The Resource The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White
The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White
Resource Information
The item The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries.This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
Resource Information
The item The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri Libraries.
This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
- Summary
-
- "Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults."
- "In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body are microcosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam." "This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science."--Jacket
- Language
- eng
- Label
- The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India
- Title
- The alchemical body
- Title remainder
- Siddha traditions in medieval India
- Statement of responsibility
- David Gordon White
- Language
- eng
- Summary
-
- "Beginning in the fifth century A.D., various Indian mystics began to innovate a body of techniques with which to render themselves immortal. These people called themselves Siddhas, a term formerly reserved for a class of demigods, revered by Hindus and Buddhists alike, who were known to inhabit mountaintops or the atmospheric regions. Over the following five to eight hundred years, three types of Hindu Siddha orders emerged, each with its own specialized body of practice. These were the Siddha Kaula, whose adherents sought bodily immortality through erotico-mystical practices; the Rasa Siddhas, medieval India's alchemists, who sought to transmute their flesh-and-blood bodies into immortal bodies through the ingestion of the mineral equivalents of the sexual fluids of the god Siva and his consort, the Goddess; and the Nath Siddhas, whose practice of hatha yoga projected the sexual and laboratory practices of the Siddha Kaula and Rasa Siddhas upon the internal grid of the subtle body. For India's medieval Siddhas, these three conjoined types of practice led directly to bodily immortality, supernatural powers, and self-divinization; in a word, to the exalted status of the semidivine Siddhas of the older popular cults."
- "In The Alchemical Body, David Gordon White excavates and centers within its broader Indian context this lost tradition of the medieval Siddhas. Working from a body of previously unexplored alchemical sources, he demonstrates for the first time that the medieval disciplines of Hindu alchemy and hatha yoga were practiced by one and the same people, and that they can only be understood when viewed together. Human sexual fluids and the structures of the subtle body are microcosmic equivalents of the substances and apparatus manipulated by the alchemist in his laboratory. With these insights, White opens the way to a new and more comprehensive understanding of the entire sweep of medieval Indian mysticism, within the broader context of south Asian Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam." "This book is an essential reference for anyone interested in Indian yoga, alchemy, and the medieval beginnings of science."--Jacket
- Cataloging source
- DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- White, David Gordon
- Dewey number
- 294.5/514
- Illustrations
- illustrations
- Index
- index present
- LC call number
- BL1241.56
- LC item number
- .W47 1996
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Siddhas
- Alchemy
- Alchemy
- Hatha yoga
- Tantrism
- Nātha sect
- Indien
- Inde
- Alchemie
- Yoga
- Tantrisme
- Siddhas
- Alchimie
- Yoga, Haṭha
- Tantrisme
- Nāths
- Label
- The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-554) and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- 34545939
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Extent
- xviii, 596 pages
- Isbn
- 9780226894973
- Isbn Type
- (cloth : alk. paper)
- Lccn
- 96016977
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)34545939
- Label
- The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-554) and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- 34545939
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Extent
- xviii, 596 pages
- Isbn
- 9780226894973
- Isbn Type
- (cloth : alk. paper)
- Lccn
- 96016977
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Other physical details
- illustrations
- System control number
- (OCoLC)34545939
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.library.missouri.edu/portal/The-alchemical-body--Siddha-traditions-in/gQ9iUhTuqnQ/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.library.missouri.edu/portal/The-alchemical-body--Siddha-traditions-in/gQ9iUhTuqnQ/">The alchemical body : Siddha traditions in medieval India, David Gordon White</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.library.missouri.edu/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.library.missouri.edu/">University of Missouri Libraries</a></span></span></span></span></div>
