Abstract
Edwin Bryant’s The Yoga Sütras of Patañjali sets out to present the Yogasütra and its rich commentarial tradition in a way that bridges two separate discourse-communities, those of professional Indic scholars and of intelligent lay-readers who are primarily interested in yoga practice (lix). Therefore in his translation and commentary, Bryant aspires to the twin (though generally conflicting) virtues of scholarly rigor and broad accessibility. He further seeks to creatively engage with the tradition by highlighting the tensions or achievements he thinks most important and by creative elaboration upon themes given in the text. Despite the ambitiousness of his project, Bryant’s text succeeds wonderfully. The Yoga Sütras of Patañjali is a compendium of traditional and modern commentarial
insight, woven together such that it reads easily, given the challenges inherent in the subject matter. When Bryant does comment in his own voice, the result is usually insight into the key nodes of Yogic thought.
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