Like a Tree Universally Spread
Sri Sabhapati Swami and Śivar?jayoga
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP USA
- Date of Publication 5 March 2024
- ISBN 9780197665473
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages496 pages
- Size 165x226x55 mm
- Weight 726 g
- Language English
- Illustrations 52 593
Categories
Short description:
This book examines the life of a nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Tamil yogin named Sri Sabhapati Swami (Śr? Sabh?pati Sv?m? or Cap?pati Cuv?mika?, ca. 1828-1923/4) and his unique English, Tamil, Hindi, and Bengali literature on a Sanskrit-based system of yogic meditation known as the "R?jayoga for Śiva" (Tamil: civar?jay?kam, Sanskrit: śivar?jayoga), the full experience of which is compared to being like a "tree universally spread."
MoreLong description:
This book examines the life of a nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Tamil yogin named Sri Sabhapati Swami (Śr? Sabh?pati Sv?m? or Cap?pati Cuv?mika?, ca. 1828-1923/4) and his unique English, Tamil, Hindi, and Bengali literature on a Sanskrit-based system of yogic meditation known as the "R?jayoga for Śiva" (Tamil: civar?jay?kam, Sanskrit: śivar?jayoga), the full experience of which is compared to being like a "tree universally spread." Its practice was based on a unique synthesis of Tamil V?raśaiva and Siddhar cosmologies in the colonial period, and the yogic literature in which it is found was designed to have universal appeal across boundaries of caste, gender, and sectarian affiliation. His works, all of which are here analyzed together for the first time, are an important record in the history of yoga, print culture, and art history due to his vividly-illustrated and numbered diagrams on the yogic body with its subtle physiology.
This book opens with a biographical account of Sabhapati, his editor Shrish Chandra Basu, and his students as gleaned from textual sources and the author's ethnographic field work. Sabhapati's literature in various languages is then analyzed, followed by a comprehensive exposition of his Śaiva cosmology and religious theories. Sabhapati's system of Śivar?jayoga and its subtle physiology is then treated in detail, followed by an analysis of Sabhapati's aesthetic integration of aural sound and visual diagrams and an evaluation of the role of "science" in the swami's literature. Sabhapati also appealed to global authors and occultists outside of South Asia, so special attention is additionally given to his encounter with the founders of the Theosophical Society and the integration of his techniques into the thelemic "Magick" of Aleister Crowley, the German translation of Bavarian theosophical novelist Franz Hartmann, and the American publication of New Thought entrepreneur William Estep. To these are appended a never-before-translated Tamil hagiography of Sabhapati's life, a lexicon in table-form that compiles some archaic variants and Roman transliterations of technical terms used in his work, and a critically-edited passage on an innovative technique of Śivar?jayoga that included visualizing the yogic central channel as a lithic "pole."
Excavating the massive archive of the heretofore unexplored writings of the late nineteenth-century South Indian visionary Sri Sabhapati Swami, Keith Cantú's magisterial work opens vast new horizons in the field of Modern Yoga Studies. Essential reading for both scholars and practitioners.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
From Hidden Roots to Outer Blossoms
A Treelike "Translocalization" of Yoga
The Chapters and Methodology of This Book
Chapter 1. Hagiographies and Old Diary Leaves
Extant Sources for Sabhapati's Life
Sabhapati's Childhood
A Quest for Religious Truth
A Visionary Experience in Velachery
A Southbound Quest
Lectures and a Himalayan Flight
A Splash on the Lahore Scene
Shrish Chandra Basu and the Theosophical "Founders"
John Campbell Oman and "Sadhuism"
A Vision of Agastya Once in Fifty Years
Sabhapati in Bombay
Agastya and the Konnur Meditation Hall
South Indians to the Fore
Om Prakash Swamigal
Konnur Ramalinga Swamigal
Sabhapati Swami's Death and Disappearance
Chapter 2. A Vast Forest of Printed Words
Textual Stemmata of Sabhapati's Works
The Alpha Stemma
Three Original Editions of vry
cpsps as Alpha Stemma
Detailed Contents of the Alpha Stemma
Bengali and German Translations
William Estep's Esoteric Cosmic Yogi Science
The Beta and Gamma Stemmata
Contextualizing Sabhapati's Vernacular Works
cpsps as Beta and Gamma Stemmata
ctcspv and the Gamma Stemma
ryb and the Beta Stemma
Pamphlets for Konnur Meditation Hall
Sabhapati's Literature in Telugu
Sabhapati's Tamil Work mcvts
Chapter 3. Seeds of a Cosmological Religion
Sabhapati's Two Gurus
Chidambara Swamigal and "Instructive Truth"
Shivajnana Bodha and the Tamil Siddhas
An Embodied Cosmos
Shiva as "Infinite Spirit"
A Cosmogonic Separation of "Faculties"
"Illustration by Examples"
The Tree Universally Spread
Emancipation and Transmigration
Household of the Body's Truth (dehatattva)
Connections with Tamil Saiva Discourse
Views on Other Religions and Movements
Sabhapati and Buddhism
Sabhapati and Christianity
Sabhapati and Islam
Sabhapati and Zoroastrianism, or "Parsism"
Sabhapati and "Samajees"
Sabhapati and the "Theosophical Societies"
Sabhapati and Atheism
Chapter 4. Breathing into Śivar?jayoga
Three Branches of Yoga
Hatha Yoga or "Yoga of Force"
Ha?har?jayoga or "Royal Yoga of Force"
Śivar?jayoga or "Royal Yoga for Shiva"
Śivar?jayoga: From Purification to Nonbeing
Chapter 5. Singing Mantras and Visualizing Flowers
Lyrical Compositions and Musical Poems
Incantation of Tones and Mantras
Sabhapati's Visual Diagrams
Changing Visual Representations
Svar?pa and Yoga
Chapter 6. Dissecting the Nature of Śivar?jayoga
Spiritual and Physical Phenomena
The Pure Ethers
A Naturalistic Cosmology of Yoga
Chapter 7. Magical Fruits of Occult Yoga
Sabhapati and Theosophy
Franz Hartmann and Sabhapati in German Translation
Sabhapati and "Thelemic Magick"
William Estep and "Super Mind Science"
Epilogue: Parts of a Universal Tree
Appendix 1. A Translation of t2 (in mcvts)
Excerpt of t2 (English Translation)
Excerpt of t2 (Original Tamil)
Appendix 2. Lexicon of Common Terms and Variants
Appendix 3. A Passage from vry on the "Pole" of Śivar?jayoga
References
Index
