People
Dr Dagmar Wujastyk
University of Vienna, Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies — Principal Investigator, ERC Starting Grant Project AyurYog, 2015–2020
Dagmar Wujastyk is an indologist specialized in the history and literature of classical Indian medicine (Ayurveda), iatrochemistry (rasaśāstra), and yoga and South Asian history. Her publications include Modern and Global Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms (SUNY Press) and Well-mannered Medicine: Medical Ethics and Etiquette in the Sanskrit Medical Classics (OUP New York).
Dr Suzanne Newcombe
Suzanne Newcombe researches yoga and ayurveda from a sociological and social historical perspective. Her previous research has focused on the popularisation of yoga and ayurvedic medicine in Britain and she has published chapters in several edited books on this subject, as well as articles in the Journal of Contemporary Religion, Religion Compass, and Asian Medicine.
Dr Jason Birch
SOAS, South Asia Department (09/2015–09/2020)
Jason Birch received a doctorate in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit) from the University of Oxford in 2013. His area of research is the medieval yoga traditions of India, in particular those called Haṭha and Rājayoga. Jason joined the project in June 2015 to research the influence of āyurvedic theory and praxis on medieval yoga texts. In September 2015, he became part of the Haṭhayoga Project at SOAS, University of London.
Dr Christèle Barois
Christèle Barois is an indologist specialized in ancient and medieval Hinduism through Purāṇic literature and South Indian Śaiva Tantras. Her recent work includes a study of the final section of the Śivapurāṇa, the Vāyavīyasaṃhitā (60 chapters, more than 4,500 verses), composed in South India in the 11th century, which covers cosmogony, mythology, Śaiva doctrine and ritual, and śaivayoga.
Dr Patricia Sauthoff
Patricia Sauthoff is an Indologist who specializes in medieval Śaiva Tantra from a socio-historical perspective. Her PhD focused on protective rites in the Netra Tantra, exploring the nature of mantra, maṇḍala, and deity visualization in rites to alleviate disease and bestow immortality. She joined the project in December 2018 to research the relationships between rasaśāstra and early yoga. She holds a PhD from SOAS in South Asian Languages and Literatures, MAs from SOAS in History and St. John's College in Eastern Classics, and BAs in Religious Studies and English from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Jacqueline Hargreaves
Jacqueline Hargreaves collaborated with the AyurYog Project to construct a web-based visual and textual timeline for premodern Ayurveda and Yoga.
The Haṭha Yoga Project
A five-year research project funded by the European Research Council and based at SOAS, University of London, the Haṭha Yoga Project was a close collaborator of AyurYog.