Lectures of the J.P. and Beena Khaitan Visiting Fellow

Was Sāṃkhya non-Vedic?

Week 2, Thursday 22 October 2.00-3.00, OCHS

Professor Knut Jacobsen

As late as in the 8th century CE, the philosopher and promoter of Advaita Vedānta, Śaṅkara argued strongly and repeatedly in his Brahmasūtrabhāṣya that the Sāṃkhya system of religious thought was a non-Vedic system, that it had no support in the Veda and was even fundamentally opposed to the Vedic views. He argued that the two main doctrines of Sāṃkhya, the independence of pradhāna or prakṛti (principle of matter) and the plurality of puruṣas (principle of consciousness) were unacceptable and opposed to the Veda because they were contradicted by the doctrine of the oneness of brahman. There are good reasons to accept that Śaṅkara was right, that Sāṃkhya was non-Vedic. However, Sāṃkhya did later appear as an āstika tradition and was included among the so-called six darśanas and this inclusion gives the impression of Sāṃkhya having a Vedic origin. In this lecture I evaluate the arguments for a non-Vedic origin of Sāṃkhya in scholarship and in the Sanskrit sources and its appearance as an āstika tradition.

Knut A. Jacobsen is professor in the study of religions at the University of Bergen, Norway and a senior fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research focuses on Sāṃkhya-Yoga in Hindu culture and society, Hinduism in the world, Hindu conceptions and rituals of space and time, and the plurality of religious traditions and practices in South Asia. His publications include numerous articles and edited volumes and five monographs, Hinduism in the World (Routledge, 2025), Yoga in Modern Hinduism: Hariharānanda Āraṇya and Sāṃkhyayoga (Routledge, 2018), Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space (Routledge, 2013), Kapila: Founder of Sāṃkhya and Avatāra of Viṣṇu (Munshiram Manoharlal, 2008), and Prakṛti in Sāṃkhya-Yoga (Peter Lang; 1999). Jacobsen is the founding editor in chief of the seven volumes Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, and he is an Elected member of Academia Europaea as well as The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

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.