Gerhard Oberhammer’s Works on Sāṃkhya and Yoga in Light of Recent Research

Gerhard Oberhammer reconstructed the phenomenology of spiritual paths in sāṃkhya, Patañjali's yoga, and Pāśupata śaivism, developing a general typology of yogic practices. In the Yoga-sūtras he identified four distinct practices of different origin, implying the work was initially a compilation, and revealed an affinity between one practice and the later theistic Mṛgendratantra. Using the Yuktidīpikā, he described the phenomenology of the spiritual path of sāṃkhya, a tradition often considered purely theoretical. His works were largely forgotten due to positivist bias in modern indology. Comparison with Eliade and Torchinov is suggested as promising.

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Abstract

Gerhard Oberhammer is a prominent Austrian scholar of Indian philosophy and religions. This paper presents an analysis of Oberhammer’s works on spiritual practices of sāṃkhya and yoga. Based on the works that belong to the traditions of sāṃkhya, Patañjali’s yoga and the Pāśupata’s śaivism, Oberhammer reconstructed the phenomenology of each spiritual path and developed a general typology of yogic practices. Particularly, in the Yoga-sūtras, he identified four distinct practices of different origin, which implies that initially this work was a compilation. Oberhammer revealed an affinity between one of these practices and a later teaching of the theistic Mṛgendratantra. Based on the material of the Yuktidīpikā he described the phenomenology of the spiritual path of sāṃkhya, a tradition that is often believed to be of purely theoretical character. Oberhammer’s works on sāṃkhya and yoga attracted interest of scholars of Indian religions. However, with the course of time they were almost forgotten, not least because of the general positivist bias of modern indology. It seems promising to compare Oberhammer’s typology of yogic practices, as well as his philosophical teaching of transcendental hermeneutics, with the works by Mircea Eliade and Evgeniy Torchinov, which provide broad descriptions of religious practices with a general focus on the phenomenology of spiritual experience.