N. C. Paul

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N. C. Paul (1829–1880)[1] was a 19th-century Bengali physician and scientist. He described studies of physiologic changes in persons performing yoga and introduced yoga to a wider Western audience.

Biography

Born Nobin Chunder Pal (also transcribed as Navina Chandra Pal, Nobin Chundra Pal, and Navina Candra Pala) he anglicized his name. Paul enrolled at the

Benares (today Varanasi) he had a "commanding view of yogic life."[2] As a result of his observations and studies, he published Treatise on Yoga Philosophy, its first edition published in London in 1851[2] (or 1850)[3]
and a second edition in 1882.

Yoga Philosophy

Paul's book has been viewed as perhaps the first attempt to link yoga and modern scientific medicine.[2][3] He defines yoga "as nothing more than prolonged sleep".[4] The treatise contains case studies of people who went into prolonged hibernation. Paul is the first to indicate that yoga induces hypercapnia.[2] He describes yoga positions and exercises for Raja and Hatha yoga and their benefits.

The world traveler and

theosophist Helena Blavatsky came across the book, erroneously believing the author to be an English physician. She noted that one of his yoga acquaintances was Captain Seymour, an Englishman who became a yogi. She observed that "(t)he book produced a sensation among the representatives of medicine in India, and a lively polemic between Anglo-Indian and native journalists."[5]

Publication

References

  1. ^ Broad, William (2021). ''The "Science of Yoga The Risks and Rewards p. xviii
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-4516-4142-4
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-539535-8
    .
  4. ^ N. C. Paul, 1882, page 26
  5. ISBN 978-0766132658
    .
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