Mark Singleton (yoga scholar)

His studies caused him what he referred to as "something like a crisis of faith",[3] namely, the discovery that modern āsana-based yoga had much more recent origins than was claimed for it.

[7] After leaving the St John's College faculty, he went on to serve under James Mallinson, a renowned indologist, as a senior research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 2015 to 2020.

[13] The researcher Suzanne Newcombe, reviewing the 2009 collection Yoga in the Modern World edited by Singleton and Jean Byrne, notes that several of the chapters "successfully combine emic experience (seen from inside) with an etic analysis.

Burley and Liberman openly declare that, in addition to being established scholars, they also teach forms of modern yoga.

For Nevrin, Smith, and Strauss, experiencing the practice of yoga is an inherent part of a rigorous anthropological understanding that acknowledges embodied experience.

"[12] In Newcombe's view, "rigorous academic reflection" on modern yoga is an "interesting" development, making the book a valuable overview of the field.

[17] He noted that āsanas were brought to the Western world in the early 20th century by Yogendra; postural yoga was developed further by Kuvalayananda, Vishnudevananda, and by Krishnamacharya and his pupils Indra Devi, B. K. S. Iyengar, and K. Pattabhi Jois.

[20] Krishnamacharya's method, Singleton wrote, was "a synthesis of several extant methods of physical training that (prior to this period) would have fallen well outside any definition of yoga," making use of haṭha yoga, the British army's calisthenic exercises, and Niels Bukh's primary or primitive gymnastics from Denmark.

[24] Harold Coward, reviewing Yoga Body for the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, admired its analysis and accessibility.

[26] The author Matthew Remski, writing in Yoga International, called the publication "a watershed moment in the history of global asana culture."

Singleton argued in his 2010 book Yoga Body , following Norman Sjoman , that many standing asanas with simple descriptive names, such as Utthita Parshvakonasana , Sanskrit for "Extended Side Angle Pose", were brought into modern postural yoga in the 20th century. [ 1 ]
Singleton noted that postures in Niels Bukh 's 1924 Primary Gymnastics [ 15 ] resembled several asanas in modern postural yoga, suggesting that Krishnamacharya had been influenced by the gymnastics culture of his time. [ 16 ]
In Yoga Body , Singleton sets modern yoga in context with images such as this pose close to Samakonasana in Thomas Dwight 's "The Anatomy of a Contortionist", Scribner's Magazine , April 1889
Singleton's 2014 book Gurus of Modern Yoga covers leaders such as B. K. S. Iyengar , seen here with the president of India.