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Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra

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Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra

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Course materials available Monday, October 5, 2026.

Course 3010

The Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra (1088–1173 CE) stands as one of the most  influential and comprehensive treatises on yoga in the Śvetāmbara Jain tradition. Composed during the rule of King Kumārapāla of the Caulukya Dynasty, whom Hemacandra initiated into the minor vows of a Jain layman, the text emerged from a remarkable historical moment in Gujarat.
 
This course begins with the biography of Hemacandra and then situates the Yogaśāstra within its rich religious and political milieu, tracing both the flourishing of Jainism under Caulukya patronage and the destiny of the tradition in the centuries that followed.
 
With this historical foundation, the course then turns to a careful study of the text itself. Students will discover how Hemacandra crafted a Jain doctrine within a Śaiva and increasingly Muslim social context, incorporating pan-Indic religious influences from Kaśmir Śaivism and medieval siddha traditions while organizing his treatise around the three Jewels of Jainism (ratna-traya) and Patañjali’s eight limbs of yoga.
 
Lessons covering two weeks of class explore the text’s teachings on correct conduct for householders and ascetics, correct knowledge as a path to knowledge of the soul, the cultivation of equanimity through the four contemplations of benevolence, appreciation, compassion, and tolerance, and the Yogaśāstra's distinctive two-fold approach to meditation.
 
Learning Objectives:
  • Know the life of Hemacandra and the historical, political, and religious context of twelfth-century Gujarat under King Kumārapāla in which the Yogaśāstra was composed.
  • Understand the structure and organizing principles of the Yogaśāstra including the three Jewels and Patañjali’s eight limbs, and identify the Jain and non-Jain influences Hemacandra synthesized in the text.
  • Learn the Yogaśāstra’s teachings on correct conduct, correct knowledge, and meditation, including the distinction between householder and ascetic practice and the text’s innovative two-fold classification of dhyāna.
        

Course Length

Course materials available Monday, October 5, 2026.

Course Details

  • 6 hours Self-Study (Professor available by appointment in office hours)

Learning Area

Learning Area Jain Philosophy, History & Anthropology
Learning Area Yoga, Self-care and Spirituality

Instructor

Teacher Christopher Miller, PhD
Christopher Jain Miller, the co-founder and Vice President of Academic Affairs at Arihanta Institute, completed his PhD in the Study of Religion at the University of California, Davis. He is Professor of Jain and Yoga Studies at Arihanta Institute, Visiting Researcher at the University of Zürich's Asien-Orient-Institut, and Professor of Engaged Jain Studies at Claremont School of Theology. Christopher's primary fields of research interest are Yoga Studies and Engaged Jain Studies, and he currently serves as the co-chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Unit at the American Academy of Religion as well as on the steering committees for the Dharma Academy of North America (DANAM) and the Yoga Darśana Yoga Sādhana conference. Christopher is the author of "Embodying Transnational Yoga: Eating, Singing, and Breathing in Transformation" (Routledge 2024) and the co-editor of "Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement" (SUNY 2025) as well as "Beacons of Dharma: Spiritual Exemplars for the Modern Age" (Lexington 2020).

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