The practice of yoga has become hugely popular in the West. Most people assume (and many claim) that 'postural' yoga - characterized by the familiar, demanding, physical poses - is an ancient Indian tradition. But in fact, as Mark Singleton shows, this type of yoga is quite a recent development, with its beginnings traceable to the middle of the 19th-century. Singleton here presents the first in-depth study of the origins of postural yoga, challenging many currentnotions about its nature and origins.