The Prāṇāyāma Grid: Yogic Breath Cultivation in Early Modern Yoga

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Magdalena Kraler

PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Modern yoga evolves in a discursive milieu that incorporates such disparate strands as Hindu religion, occultism, medicine, physical culture, and nationalism. Since the beginnings of the 1880s, it is located between the continuation of tradition and the cracks that innovative orientation towards medicine, experimental science, and new systems of physical culture suggest. This holds also true for prāṇāyāma , which means ‘breath control’ in a literal sense but can also be understood as ‘yogic breath cultivation’ in a wider sense. Already in early modern yoga, prāṇāyāma became a rather large container for a variety of practices including haṭhayogic forms of breathing and cleansing techniques, ritualistic forms of prāṇāyāma as outlined in various prayer books for Hindus, and breathing techniques described by Western gymnasts and physical culturists.

This talk by Magdalena Kraler offers some perspectives on yogic breath cultivation in modern yoga with regard to the cultural settings in which it is placed, the “ prāṇāyāma grid”, as Kraler has called it. A main focus will be the analysis of Swami Vivekananda’s (1863–1902) understanding of prāṇa and prāṇāyāma , which borrows from occult concepts, including the implementation of prāṇa as a cosmo-anthropological principle, or vital force, in a scheme that spans science and religion. Vivekananda’s conceptualisation of prāṇa and prāṇāyāma was highly influential as well as controversial for subsequent pioneers of modern yoga. The arguments of some critical voices after Vivekananda will be addressed. Among these, the similarly influential Swami Kuvalayananda (1883–1966) both continued and opposed the legacy of Vivekananda in his scientific experiments on prāṇāyāma and his down-to-earth understanding of prāṇa as breath only. In this talk, she will also present ideas for a possible classification of yogic breath cultivation and give a basic outline of these practices, of which many are still relevant for today’s yoga world.

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Speaker Biography

Magdalena Kraler holds an M.A. in Music and Dance Education and is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna, Department of Religious Studies. Her research interest lies in the overlap of physical and religious practices in the fields of modern yoga, physical culture, and dance. In her dissertation project, supervised by Prof. Karl Baier, she focuses on the development of yogic breath cultivation ( prāṇāyāma ) in transnational contexts of modern yoga between the 1880s and the 1930s.