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Reading for women is reading against the grain. My initial urge to search for women in the early 丑补峁环补 period was rapidly quenched by the lack of references to women. Even so, by orienting this study to descriptions of the body in these sources my research findings are significant for the bodies of women in terms of reproductive outputs. Ritual sex seems to be preferred at non-procreative stages of the menstrual cycle (chapter three) and raising rajas, if on the model of 苍眉诲补苍, may have resulted in voluntary amenorrhea (chapter four). I specifically eschew attempting to divine agency for women in these sources alongside resisting asserting subjectivity for women. The most these phallocentric sources allow is the recovery of the bodies of women via their menstrual blood and sexual fluid, and (anti-) reproductive outcomes. Controlling reproduction may have been socially and soteriological liberative for women.

Reading for men and masculinity reads with the grain. The sources themselves centre the male ascetic. By reading the male body too through the lens of anti-natalism we recover a sovereign masculinity that is stubbornly non-procreative at least in ideal form. Mallinson in his, 鈥榮eminal鈥� article on yoga and sex (2018) draws together textual, ethnographic, experiential and medical material on 惫补箩谤辞濒墨尘耻诲谤腻. He argues the practice would reduce the likelihood of ejaculation by desensitizing the verumontanum (2018:194) and focuses on 惫补箩谤辞濒墨 as a technique within a celibate context rather than a technique to enable sex without conception. But the sources are not reticent about the yogi鈥檚 sexual charisma as we have seen above (贬补峁环补辫谤补诲墨辫颈办腻 3.47). Unlike later colonial constructions of masculinity (Alter 2004:497; King 1999:113; Krishnaswamy 1998; Sinha 1995),^[1] the physical body and sexual attractiveness of the yogi are not presented as effeminate. Instead, the markers of success in 产颈苍诲耻诲丑腻谤补峁嘺 are among other things a perfect body and sexual attractiveness. For example, the accomplished yogi in the 础尘峁泃补蝉颈诲诲丑颈 can enter 蝉补尘腻诲丑颈 at will and is compared to the romantic heroes Nala and 叠丑墨尘补 (础尘峁泃补蝉颈诲诲丑颈 30.4). Throughout the corpus the practitioner develops a divine body and looks like Kandarpa the god of love (顿补迟迟腻迟谤别测补测辞驳补艣腻蝉迟谤补 83cd). The yogi becomes sixteen years old (贬补峁环补辫谤补诲墨辫颈办腻 2.47), the archetypical age for sexual perfection, a second god of love, 碍腻尘补诲别惫补 (贬补峁环补辫谤补诲墨辫颈办腻 2.54), and attracts (腻办补谤峁�a苍补) siddha women (贬补峁环补辫谤补诲墨辫颈办腻 3.49). Siddha women also become attracted to the yogi in the 痴颈惫别办补尘腻谤迟补峁囜笉补 (痴颈惫别办补尘腻谤迟补峁囜笉补 128). As noted, the 顿补迟迟腻迟谤别测补测辞驳补艣腻蝉迟谤补 warns of the danger to the yogi鈥檚 practice of his increasing beauty because women will want to have sex with him. In the 艢颈惫补蝉补峁僪颈迟腻 all beautiful women become besotted with and adore the man who regularly meditates upon the internal 蝉惫补诲丑颈峁ａ弓丑腻苍补 lotus (艢颈惫补蝉补峁僪颈迟腻 5.104). From the perspective of the compilers the yogi is irresistible.

What are the implications for masculinity and soteriology? Does this material merely reflect social constructions of beauty or serve as propaganda to secure practitioners? Is there something more fundamental, related to the praxis and function of 丑补峁环补 yoga? I believe that perfection of the body is key to the embodied liberation taught in the corpus, as opposed to emaciation or rejection of the body for a transcendent liberation. Underlining this exploration is both an interiorization of sexual affect and a prosaic attitude to real-world sex: once established in semen-retention (产颈苍诲耻诲丑腻谤补峁嘺) it is irrelevant to their soteriological objectives whether practitioners have sexual relations. Are the texts simply repeating the sexual ethics of the time and culture? There is a sense in the reception history of these ideas that yoga is moralistic about sex. I suggest abstinence is not ethical but practical. It is about soteriology.

In her work on the 惭补丑腻产丑腻谤补迟补, Dhand deploys the structural logics of on the one hand the ascetic ideology of 苍颈惫峁泃迟颈 dharma and on the other the social orientations of 辫谤补惫峁泃迟颈 dharma to elucidate sexual ideology. She points out the frequent infractions of the former, the trope of sages failing in their celibacy (Dhand 2008). Key to asceticism, for Flood, is 鈥榯he denial of reproduction and of sexuality鈥� which is the reversal of the flow of the body (Flood 2002:5). Biernacki, in 鈥榬eal men say no鈥�, analyses representations of the ideal man (尘补谤测腻诲补 辫耻谤耻峁�o迟迟补尘补) in the person of 搁腻尘补. She argues that the masculine rejection of desire via restraint is an assertion of power (Biernacki 1:2012).

Yet the 丑补峁环补 materials go beyond saying no. They innovate in detailing the techniques whereby the yogi maintains sovereignty, or 谤腻箩补 yoga, while saying yes. Birch roots an understanding of 谤腻箩补 yoga, the yoga of kings, in sources such as the Amanaska that reject the forceful techniques of 丑补峁环补 yoga. He frames 谤腻箩补 yoga as meditation (Birch 2013). In his most recent work Mallinson (2024:24-26), building on Sanderson^[2] and Bouillier,^[3] situates his understanding of 谤腻箩补 yoga in ascetic monastic institutions where yogi kings have social and sexual relations and do procreate.^[4] This problematises the analysis that 惫补箩谤辞濒墨 could contribute to contraception as some yogi kings do have families and hereditary lineages.

Between the 11^th and 15^th centuries a wide range of monastic traditions in the Deccan and south India produced Sanskrit texts on physical yoga, each staking its claim to this newly emergent practice鈥� The state and name of 谤腻箩补yoga reflect developments within the monastic traditions of the time, many of which had freed themselves from royal patronage and become powerful in their own right. (Mallinson 2024:24) Mallinson details the titling of heads of monasteries as 鈥榢ing鈥� in Kadri, the site of composition of the Amaraugha, in Srisailam, the possible site of composition of the 贬补峁环补辫谤补诲墨辫颈办补, and in the Sringeri tradition (Mallinson 2024:25). Mallinson here shows the specificity in the time of composition of these sources what Proferes shows diffusely in the much earlier vedic period. For Proferes, 鈥榯he language proper to the domain of kingship was gradually generalised and used to express aspirations towards freedom and self-determination that became progressively more mysterious in nature鈥� (Proferes 2007:1).^[5]

I have foregrounded the sexual charisma of the perfect bodied ascetic (as has also been the focus of scholars in Buddhism).^[6] It might appear that the preoccupation of the texts with semen retention (bindu) and the sublimation of sexual arousal (办耻峁囜笉补濒颈苍墨) are fully accounted by a psycho-analytical explanation of anxiety over virility. A more specific genealogy is found in the body presented in the 丑补峁环补 sources and its genealogy. A perfect body and sexual attractiveness are markers of success in yoga practice. They are aspects of a continuum of attainments that traverse freedom from disease, improvements in health and the generation of powers beyond the sa峁僺膩ric domain (siddhis). As such, a perfect body and sexual attractiveness are not touted as the purpose of the practice but side-products. Even so they are signifiers of desirable masculinity. The perfect man is one who has transcended gender and sexuality: it is an irrelevance. Sex may be engaged in, but it no longer drains the practitioner of ascetic power.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

Yoga itself develops within and in response to this colonial narrative. Black sets out how yoga is available as an anti-colonial resource to produce indigenous masculinity through the figures of Aurobindu, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Savarkar and, in opposing terms, Gandhi (Black 2020:14).

[2]:

Sanderson describes how 艣补颈惫补 尘补峁环腻诲丑颈辫补迟颈s from Bengal to Karnataka ruled as kings with royal titles and lion thrones (2009:260-272).

[3]:

Bouillier gives an account of yogis ascending to power as kingly, in the Kadri 谤腻箩腻鈥檚 enthronement (2016:126-163).

[4]:

The mode of succession at the Bhik峁Ｄ乿峁泃ti 尘补峁环补 at Srisailam was through inheritance and the king of Kadri paraded in the sixteenth century with his wife and children (Mallinson 2024:25).

[5]:

Proferes鈥� study of vedic ideals of sovereignty (2007) demonstrates the resonance of many of the themes explored in this thesis with the early vedic period. Linking with the 辫腻办补 paradigm explored in chapter two he shows how 鈥�fire was used to symbolically express the understanding of sovereignty prevailing within the social and political constitution of the early Vedic period鈥� (Proferes 2007:35). This is combined with a universalising discourse that equates the centre of the polity with the centre of the cosmos (2007:75).

[6]:

Cf. specifically Powers (2009) and more generally Langenberg (2018) and Cabez贸n (2017, 1993).