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´Yoga is to be known through yoga. Yoga arises from yoga. One who is vigilant by means of yoga delights in yoga for a long time´

Yoga is hugely popular around the world today, yet until now little has been known of its roots. This book collects, for the first time, core teachings of yoga in their original form, translated and edited by two of the world´s foremost scholars of the subject. It includes a wide range of texts from different schools of yoga, languages and eras: among others, key passages from the early Upanisads and the Mahabharata, and from the Tantric, Buddhist and Jaina traditions, with many pieces in scholarly translation for the first time. Covering yoga´s varying definitions across systems, models of the esoteric and physical bodies, and its most important practices, such as posture, breath control, sensory withdrawal and meditation, Roots of Yoga is a unique and essential source of knowledge.

Translated and edited with an introduction by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton

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"Forget everything you thought you knew about yoga history . . . With new critical translations of over 100 little-known yoga texts dating from 1000 BCE to the 19th century, threaded together with clear and steady-as-she-goes commentary, these authors have charted the deep. Their endlessly diverse sources-translated from Sanskrit (of course) but also Tibetan, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Tamil, Pali, Kashmiri, and early forms of Marathi and Hindi-explode the available resources for everyday practitioners." -Yoga Journal

"Momentous . . . we can expect original ideas and substantial insights." -Georg Feuerstein, author of The Yoga Tradition

"With all the myth and misinformation in the Yogasphere, this research and the resulting book will be a much needed resource for yogis, practitioners, teachers, and scholars." -Ganga White, author of Yoga Beyond Belief

"Assembling in translation an unprecedented array of sources, many of which have been unknown or neglected, this anthology will be an indispensable companion for all interested in yoga, both scholars and practitioners." -Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, University of Oxford

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Mallinson, James
James Mallinson is Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Civilization at SOAS, University of London. He has edited and translated several texts on hathayoga from the eleventh to fifteenth centuries CE. He has also spent several years living with traditional Hindu ascetics and yogis in India and in 2013 he was honoured with the title of ´mahant´ by the Ramanandi Sampradaya.

Singleton, Mark
Mark Singleton is Senior Research Fellow in the department of Languages and Cultures of South Asia, SOAS, University of London. He was a consultant and catalogue author for the 2013 exhibition ´Yoga: The Art of Transformation´ at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, and has served as co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Group at the American Academy of Religions. His previous publications include three edited volumes of yoga scholarship and the book Yoga Body, the Origins of Modern Posture Practice.

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