Speaker
Description
What is an āsana for a sādhu? And what are the contexts and uses in which āsanas are performed? This presentation aims to unveil the different meanings of āsanas among contemporary sādhus, starting with āsana as the physical place to sit to practice any sādhanā. It will then present three typologies of āsanas – spiritual, physical, tapasic – and the contexts in which they are performed.
These different meanings will also be framed historically, showing how distinct uses of āsanas have developed over the centuries and still co-exist today. The aim of this presentation, therefore, is to broaden our approach to āsanas by considering a traditional setting in which they are experienced by practitioners in a variety of ways, depending on their background, age, and goals.
Daniela Bevilacqua is an Indianist, specialized in Hindu asceticism, investigated through an ethnographic and historical perspective. She is currently a researcher at CRIA (ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon. She worked as a post-doc research fellow at SOAS, for the ERC- funded Haṭha Yoga Project (2015–2020). She authored Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India, published by Routledge, From Tapas to Modern Yoga forthcoming in 2024 published by Equinox, and several articles and book chapters on topics related to Hindu religious tradition, gender, and embodied practices.
