Jain Āsana Yoga: Textual History and Practical Perspective
Week 1, Friday 16 October 2.00-3.00, OCHS
Dr Samani Pratibha Pragya
This lecture examines the historical development and practical dimensions of Jain postural yoga (āsana) with particular attention to the textual traditions in which bodily postures are represented, interpreted, and practiced. Rather than investigating āsana exclusively through the categories of modern postural yoga, the study situates Jain approaches to bodily discipline within broader Jain understandings of asceticism, meditation, restraint, and embodied practice. It traces references to postures across select Jain textual sources and considers how these descriptions relate to changing conceptions of the disciplined body.
The paper also explores the practical significance of āsana in Jain contexts, including its relationship to meditation, ritual practice, and ascetic discipline. By bringing textual evidence into dialogue with embodied practice, the study highlights the distinctive features of Jain approaches to posture while also considering their place within the wider history of South Asian physical and contemplative traditions.
Samani Pratibha Pragya is currently a Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor at Florida International University. She is a scholar-practitioner and an ordained Jain nun (Samani). She received her PhD on “Prekṣā Meditation: History and Methods” from SOAS, University of London. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at SOAS, working on Terāpanth data pertaining to the Jaina-Prosopography Project. She is an authorized Prekṣā Yoga and Meditation teacher.
She initiated a rural development project in Tamkore, Rajasthan, and established MahapragyaInternational School there, where she worked for the education of underprivileged girls.
