This is attested to in Tirumūlar’s seminal text, Tirumantiram, in which he claims to have reached samādhi and to have lived for thousands of years.
Tirumūlar details four different systems of yoga, namely Aṣṭāṅga, Khecarī, Candra, and Paryaṅga, that are meant to preserve life energy. These systems that are explained in detail in this paper include various practices, such as body postures, breathing techniques, mantra chanting and concentration, as well as sexual practices. These techniques are designed to retain vital energies, such as prāṇa and bindu, awaken and elevate the kuṇḍalinī, and lead to immortality. Interestingly, yoga's final immortal state of samādhi resembles a death-like state, which is said to be the ultimate blissful state of living.

As much as yoga is a spiritual discipline that has evolved in a Hindu setting, it has absorbed Hindu social and traditional norms. Menstruating women are traditionally excluded from religious\spiritual activities. They are more often than not restricted to abide in their homes and are barred from activities in the public sphere. These customs resonated in Indian yoga teachings, especially since the 1930s when Indian women began gaining access to learning yoga. Menstruating women were instructed to refrain from participating in yoga classes, as is the case in some yoga traditions still today. However, when yoga has spread globally, some yoga traditions have adapted and changed. This paper focuses on the Iyengar Yoga (IY) tradition, which has developed exclusive yoga practices meant specifically for menstruating women. Since the 1980s, menstruation-oriented Iyengar yoga (MOIY) practices have emerged. Geeta Iyengar (1944-2018), the eldest daughter of the founder of IY, BKS Iyengar (1918-2014), has developed, systematized, and later spread MOIY worldwide. As a female yoga practitioner who practiced yoga before menarche and continued doing so through monthly menstrual cycles, she embodied the status of the bleeding yoginī (i.e., female yoga practitioner). Geeta Iyengar learned from female yoginīs around her how to adjust and accommodate yoga practices for the period of bleeding. Geeta Iyengar taught yoga to women for seven decades. Throughout her teaching, she faced women's diverse needs and ideologies regarding

Iyengar yoga (IY) welcomes women to practice yoga even during their menstruation. Although during the 1960s' they recommended women to rest at home and avoid the practice of yoga during menstruation, conforming with Hindu tradition-cultural norms regarding the seclusion of menstruating women. Yet, not long after, IY developed menstruation-oriented Iyengar yoga practice (MOIYP), which were meant to accommodate women's needs during that time, promote their health and wellbeing. The belief behind MOIYP stems from both Hindu beliefs regarding menstruation and Western medicine and physical education. Unlike classical or general yoga practices, MOIYP includes modified and adjusted yoga postures, including the usage of yoga props and special instructions.

This article explores women-oriented Iyengar yoga practices through a historical, textual and ethnographical analysis. These practices were inaugurated by the teachings of B.K.S Iyengar and Geeta Iyengar and globally expanded by Iyengar yoga teachers. The research focuses on how these pioneering practices where formed, the way they are perceived with respect to the ancient yoga tradition, and the way they are implemented among Iyengar yoga teachers. Drawing on Iyengar literature and interviews with Iyengar yoga teachers, the paper suggests that women-oriented practices are considered by Iyengar members as rooted in ancient knowledge which was illuminated by the Iyengars. Also, women-oriented Iyengar yoga practices manifest what might be considered as the distinct attributes of Iyengar yoga teachings. Women-oriented practices' are perceived as a distinct, yet inseparable segment of Iyengar yoga practices. While Iyengar teachers express diverse standpoints regarding specialized practices' necessity and usage, they are an inherent element of the contemporary Iyengar teaching tradition.

The aim of this paper is to answer the question the imagined and real histories of the practice of Yoga for Women, in the Iyengar Yoga Tradition from both a historical and interpretational aspects. Even though the majority of yoga practitioners today are women, it is assumed that it was not so in the past. Supposedly, yoga was a male-transmitted and male-centered tradition until the 20 th century, when processes of democratization and medicalization in modern Yoga in general, and in the Iyengar Yoga in particular, allowed women to participate, form and readjust yoga to their needs. Yoga being a physical practice aiming to create a sacred space or 'land' within one's body and reconnect with ones' sole became the domain of female bodies. Changing the 'location' of sacred bodily-space required both an adjustment of physical practice and both a recreation of sacred history. Interestingly, practitioners of the Iyengar Yoga tradition diverge in opinion about the origin of women centered yoga practices. Some attribute these practices to ancient history, found in Indian mythology and philosophical texts, while others rely on academic research and historical evidence when claiming that these practices are the result of new development of ancient ideas. This paper will draw on both textual and oral sources. My research uses in-depth textual study of material written by Iyengar Yoga teachers. Additionally, since yoga is a practiced tradition, and thus mainly transmitted orally, the paper will draw from half-structured interviews with forty influential teachers and Iyengar family members.

This talk focuses on the emergence of adjusted yoga practice for women in Iyengar yoga. The research centers on Yoga and Women in the Iyengar lineage. More specifically, my study explores women-oriented yoga-asana practices, including special adjustments, sequencing, and prohibitions. The findings are drawn from Iyengar literature (1966-2018), and 51 interviews with Iyengar teachers worldwide. The research uncovered an Iyengar narrative describing women's yoga-practice over centuries. Also, the study argues that the key concept in yoga (such as abhyasa, vairagya, and brahmacarya) are interpreted differently according to the gender of the audience. Ultimately, my research examines the ways in which these practices affect women's positioning in yoga theoretically, and women's health physically and mentally. As a researcher of a contemporary phenomenon linked with Hinduism, I am located at the Dept. of Comparative Religions, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. The interdisciplinary character of my research is demonstrated by the usage of qualitative methodology and feminist theory, which I studied at the Dept. of Anthropology & Sociology and the Leifer Center for Women and Gender Studies accordingly.

This talk will be about the emergence of adjusted yoga practice for women in Iyengar yoga. Today in the West, women constitute the majority of practitioners and teachers of yoga, even though it is assumed that in India yoga was primarily practiced, taught and written by men and for men. This change in the gender of practitioners was accompanied by a paradigm shift, the commercialization and commodification of yoga, which was surely affected by more than two centuries of colonization and contemporary Western influences. Notably, the most influential revolutionary of today's syncretistic Yoga was B.K.S Iyengar (1918-2014) who taught yoga to foreigners beginning in the 1950s. He was possibly the first to teach yoga for groups of women and to endorse his wife and daughters to teach yoga. His eldest daughter, Geeta Iyengar (1944-) has taught general classes alongside women's classes since the 1960s, in which she adjusted yoga practices to the health needs of women, and she has published books of adjusted yoga practice for the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause. In this talk I will draw on interviews conducted with the Iyengar Family members and senior Iyengar Yoga teachers in order to show how the Iyengar family (1) breached the segregated milieu that preserved power over authority and (2) re-contextualized yoga (3) offered an adjusted yoga practice suitable for women. This was done while preserving a link to an ancient tradition on the one hand, and producing a new body of knowledge on the other.

The research focuses on Yoga and Women in the Iyengar lineage. It explores women-oriented yoga-asana practices, including special adjustments, sequencing, and prohibitions. The findings are drawn from Iyengar literature (1966-2018), and 51 interviews with Iyengar teachers worldwide. The research also uncovered an Iyengar narrative describing women's yoga-practice over centuries. Also, the research argues that key concept in yoga (such as abhyasa, vairagya, and brahmacarya) are interpreted differently according to the gender of the audience. Ultimately, the research examines the ways in which these practices affect women's positioning in yoga theoretically, and women's health physically and mentally. As a researcher of a contemporary phenomenon linked with Hinduism, I am located at the

The aim of this paper is to answer the question the imagined and real histories of the practice of Yoga for Women, in the Iyengar Yoga Tradition from both a historical and interpretational aspects. Even though the majority of yoga practitioners today are women, it is assumed that it was not so in the past. Supposedly, yoga was a male-transmitted and male-centered tradition until the 20 th century, when processes of democratization and medicalization in modern Yoga in general, and in the Iyengar Yoga in particular, allowed women to participate, form and readjust yoga to their needs. Yoga being a physical practice aiming to create a sacred space or 'land' within one's body and reconnect with ones' sole became the domain of female bodies. Changing the 'location' of sacred bodily-space required both an adjustment of physical practice and both a recreation of sacred history. Interestingly, practitioners of the Iyengar Yoga tradition diverge in opinion about the origin of women centered yoga practices. Some attribute these practices to ancient history, found in Indian mythology and philosophical texts, while others rely on academic research and historical evidence when claiming that these practices are the result of new development of ancient ideas. This paper will draw on both textual and oral sources. My research uses in-depth textual study of material written by Iyengar Yoga teachers. Additionally, since yoga is a practiced tradition, and thus mainly transmitted orally, the paper will draw from half-structured interviews with forty influential teachers and Iyengar family members.