David Gordon White is a American Indologist.

David Gordon White received his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1988. He is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he has been teaching since 1996.

• The Yoga Sutra of Patañjali. A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2015).
• Yoga in Practice (Princeton University Press, 2011).
• Sinister Yogis (University of Chicago Press, 2009).
• Kiss of the Yogini: “Tantric Sex” in its South Asian Contexts (University of Chicago Press, 2003).
• Yoga in Practice (Princeton University Press, 2001).
• Tantra in Practice (Princeton University Press, 2000).
• The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (University of Chicago Press, 1996).

• “Dakini, Yogini, Pairika, Strix: Adventures in Comparative Demonology,” Southeast Review of Asian Studies 35 (2013), pp. 7-31.
• “Netra Tantra, at the Crossroads of the Demonological Cosmopolis,” Journal of Hindu Studies 5:2 (July 2012): 145-71.
• “Amulettes et lambeaux divines: superstition, vraie religion et science pure à la lumière de la démonologie hindoue,” Purusartha 27 (Paris: Editions de l’EHESS, 2009), pp. 135-62.
• “Bhairava,” Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Leiden, 2009).
• “Yogini,” Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Leiden, 2009).
• “Digging Wells While Houses Burn? Writing Histories of Hinduism in a Time of Identity Politics,” History and Theory 45:4 (2006), pp. 104-31.

James Mallinson, a British Indologist, criticizes David Gordon White in a piece entitled The Yogīs' Latest Trick. Mallinson notes White ignores "almost everything that argues against his position....where contradictions to his thesis are noted, they are dismissed with hubris."^[1]

Mallinson says White conflates the practice of yoga with the siddhis it produces. Mallinson further states "as well as varying the criteria for what constitutes yoga to suit his thesis, White cherry-picks his evidence to do the same, citing passages that support his argument while ignoring those in the very same texts that would argue against it."^[2]

Mallinson says White continues to state vajrolimudra is a part of rajayoga despite multiple corrections from other scholars in the past. Mallinson criticizes White's competence in various areas such as linguistics, dating of texts and conflating different ascetic traditions.^[3]

• Alexis Sanderson

Category:American non-fiction writers Category:American Indologists Category:Living people Category:Hindu studies scholars