LibGuides: Yoga Studies: Background Information

Using Background Information (reference works)

Finding background information from reference works at the beginning of your research can save time and improve the quality of your work.

"Reference works" here includes things like scholarly encyclopedias, specialized dictionaries, handbooks or companions for a subject, and annotated bibliographies.

These can provide:

Introduction to key concepts
Overviews of scholarship on a topic
Names of people who are authorities in the subject field
Keywords and subject-specific vocabulary terms that can be used for database searches
Bibliographies that lead to additional secondary and primary resources

Background Information: Yoga Studies

These sources tend to be the most useful for topics in yoga studies.

Online Reference Sources

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: MANY
Description: General e-book collection from Gale Cengage Learning containing full text. Includes numerous scholarly encyclopedias on religious traditions and the Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine.
Contents: E-books; Encyclopedias
More info
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: MANY
Description: General encyclopedia containing full text.
Contents: E-books; Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra (Feuerstein)
Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism Online
Scholarly entries covering regional traditions as well as deities, from a variety of methodological standpoints. Includes material on yoga philosophy and historical practices more broadly.
Brill's Encyclopedia of Jainism Online
Research on main aspects of the Jain traditions in original essays written by some of the world’s foremost scholars on Jainism. The articles address topics such as the human condition, pantheons, historical perspectives, regional cultures, renunciation, lay society, ritual, devotion, visual and material culture, time and space, literature, and philosophy and logic.

Print Reference

Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Call Number: REF BL1105 .B75 2009
5 volumes with scholarly entries covering regional traditions as well as deities, from a variety of methodological standpoints. Includes material on yoga philosophy and historical practices more broadly.
Encyclopedia of Hinduism by India Heritage Research Foundation
Call Number: REF BL1105 .E538 2010
11 volumes of entries contributed by scholars, with references. Includes material on yoga philosophy and historical practices more broadly.
Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra by Feuerstein, G.
Call Number: REF BL1238.52 .F47 2011
Short entries that include descriptions and illustrations of poses, as well as information about contemporary yoga teacher lineages.

Annotated Bibliographies

Yoga: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in English, 1981-2005 by D. Callahan
Publication Date: 2007
Print and e-book available.

"Indian Philosophy" article in Oxford Bibliographies Online
Includes sections on Yoga, Samkhya, Vedanta, Buddhism, and Jainism, among others.

Additional eReference

These online reference databases can also provide quality background information related to yoga studies:

Oxford Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
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Subjects: MANY
Description: General e-book collection containing full text. Focuses on Humanities, Social Sciences, and Business disciplines.
Contents: Book Chapters; E-books
Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture This link opens in a new window
Subjects: Philosophy, Theological Studies, Catholic Studies, Ethics
Description: E-book collection containing full text. Mainly focused on North America and Europe. Scholarly essays that provide overviews and references to major sources on a topic.
Contents: Book Chapters; E-books

Buddhist Traditions

These are prime sources of background information for topics related to Buddhist traditions:

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Subjects: MANY
Description: General e-book collection from Gale Cengage Learning containing full text. Includes multiple scholarly encyclopedias on religious traditions and on Buddhism specifically.
Contents: E-books; Encyclopedias
More info
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism This link opens in a new window
Subjects: Yoga Studies, Theological Studies, Asian and Pacific Studies, Buddhist Studies
Description: Scholarly dictionary of canonical Buddhist terms containing full text. Keyword search or browse by terms (English, Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan), texts, temple, personal or place name, or Chinese ideograph (radical or number of strokes). Entries include references to primary texts and other dictionaries or scholarship. Collaboratively produced and continually updated by Charles Muller (University of Tokyo) and other Buddhist Studies scholars.
Contents: Dictionary

Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2007)
Edited by Damien Keown & Charles S. Prebish. Print and e-version available. Bibliographies by topic are at the back.
Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Online
Comprehensive academic reference work devoted to the plurality of Buddhist traditions across Asia, offering readers a balanced and detailed treatment of this complex phenomenon in six thematically arranged volumes. Database currently holds volume 1, with new content being added.
Index Buddhicus Online
Academic bibliographical reference in the field of Buddhist studies. It consists of bibliographical records for monographs, reviews, chapters in edited volumes, journal articles, reference works, electronic resources, and other. The Index Buddhicus covers Western language secondary literature.
Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra (Feuerstein)