Great Addition to My Yoga Collection
Ballantyne and Sastri Deva's co-translation interested me as it was one of the first English translations of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (serialized in the 1850's, I think) and it had the complete Sanskrit text at the back. Additionally, several renowned scholars of yoga (ex. Woods and Eliade) cited Ballantyne's work, which I took as commendations.
I bought the 3rd edition printed in 1955 and I hope the text is identical to the original, but this requires more investigation. The English is dated and the translations are more opaque than say Feuerstein, Iyengar or Miller, but it provides an excellent insight into the evolution of the modern English-language interpretation of the Yoga Sutras. It is wonderful to see the sutras printed in unbroken Sanksrit. The book itself is aesthetically pleasing and the paper is a lighter gauge than I'm used to. The ink of the Sanskrit text at the back is raised slightly off the page, so I can feel each character with my fingertip. It's a great sensory experience.
