India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library has gathered a team of yogis from nine schools and 200 scientists to scan ancient texts, including the writings of Patanjali, thought to be the original compiler of yoga sutras. The group is documenting more than 900 yoga postures and making a video catalogue of 250 of the most popular ones, from sun salutation to downward-facing dog.
The catalogue will be released soon and given to the international patent system, which yoga gurus in India say is essential in an age when cultural traditions can cross borders instantaneously. "Yoga is collective knowledge and is available for use by everybody no matter what the interpretation," said V.K. Gupta, head of the digital library, which was set up by the ministries of health and science. "It would be very inappropriate if some companies try to prevent others from any yoga practice, even if they call it some other name. So we wanted to ensure that, in the future, nobody will be able to claim that he has created a yoga posture which was actually already created in 2500 B.C. in India."
No comments:
Post a Comment