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Arihanta Institute Joins the American Yoga Council
Offering Yoga Studies Courses, MA and PhD Programs
09/09/2026
Arihanta Institute’s Center for the Study of Jain Yoga is delighted to announce that we have joined the American Yoga Council, marking an exciting new chapter for our Yoga Studies offerings.
Through this new relationship, a growing selection of our Yoga Studies courses is now accredited through the American Yoga Council, alongside two graduate pathways: the MA in Religion, Concentration in Yoga Studies and the PhD in Religion, Engaged Jain Studies, with Track Elective in Jain Yoga.
Together, these offerings create a continuum of study spanning individual courses, Sanskrit language training, and advanced graduate education.
For students, yoga teachers, scholars, and practitioners, this accreditation offers a meaningful way to pursue rigorous study while receiving recognition from a professional yoga organization whose approach emphasizes lineage-specific standards, competency-based learning, and accountability.
The American Yoga Council accredits programs according to what students are prepared to understand and do within a particular tradition or field of practice, making it a strong fit for Arihanta Institute’s commitment to historically grounded, ethically engaged, and intellectually rigorous yoga education.
Our accredited offerings bring together Jain yoga, Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, Sanskrit study, and graduate-level Yoga Studies. They are designed to support learners who want to deepen their understanding of yoga beyond the studio setting, engage primary texts and traditions with care, and connect practice with broader questions of ethics, philosophy, history, language, and embodied learning.
AYC Accredited Yoga Studies Courses
Introduction to Jain Yoga is offered as a self-study course. This course introduces students to the distinctive contributions of Jain traditions to the history and practice of yoga, inviting learners to explore yoga through the lens of Jain philosophy, ethics, and contemplative practice.
Yoga Sūtra: The Classical Yoga of Patañjali is offered live online in a flipped-classroom format, meeting Fridays from 8:30–9:15 a.m. Pacific, September 4 through November 6, 2026.
Students study one of the most important texts in the history of yoga while engaging in guided discussion, reflection, and practice-oriented inquiry.
University Sanskrit for Yoga Teachers and Practitioners 1 is offered live online from August 31 through December 11, 2026.
The course meets Mondays and Wednesdays from August through October, 5:00–6:30 p.m. Pacific, and Mondays and Wednesdays from November through December, 6:00–7:30 p.m. Pacific.
This course supports yoga teachers and practitioners in building a university-level foundation in Sanskrit for deeper engagement with yogic and South Asian primary texts.
University Sanskrit for Yoga Teachers and Practitioners 2 will be offered live online in Spring 2027, with dates to be announced. The meeting schedule is Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:00–9:25 a.m. Pacific.
This second course continues the Sanskrit sequence, helping students strengthen their reading, grammar, translation, and interpretive skills for sustained study of yoga traditions.
Graduate Yoga Studies Pathways
We are especially pleased that the American Yoga Council now recognizes two graduate-level programs connected to the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga.
MA in Religion, Concentration in Yoga Studies
The MA in Religion, Concentration in Yoga Studies, offered through Claremont School of Theology in partnership with Arihanta Institute, is now accredited through the American Yoga Council as a Level 3 Yoga Teacher Training program.
What makes the MA distinctive is its emphasis on integrating rigorous academic study with the ethical and philosophical questions that shape contemporary life.
Students engage Jain philosophy, ethics, history, and anthropology alongside Yoga Studies, dharma traditions, and other religious and philosophical traditions. The curriculum also allows students to explore the application of foundational Jain principles such as ahiṃsā (nonviolence), aparigraha (non-possession), and anekāntavāda (many-sidedness or openness to multiple perspectives) in relation to contemporary fields such as animal studies, environmental studies, and business ethics.
Through the Yoga Studies concentration, students encounter yoga not simply as a contemporary physical practice, but as a complex historical, philosophical, textual, and embodied tradition.
The program is particularly well suited for students seeking to become practitioner-scholars, educators, researchers, or professionals who want to engage yoga and Jain traditions with greater historical, textual, philosophical, and ethical depth.
PhD in Religion, Engaged Jain Studies, with Track Elective in Jain Yoga
The PhD in Religion, Engaged Jain Studies, with Track Elective in Jain Yoga is likewise accredited through the American Yoga Council as a Level 3 Yoga Teacher Training program.
Developed and taught in partnership with Arihanta Institute, the Engaged Jain Studies track provides doctoral-level training in the study of Jain traditions in South Asia and the diaspora using engaged methodologies and analytical frameworks.
Students develop expertise in the historical, anthropological, linguistic, and philosophical dimensions of Jain traditions while examining how Jain communities, ideas, texts, and practices have engaged with their social worlds in the past and present.
Students may also pursue interdisciplinary coursework relevant to their research interests, professional goals, and dissertation including Jain Yoga, Jain Philosophy, and Jain Veganism in the History of Global Veganism.
The doctoral program places significant emphasis on research languages and primary-text study. Students must demonstrate competency in two relevant South Asian research or primary-text languages—typically Sanskrit, Hindi, or Gujarati—as well as an additional modern research language or approved research method selected in consultation with their advisor.
For students pursuing Jain Yoga in particular, the program provides an opportunity to examine yoga at the highest academic level while situating Jain traditions within the wider historical, philosophical, linguistic, and religious development of yoga in South Asia.
From Continuing Education to Graduate Scholarship
Taken together, these accredited offerings represent a distinctive pathway within contemporary yoga education.
A learner might begin with an introductory course in Jain yoga, move into sustained study of Patañjali or Sanskrit, and eventually pursue graduate-level study through an MA or PhD pathway.
This continuum reflects the broader mission of the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga: to create opportunities for serious engagement with yoga across different levels of study while maintaining a commitment to historical context, primary texts, ethical reflection, embodied practice, and rigorous scholarship.
It also creates new pathways for yoga teachers and practitioners who want their education to extend beyond conventional teacher-training settings.
Whether students are exploring Jain yoga for the first time, revisiting the Yoga Sūtra with new questions, beginning Sanskrit study to engage primary sources more directly, or pursuing graduate research in Yoga Studies or Jain Yoga, these offerings provide structured opportunities for serious and transformative learning.
These programs represent only the beginning. Arihanta Institute’s Yoga Studies offerings continue to grow across self-paced, live online, and graduate-level formats.
We invite students, teachers, scholars, practitioners, and lifelong learners to explore the Center for the Study of Jain Yoga and join us in this next phase of Arihanta Institute’s work.
As our relationship with the American Yoga Council continues to develop, we look forward to building thoughtful, accessible, and rigorous pathways for the study of yoga in conversation with Jain traditions, Sanskrit learning, South Asian philosophy, and the wider academic field of Yoga Studies.
“Bringing Your Yoga Mat to Graduate School: Transforming from Practitioner to Practitioner-Scholar”
Monday, September 21 at 12 PM ET | Live + free to attend
Plus, join September 21–25 for five days of free live education for yoga teachers and practitioners.