ABSTRACT
The ideas and practices associated with yogins in nineteenth-century Bengal were mostly not those associated with and taught in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra. Yogins seem also to have had a low reputation, especially among the dominant bhadralok, the modern educated upper-class groups of the Bengali society. However, the yoga philosophy associated with the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, for a variety of reasons, came gradually to be given more attention, and yoga attained a higher status. This higher status worked together with the establishment of the idea of a different type of yogin – one following the admired philosophy of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra.
