Dr James Mallinson receives AHRC and DFG funding for collaborative project to edit the most ...
18 December 2020
Dr James Mallinson, Reader in Indology and Yoga Studies has received funding from The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG) alongside Professor Dr. Jürgen Hanneder of Philipps-Universität Marburg for the project "Light on Hatha yoga: a critical edition and translation of the Hathapradipika, the most important premodern text on physical yoga."
The 18 AHRC and DFG funded projects bring together arts and humanities researchers in the UK and Germany to conduct outstanding joint research projects which span a wide range of research subjects.
Reacting to the funding, Dr James Mallinson, Reader in Indology and Yoga Studies said:
"This new project to edit the Haṭhapradīpikā (Light on Yoga) will be a landmark in historical yoga studies. The Haṭhapradīpikā is the most important premodern yoga text and as a result is found in more than 250 manuscripts, so collating them will be a daunting task. But we have a great team, including Dr Jason Birch who will now continue at SOAS after his hugely productive work on the Hatha Yoga Project; three scholars at the University of Marburg — Professor Jürgen Hanneder, a world-renowned expert in editing Sanskrit texts, Dr Mitsuyo Demoto, also a formidable philologist who brings necessary skills in palaeography, and doctoral student Nils-Jacob Liersch, who has already edited a key early yoga text; and we will be joined by two researchers at the École française d’Extrême-Orient in Pondicherry, India."
The project will start in early 2021 and is expected to run for three years until 2024.