Transmutations: Rejuvenation, Longevity, and Immortality Practices in South and Inner Asia

The Department of History, Classics, and Religious Studies is delighted to announce the publication of  Transmutations: Rejuvenation, Longevity, and Immortality Practices in South and Inner Asia, co-edited by Dagmar Wujastyk, Suzanne Newcombe, and Christele Barois (Delhi: Dev Publishers, 2020)

Wild and diverse outcomes are associated with transmutational practices: the prolongation of life, the recovery of youth, the cure of diseases, invincibility, immortality, enlightenment, liberation from the cycle of rebirths, and unending bliss. In this edited volume, transmutational practices and their underlying concepts are examined in the wider context of South and Inner Asian culture. In addition to the examination of these concepts and practices in Sanskritic South Asian traditions, it features ground-breaking research on the related practices and concepts of kāyakarpam, bcud len and mendrup, developed in the Tamil Siddha medico-alchemical tradition and in Tibetan Buddhist and Bonpo contexts, respectively. The volume also offers an exploration of Islamic yogic longevity practices that emerged in Sufi milieus of the Roshang kingdom between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.


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