Blurb:

This introductory chapter will first sketch out “embodied reception” as a heuristic concept by discussing some of the assumptions and challenges that its two terminological components—embodiment and reception—entail. It will then position the volume with regard to previous research on bodily practices in South Asia and their modern global globalization. Two aspects of embodied reception that emerge from reading the contributions together will then receive closer attention. The first aspect is the construction of lineages and origins that appears to be crucial for turning bodily practices into a reception of something, be it a textual source, a guru, or a diffuse idea of Indian tradition. The second aspect concerns the performativity and affectivity of bodily practices. Here, the contributions show that while a bodily practice does not have a universal intrinsic meaning, it works on practitioners’ bodies and interrelates with their meaning-making processes. Finally, the individual chapters that make up the four parts of the volume will be presented.