Yoga The Art of Transformation at Sackler Gallery

$55.00 USA / $62.
00 cad
yoga
yoga
yoga
The Art of
Transformation
Edited by Debra Diamond

Associate Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Smithsonian Institution
Many of us today practice yoga for spiritual insight and better

health, but few know of yoga’s extraordinary visual history.
Yoga: The Art of Transformation, the first publication of its
kind, invites readers to explore 2,000 years of yoga’s visual
record, from depictions of beneficent deities and Tantric yogini
Transformation
The Art of
goddesses to militant ascetics and romantic heroes. Beautiful
works of art—including temple sculptures, masterpieces of
Mughal painting, and the first illustrated asana treatise—depict
the aesthetic aspects of a practice that has transformed over
Transformation
The Art of
time and across communities. While many objects emerged out
of Hindu contexts or depict Hindu practitioners, others reveal
that yoga was never the domain of any single religion, and
indeed yogic identity crossed “sacred” and “secular” bound-
aries. Photographs, postcards, early films, and other materials
shed light on the enormous shifts in yoga’s reception in the
nineteenth century, as well as on the creation of modern yoga.
Written for diverse audiences by scholars of art history,
philology, religion, and sociology, the catalogue provides
deeper contexts for key artworks and objects that convey yoga’s
transformations over time. Five essays act as a chronology,
tracing the practice from its ancient roots to early modern man-
ifestations. Two essays focus on yoga’s more recent evolution
into the discourses of spirituality, fitness, and medicine in late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India, which helped
shape today’s global yoga boom. Following the essays, themat-
ically grouped catalogue entries explore key yogic practices,
identities, and cultural perceptions within the visual record.
Together these texts demonstrate the potential of visual culture

to illuminate yoga’s profound and unexpected manifestations
in culture, art, and history.
Unique among scholarly art catalogues in that it
speaks to the international yoga community, Yoga: The Art of
Transformation will delight both yogic practitioners and lovers
of Indian art.
With 200 color and black-and-white illustrations

US $55.00 / $62.00 CAN
ISBN 978-1-58834-459-5
Published by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
ËxHSLFSIy34 595zv&:&:;:+:!
Main size: 19-103 pt black
Printed in Milan, Italy

t h e s m i t h so n i a n ’s m us eu m s o f as i a n a rt
Main size: 19-103 pt white

YOGA : THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 1
2 | YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION
Debra Diamond
yoga The Art of

Transformation
David Gordon White

Tamara I. Sears
Carl W. Ernst
James Mallinson
Joseph S. Alter
Mark Singleton
Sita Reddy
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY
Molly Emma Aitken

Christopher Key Chapple
Robert DeCaroli
Jessica Farquhar
B. N. Goswamy
Navina Haidar
Amy Landau
Holly Shaffer
Tom Vick
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Copyright © 2013, Smithsonian Institution. Cloth edition (ISBN 978-1-58834-459-5) distributed
All rights reserved. by Smithsonian Books and may be purchased
for educational, business, or sales promotional
Published by the Freer Gallery of Art and the use. For information, please write: Smithsonian
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery on the occasion of Books, Special Markets, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 513,
the exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation, Washington, DC 20013.
October 19, 2013–January 26, 2014.
Organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Typeset in Locator and Eksja
the exhibition travels to the Asian Art Museum Designed by Studio A, Alexandria, Virginia
of San Francisco, February 22–May 18, 2014, Printed in Italy by Arti Grafiche Amilcare Pizzi
and the Cleveland Museum of Art,
June 22–September 7, 2014. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Diamond, Debra.
On the cover: Vishnu Vishvarupa (detail), India,
Yoga : the art of transformation / Debra Diamond ;
Rajasthan, Jaipur, ca. 1800–1820, Victoria and Albert
with contributions by David Gordon White ... et al.
Museum, London, Given by Mrs. Gerald Clark,
p. cm.
IS.33-2006 (cat. 10b).
“Published by the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur
M. Sackler Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition
Frontispiece details: Kedar Ragini, Metropolitan
Yoga: The Art of Transformation, October 19,
Museum of Art, 1978.540.2 (cat. 18e); Three
2013–January 26, 2014. Organized by the Arthur M.
Aspects of the Absolute, Mehrangarh Museum
Sackler Gallery, the exhibition travels to the Asian
Trust, RJS 2399 (cat. 4a); Jalandharnath at Jalore,
Art Museum of San Francisco, February 22–May 18,
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 4126 (fig. 7, p. 74);
2014, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, June 22–
Satcakranirupanacitram, Wellcome Library, P.B.
September 7, 2014.”
Sanskrit 391 (cat. 25b); The Knots of the Subtle Body,
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.27 (cat. 11a); Gaur
ISBN 978-0-934686-26-6 (pbk.)
Malhara Ragini, Museum für Asiatische Kunst,
ISBN 978-1-58834-459-5 (hardback)
MIK I 5523 (cat. 18i); Saindhavi Ragini, wife of Bhairon,
1. Yoga in art—Exhibitions. 2. Art, Indic—Themes,
Chester Beatty Library, In 65.7 (cat. 18h); Lakshman
motives—Exhibitions. I. White, David Gordon.
Das, Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins (cat.
II. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Smithsonian Institution)
20a); Kumbhaka, Chester Beatty Library, In 16.25a
III. Freer Gallery of Art. IV. Asian Art Museum of
(cat. 9h); The Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped by the
San Francisco. V. Cleveland Museum of Art. VI. Title.
Sage Chyavana, Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.8 (cat. 8c).
N7301.D53 2013
709.54’074753—dc23
2013025537
t h e s m i t h s o n i a n ’s m us e u m s o f as i a n a rt

Sponsors
This publication is made possible

with the generous support of:
Yoga: The Art of Transformation is organized

by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the
Smithsonian Institution with support from:
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne

Ebrahimi Family Foundation
Catherine Glynn Benkaim
Together We’re One crowdfunding campaign
Media sponsor:
Essays
16 Foreword 23 Yoga: The Art of Transformation
Contents
18 Acknowledgments Debra Diamond

20 Map: Indian Subcontinent 35 Yoga in Transformation
21 A Note on the Transliteration David Gordon White
47 From Guru to God: Yogic Prowess and Places
of Practice in Early-Medieval India
Tamara I. Sears
59 Muslim Interpreters of Yoga
Carl W. Ernst
69 Yogis in Mughal India
James Mallinson
85 Yoga, Bodybuilding, and Wrestling: Metaphysical Fitness
Joseph S. Alter
95 Globalized Modern Yoga
Mark Singleton
Catalogue
PART ONE · THE PATH OF YOGA PART FOUR · YOGA IN THE TRANSNATIONAL
IMAGINATION, 18TH–20TH CENTURY
106 Manifestations of Shiva
230 Company Paintings
114 Portraying the Guru
236 Colonial Photography
118 Yoginis
250 The Bed of Nails: The Exotic Across Borders and Media
128 Nath Siddhas
258 Fakirs, Fakers, and Magic
131 Jain Yoga: Nonviolence for Karmic Purification
138 Yoga and Tapas: The Buddhists and Ajivikas PART FIVE · MODERN TRANSFORMATIONS
142 Austerities 266 Vivekananda and Rational Spirituality
146 Meditation 275 Medical Yoga
150 Asana 284 Modern Postural Yoga
160 The Cosmic Body
166 The Subtle Body Reference Material
172 The Militant Ascetic Body 293 Exhibition Checklist
176 Illusion and Reality in the Yoga Vasishta 301 Glossary
304 Endnotes to the Catalogue

PART TWO · LANDSCAPES OF YOGA
318 Selected Bibliography
180 Ashram and Math
320 Contributors
190 Pilgrimage
322 Credits
196 The Cremation Ground
324 Index
PART THREE · YOGA IN THE INDIAN IMAGINATION,
16TH–19TH CENTURY
202 Yogis in the Literary Imagination

214 Transcendence and Desire in Ragamala Paintings
223 Mughal Albums
Foreword
Yoga: The Art of Transformation invites wonder at India’s extraordinary artistic heritage.
It also inaugurates a field of scholarly inquiry. By examining yoga as an enduring practice that adapts
to changes in place and time, this exhibition seeks to illuminate a central, though still imperfectly
understood, facet of Indian culture. The scope of this project is ambitious, determined by the wealth
of objects—ranging from temple sculptures to medical textbooks—that manifest yogic constructs and
the perceptions of its practitioners. These objects constitute a visual archive which offers abundant evi-
dence that yoga is more than a philosophical school, a purely Hindu tradition, a spiritual science, or an
exercise regimen. By bringing together radically disparate objects, The Art of Transformation prompts
us to look beyond such calcified categories as wonder and resonance, high art and popular culture,
indigenous and exogenous, authentic and exploited, and to consider how yoga unfolded in history.
Let me invite you to contemplate two objects in the exhibition. One is a magnificent
sculpture of the deity Bhairava from a thirteenth-century Hindu temple (cat. 1b), the other a garish
early twentieth-century postcard that depicts a yogi on a portable bed of nails (cat. 22g). Although
wildly dissimilar, both project yogic identities that were, when they were made, novel. The Bhairava,
a masterpiece of carving from the Hoysala dynasty in the Karnataka, demonstrates one of the means
through which orthodox Hinduism incorporated the transgressive teachings of Tantric yoga. The post-
card’s photograph records a recently created performative practice—the aerial yoga, if you will, of its
day. Produced by a Baptist missionary society, it was part of a flood of mass-produced images that iden-
tified yogis (and Hinduism and India) as superstitious and backward. It is a troubling artifact; however,
the aspirations of yogis who posed on spiked beds and the role of mechanical reproduction in creating
dubious stereotypes cannot be summarily ignored. They are part of yoga’s history.
The Art of Transformation acknowledges the importance of yoga’s Hindu traditions, while
being fully attentive to the discipline’s multiple manifestations within diverse sectarian, religious, courtly,
and popular settings. This broad approach sheds light on yoga’s core constructs and transformations
over some two thousand years on the subcontinent, including its more recent emergence in the trans-
national arena. Today, yoga is universal. Deeply meaningful to Indians who cherish it as their legacy and
to practitioners around the world who recognize its transformative potential, it also lies at the center of
heated debates over authenticity and ownership. Shining light on yoga’s manifold visual expressions,
the exhibition does not define a singular yoga or determine authenticity. Rather, it aspires to enrich dia-
logue and inspire further learning about yoga’s profound traditions and enduring relevance.

To our great delight, the exhibition will travel to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco
and the Cleveland Museum of Art; I warmly acknowledge their directors, Jay Xu and David Franklin
respectively, for this latest in a series of collaborations to expand the study and appreciation of Asian
art in the United States.
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery gratefully acknowledges the generosity of lenders to Yoga:
The Art of Transformation. Fionnuala Croke, director, and Elaine Wright, curator, Chester Beatty Library,
Dublin; David Franklin, director, and Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, curator, Cleveland Museum of Art; Maharaja
Gaj Singh II and Kr. Karni Singh Jasol of the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur-Marwar; and Martin Roth,
director, and Rosemary Crill and Susan Stronge, curators, Victoria & Albert Museum, have been unstint-
ing in their loans of key artworks. In Europe, we also thank Neil MacGregor, director, British Museum;
Klaas Ruitenbeek, director, Museum für Asiatische Kunst; Albert Lutz, director, Museum Rietberg Zürich;
Mechtild Kronenberg, head of department, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; Christoph Rauch, head of the
Oriental department, Staatsbibliotek zu Berlin; and Ted Bianco, acting director, Wellcome Trust, London.
In Australia, we acknowledge Tony Ellwood, director of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Our American lenders are no less appreciated for being closer to home. We sincerely
thank Atlantic Art Partners; James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress; Graham W. J. Beal, director, pres-
ident, and CEO, Detroit Institute of Art; Thomas P. Campell, director and CEO, Metropolitan Museum of
Art; Malcolm Rogers, Ann Graham Gund Director, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Jake Homiak, director,
National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution; Donald A. B. Lindberg, director, National
Library of Medicine; Katie Luber, Kelso Director, San Antonio Museum of Art; Marianne Quinn, secretary,
Vedanta Society of Northern California; Benjamin W. Rawles III, president, Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts Foundation and Alex Nyerges, director and CEO, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; and Julia Marciari-
Alexander, executive director, Walters Art Museum. The exhibition is also richer for the generosity of
several extraordinary private collectors. We sincerely thank Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara
Timmer, Robert J. Del Bontà, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, Cynthia Hazen Polsky, Thomas and Margot
Pritzker, and Dr. Kenneth X. and Joyce Robbins.
Neither the exhibition nor the catalogue could have been realized without the support
of foundations, corporations, and individuals. We gratefully acknowledge H. E. Nirupama Rao, India’s
ambassador to the United States and Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch, India’s minister of culture, for
their assistance. A 2009 Scholarly Studies Grant from the Smithsonian enabled the scholarly colloquia
that underlie the project’s unprecedented cross-disciplinary focus. Mary and Fred Ebrahimi supported
critical research and exhibition preparation over the following years. Art Mentor Lucerne Foundation and
Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund underwrote this publication, which we hope you will
find is a delight for both eyes and mind. Whole Foods Market, lululemon athletica, and Catherine Glynn
Benkaim and Barbara Timmer provided critical exhibition support. Media partner Yoga Journal and our
Together We’re One campaign and its Yoga Messengers were instrumental in raising public awareness.
The seeds for this exhibition were planted, appropriately, when Debra Diamond, our asso-
ciate curator of South and Southeast Asian art, was working on our exhibition in 2008, Garden and Cosmos:
The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. Her scholarship, research, and passion for the material helped create an
extraordinary aesthetic experience for multiple audiences. While Debra has led the charge, it is my plea-
sure to thank the entire staff of the Freer and Sackler. They combine the highest levels of expertise with
a passionate commitment to the museums’ goals, and have been critical to this project’s success. These
are challenging times for many museums, ours included, and yet our staff have tackled this ambitious
project with unparalleled creativity, demonstrating an equanimity and dedication worthy of true yogis.
Julian Raby
The Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art
FOREWORD | 17
Acknowledgments
If yoga is individual and embodied, personal bonds and communities have long been
central to its transmission and relevance. Thus it is fitting that Yoga: The Art of Transformation has been
a deeply collaborative project. It has been my great fortune to have worked with superb scholars, teach-
ers of yoga, and museum colleagues to shape the project and its presentation.
I first realized that visual culture had the potential to illuminate yoga’s historical man-
ifestations during my dissertation research on Jodhpur paintings related to the Nath lineage, which
led ultimately to the 2008–2009 exhibition Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. In
2008, the broader scope of Yoga: The Art of Transformation was hammered out in numerous con-
versations with Sita Reddy, who argued persuasively for juxtaposing high and popular art, and with
Annapurna Garimella, who insisted that the exhibition should simultaneously represent the impor-
tance of perfecting the body and acting in the world. Two interdisciplinary colloquia in the summer
of 2009 further contributed to the project’s development. I am deeply grateful to Joseph S. Alter,
Carl W. Ernst, Sita Reddy, Tamara I. Sears, Mark Singleton, and David Gordon White for their initial
enthusiasm and continuing involvement as authors or advisors. James Mallinson, who joined the
team in 2011, and David Gordon White were patient teachers who read and edited much of the text in
this catalogue.
I will never be able to adequately thank all the colleagues, teachers, and friends who
have offered insights, corrected errors, graciously opened storerooms, or flooded my inbox with
images and texts. However, I cannot fail to mention Vidya Dehejia, whose scholarship on yogini temples
is an enduring inspiration, Milo Cleveland Beach, Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Allison Busch, Nachiket
Chanchani, Christopher Key Chapple, Rosemary Crill, Barbara Croissant, William Dalrymple, Robert
J. Del Bontà, Janet Douglas, Stephen Eckerd, Jessica Farquhar, Swami Vidyadhishananda Giri, John
Guy, Shaman Hatley, Carol Huh, Karni Singh Jasol, Padma Kaimal, Cathryn Keller, Dipti Khera, Angelika
Mallinar, Daniel McGuire, Sheldon Pollock, Kenneth Robbins, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, John Seyller,
Holly Shaffer, Maharaja Gaj Singh II, Sonika Soni, Stanley Staniski, Susan Stronge, Chandrika Tandon,
Wheeler M. Thackston, and Elaine Wright. I have benefited enormously from conversations with all
fifteen catalogue authors and with Neil Greentree, my partner in all endeavors. Planning the exhibi-
tion tour with curators Qamar Adamjee and Forrest McGill at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
and Sonya Quintanilla at the Cleveland Museum of Art was a joy. Durga Agarwal and Amanda Casgar

graciously opened doors to yoga communities, and Rajan Narayanan (Life in Yoga), Suhag Shukla
(Hindu American Foundation), and Linda Lang, John Schumacher, and many other wonderful yoga
teachers provided important guidance.
It is an honor to work at the Freer and Sackler Galleries. The project is immeasurably bet-
ter for the guidance of the museums’ director, Julian Raby, and Massumeh Farhad, chief curator. Editor
Jane Lusaka, exhibition designers Jeremiah Gallay and Nancy Hacskaylo, and Elizabeth Cheng, Maya
Foo, Katherine Fow, Miranda Gale, Andrew Harrington, Howard Kaplan, Nancy Micklewright, Allison
Peck, Karen Sasaki, Joelle Seligson, and Hutomo Wicaksono continually bowled me over with their
expertise, humor, and creative solutions to seemingly intractable challenges. The meticulous and intel-
ligent assistance of Najiba Choudhury, Mekala Krishnan, and Elizabeth Stein kept me bouyant; thanks
are also due to interns Shelby Allen, Madeleine Boucher, Bronwen Gulkis, and Carole LeRoy. Richard
Skinner must be applauded for magically lit galleries, skillfully installed by Bill Bound and his produc-
tion team, and I am grateful to Antonio Alcalá and Carol Beehler for their splendid catalogue design.
None of this would have been possible without the tireless fundraising efforts of Katie Ziglar, Jaap Otte,
and “Team Koringa”; exhibition staff Cheryl Sobas and Kelly Swain; educators Elizabeth K. Eder and
Michael Wilpers; and conservator Jennifer Bosworth. I also respectfully acknowledge those staff mem-
bers who became more deeply engaged with the project by beginning or recommitting themselves to
the practice of yoga.
The affective bonds of yoga community became beautifully apparent while developingThe
Art of Transformation. Critical research, study visits and exhibition planning were made possible by Mary
and Fred Ebrahimi, Catherine Glynn Benkaim, and a Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Studies Grant.
More than six hundred individuals—both old friends and new well-wishers—came together to support
the exhibition. I warmly thank the Freer|Sackler Department of External Affairs, the Yoga Messengers
of the Together We’re One crowdfunding campaign, Ambassador Nirupama Rao, Robert Siegel, Susan
Stamberg, Yoga Journal, and Yoga Alliance for helping to gather this community.
Perhaps my only true insight studying yoga has been that we are all only ever students.
Every “discovery” opens new vistas and raises more questions. And, given the current state of research,
Yoga: The Art of Transformation does not seek to provide a definitive account of yoga’s visual culture.
Much remains unknown. In the coming year, this emerging field will be further explored in four univer-
sity courses, conference panels, and a Freer|Sackler symposium, which promise to yield new insights,
unexpected connections, and surprising discoveries. I await them, as we all do, with delight.
Debra Diamond
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 19
Indian Subcontinent
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Jammu and Kashmir

P U N JA B H I L L S
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GANDHAR A Lahore Bilaspur
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Bundi aR Allahabad
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Mewar Kota (Kotah) r Bihar
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Mount Abu Bodhgaya
Udaipur Rewa (Gurgi)
Bangladesh
Madhya Pradesh
Sanchi
Bhadreshwar West Bengal
India
Gujarat Kolkata (Calcutta)
Nagpur
D E C C A N P L AT E AU
Maharashtra Orissa
Mumbai (Bombay)
Lonavala (Lonavla)
Bijapur
Arabian Sea Srisailam
Bay of Bengal
Andhra
Pradesh
Karnataka
Chennai (Madras)
Kanchipuram
Salem
Tamil Nadu
Thanjavur
Kera
Kochi (Cochin)
la
Sri Lanka
Indian Ocean

A Note on Transliteration
Within the essays and entries, we transliterated Sanskrit, Persian, and Indian
regional language words according to standard diacritical conventions.
For maximum comprehension, we retained standard or phonetic spellings
for words that are familiar to many readers (e.g., chakra instead of cakra),
and employed English suffixes (e.g., sutras, tantric) and commonly accepted
English spellings for both contemporary and historical places. However, we
have retained the historical names of cities for published books and prints.
Within the footnotes, we used diacritics that will enable interested readers
to most easily locate primary sources and scholarly texts.
A NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION | 21

22 | ESSAYS
Debra Diamond
Yoga: The Art of Transformation
Yoga emerged in India as a means to transcend suffering. Over generations, countless

individuals seeking enlightenment or empowerment refined its metaphysics and techniques. Today,
it is widely recognized around the world as a source of health and spiritual insight. But few outside
scholarly and advanced practitioner circles are familiar with yoga’s rich, protean diversity—its varied
meanings for both practitioners and those who encountered and interacted with them—over the last
2,500 years.
This narrowing of yoga’s breadth lies partly in the malleability of the term, for “every
group in every age” redefined yoga and reshaped its means and goals.1 Our firmest evidence for yoga’s
origins lie in North India. Between the fifth and the third centuries BCE, self-aware renouncers realized
that their bodies and minds contained the potential to perceive reality correctly and rise above the suf-
fering of existence. Known as shramanas, munis, and yatis, they radically reshaped their relationship
with ordinary life to devote themselves to meditation and austerities.2 Over time, practitioners of yoga
built upon this foundation, incrementally honing the techniques of physical and metaphysical trans-
formation. They not only drew upon their own insights, they also responded to philosophical develop-
ments and the changing social, religious, and political landscapes of India. By the seventh century CE,
the core concepts, practices, and vocabulary of almost every yoga system were established, though
“variations and expansions” continue to the present day.3 Like a rope composed of many different
threads—some of which are present at any given moment, but none of which are always there—yoga’s
history has been one of continual modifications and transformations.
Treatises and commentaries written between the third century BCE and the present day
offer a coherent overview of yoga’s philosophical depth and developments. In contrast, objects and
images foreground how yoga, despite the inherently individual experience at its core, has always been
embedded in culture.4 Made by professional artists working for sectarian groups, royal and lay patrons,
or within commercial networks, these artworks are situated at the interface of yogic knowledge with
received visual traditions and the interests of diverse communities.5
Yoga: The Art of Transformation considers what visual culture can tell us both about
yoga as an embodied process of transformation and its varied manifestations in history. This dual
focus recognizes that perfecting the mind-body and being an agent in the world were (and are) simul-
taneous and intertwined activities.6 The project thus examines works that illuminate, in historically
YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 23

specific ways, yogic concepts, practices, and social interactions as well as their circulation within the
popular imagination.
Although the visual corpus of yoga potentially extends across Asia and the world, Yoga: The
Art of Transformation focuses on India’s wonderfully abundant archive. Created over some two millennia in
diverse religious and secular contexts, these works open windows onto yoga’s centrality within Indian culture
and religion, its philosophical depth, its multiple political and historical expressions, and its trans-sectarian
and transnational adaptations. The pictorial tradition, which has never been holistically explored, reveals
that yoga was not a unified construct or the domain of any single religion, but rather decentralized and
plural. While most objects emerged out of Hindu contexts or depict Hindu practitioners, Jain, Buddhist,
Sikh, and Sufi images illuminate patterns of trans-sectarian sharing. Illustrated philosophical treatises and
diagrams convey various conceptions of the yogic body. Representations of divinized gurus, fierce yoginis,
militant ascetics, and romantic heroes epitomize the fluidity of yogic identity across “sacred” and “secular”
boundaries and elucidate patterns of interaction between renunciants (or renouncers) and householders.
Photographs, missionary postcards, magic posters, medical illustrations, iconographic manuals, and early
films shed light on the enormous shifts in yogic identity and reception during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. Widely circulated, these printed materials chart the transnational denigration of yoga
during the colonial period and its response, the creation of modern yoga in India.
Fig. 1
Enlightened beings
float in a sea of gold
in Three Aspects of the
Absolute, folio 1 from
the Nath Charit. By
Bulaki, 1823. India,
Jodhpur. Merhangarh
Museum Trusta
Significant aspects of yoga were too transgressive or internalized to have found their way
into visual form, and not all visual traditions survived the passage of time.7 With 143 objects (and fifty
illustrations in the essays)—a pond in the ocean of yoga’s visual culture—this exhibition catalogue can-
not claim to be comprehensive. Instead, it seeks to enrich our understanding of yoga’s plural configura-
tions by examining key constructs, the mechanisms through which yoga became deeply and diversely
engrained within Indian culture, and the contexts within which the modern practice emerged.
Melting, Expansion, and Radiance

If Yoga: The Art of Transformation seeks to uncover histories of yoga and how they evolved dynamically
in response to religious and sociopolitical landscapes, it is also designed to allow for direct encounters
with splendid works of art. Its focus on sculptures and paintings that invite aesthetic delectation has
particular relevance. One of India’s greatest philosophers, Abhinavagupta, wrote in the tenth century
that sensitive viewers—those who can literally taste the essence (rasa) of art—experience an aesthetic
pleasure akin to the bliss of expanded consciousness.8
Abhinavagupta’s rasa theory is steeped in Kashmiri Shaivism, which itself draws on two
intellectual traditions central to yoga’s development: Advaita Vedanta, in which the ultimate goal is
24 | DEBRA DIAMOND
Fig. 2 (left) Fig. 3 (above right) Fig. 4 (bottom)
Jina. India, Rajasthan, Meditating Sikh Siddha Pratima Yantra
dated 1160. Virginia Ascetic. India, Jammu (detail). Western
Museum of Fine Artsb and Kashmir, probably India, 1333. Freer
Mankot, ca. 1730. Gallery of Artc
Catherine and Ralph
Benkaim Collection
26 | DEBRA DIAMOND
to experience the unity of the self with the Absolute (brahman), and Tantra, which prescribes rituals
for attaining this luminous awareness. In describing a spectator’s response to drama, Abhinavagupta
observed that a viewer with emotional capacity (sahridaya, literally, one with heart) loses sense of time,
place, and self. Thus transcending the limitations of ego-bound perception, the sensitive viewer has
a foretaste of enlightened detachment, which takes the form of “melting, expansion, and radiance.”9
Representing the Yogic Body

Reflecting the importance of the body in yoga as well as the centrality of the figure in Indian art, yogic
representations center largely on the human form.10 Premodern yoga treatises, such as the fifteenth-
century Light on Hatha (Hathapradipika), describe the yogic body as steady, healthy, and supple.11 Vidya
Dehejia has observed that “the ideal of the yogic body is visibly evident in all Indian sculptures in their
smooth non-muscular torsos, expanded chest and shoulders, and relaxed stomachs.”12 Artists’ trea-
tises contain no specific guidelines for representing the yogic body, but we find that sculpted deities,
enlightened beings, and yogic masters—even those who have undergone severe austerities—typically
have healthy and idealized bodies that convey their attainment.13 In contrast, only the fasting Buddha,
a few fierce goddesses, and some human practitioners have attenuated limbs bearing traces of
self-mortification.
If classical Indian aesthetic theory, of which Abhinavagupta is the most influential author,
did not explicitly address visual art, it did establish a horizon of expectations among cultured audi-
ences that permits some general observations. Melting, expansion, and radiance are almost uncannily
represented in artworks made in vastly different periods, places, and materials, such as a folio from a
Jodhpur manuscript that depicts enlightened beings floating in shimmering fields of gold (fig. 1, cat.
4a). Philosophers focused on the aesthetic emotion of quiescence (shanta rasa) frequently note that
the presence of meditating ascetics (i.e., in dramatic performances or literary compositions) will trigger
the emotional response of luminous detachment. And all treatises agree that aesthetic emotion arises
only when characters conform to generalized types, an imperative seemingly echoed in the smoothly
idealized bodies of innumerable Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain icons.
In the Jain tradition, for example, Jinas (great liberated souls) are invariably represented
meditating to convey how they attained omniscience and provide a model for devotees.14 Through rig-
orous symmetry and rhythmically abstracted forms, a twelfth-century Jina from western India simulta-
neously embodies the complete cessation of the mind’s fluctuations and alert energy (fig. 2, cat. 5d).
The warmly radiant marble evokes the luminosity that imbues the realized body of a Jina; its whiteness
signifies a soul unfettered by karma. Like the marble Jina, a Sikh yogi (or Udasi) meditates in lotus pos-
ture (padmasana) with his eyes raised in inward concentration (fig. 3 and page 24). To depict the Udasi
and the intensity of his practice, the artist mobilized the flaring forms, crisp contours, and bold palette
of eighteenth-century paintings from Mankot, a small kingdom in the Himalayan foothills of northwest
India, accentuating the centered stability and upward energy of the ascetic’s posture by echoing its
form in the curved shape of the reed hut.
Other images convey more specific conceptions of the yogic body. Many reveal how
Hindu yogis marked their physical bodies to purify and prepare themselves for practice and to signal
their status as renunciants, signify their sectarian affiliation, or emulate divine archetypes (especially
Shiva and Bhairava; see cats. 1a–c). Representations of the subtle body delineate the energy stations
(chakras) that are crucial knowledge for hatha yoga practitioners, while juxtapositions of subtle and
anatomical bodies chart yoga’s insertion into Western medical discourse (see cats. 12a–c and 25b).
Advanced Jain practitioners (siddhas) who had achieved disembodied liberation were sometimes repre-
sented as an absent presence, perceptible only as the negative space cut from a sheet of copper (fig. 4,

cat. 5e).In even more abstract ways, geometric diagrams (yantras) and sacred syllables (mantras)—
visually invoked in countless images of yogis holding prayer beads—are powerful equivalents of divine
bodies (figs. 3 and 7; see also cat. 9b). Indeed, so central was the construct and transformative potential
of the body that many yogic traditions conceptualized higher planes of existence or the entirety of the
universe as bodies (see cats. 11b–d).
Identifying Yogic Practitioners

The porous boundaries between practitioners of yoga and other ascetics, as well as the myriad names
by which they were historically known, begs an explanation of how they were identified and the termi-
nology employed within this book.
We use “ascetic” for representations made prior to the second- to the fourth-century water-
shed, when yoga began to crystallize into distinctive traditions, each with its own rigorous metaphysics.
Among the earliest images of ascetics are those found at Buddhist sites, such as the relief from the Great
Stupa (reliquary mound) at Sanchi, circa 50–25 BCE (fig. 5). It depicts two renunciants—one with a yoga
strap (yogapatta) around his knees—seated in front of their leaf-capped huts. Although the narrative context
of the panel is unknown, the forest retreat and the ascetics’ scanty garb
distinguish them from the robed Buddhist monks who appear in other San-
chi reliefs. They would have been understood as renunciants who sought
release from the cycle of rebirth through meditation and austerities.
Favoring caution, we also use “ascetic” or “sage” for indi-
viduals whose practice most probably included yoga and for legendary
figures who were re-identified as yoga practitioners in later historical
contexts. An eighteenth-century painting from Mankot, a kingdom in
the Pahari foothills of northwest India, demonstrates how yoga’s trans-
formative potential shaped already established identities. It represents
the seven sages (saptarishi) extolled within Hindu sources as the authors
of the Vedas and the stars in the Big Dipper (fig. 6).15 Because they were
popularly believed to have attained their semidivine status through
exceptional devotion and extraordinary ascetic feats, it is not surprising
that the Mankot artist represented them by drawing upon the appear-
ances of local holy men. Clustered around a smoldering campfire, the
Fig. 5 lotus-eyed sages constitute a localized and historically contingent typology of ascetic practice that
Great Stupa at
Sanchi. India, Madhya
includes an orthodox Hindu wearing a sacred thread and resting his outstretched arm on a ritual ves-
Pradesh, Sanchi, sel (Vasishta, center right) and a dusky practitioner of hatha yoga inverted in a headstand (Bharadvaja,
ca. 50–25 BCEd
bottom register).16 Though hatha yoga took form long after the sages became legend, the painting
Fig. 6 reveals the extent to which transcendence-seeking ascetics existed together in the Mankot collective
The Seven Great
consciousness as members of allied traditions.
Sages. Attributed
to the Master at the “Yogi” first appears between the second and fourth centuries as a term for Hindu ascetics
Court of Mankot.
seeking omniscience through the cultivation of body and mind. Later historical sources also generally iden-
India, Jammu and
Kashmir, Mankot, tify renunciants “who may or may not practice the techniques commonly understood to constitute yoga” as
1675–1700.
yogis. We therefore use yogi to designate figures with the long, matted jata (dreadlocks) and ash-covered
Government Museum
and Art Gallery, bodies of Hindu ascetics, such as those who cluster around a campfire in a genre scene painted circa 1625
Chandigarhe
for a Mughal emperor (fig. 9). Govardhan, who excelled in the naturalistic style favored by the Mughal court
at this time, depicted them as renunciants who live apart from society yet have communal bonds, following
a path that includes meditating in lotus posture and reciting sacred verses (one holds prayer beads). Two
superb character studies—the holy man cocooned in long jata who gazes gently into the distance and the
28 | DEBRA DIAMOND
Fig. 7 one at left who glares fiercely at us—convey how yogis were understood, in this period, as both spiritual
Yogini. India, Tamil
figures and beings with the potential for destructive displays of supernatural power.
Nadu, Kanchipuram,
ca. 900–975. Arthur Govardhan’s holy men may have self-identified with any number of general terms for
M. Sackler Galleryf
Hindu renouncers, including yogi. Throughout the catalogue, we apply more specific designations
Fig. 8 when they are known or more appropriate. These other appellations refer to ascetics associated with
Koringa. Reco
particular religious traditions (e.g., Hindu sadhus or Muslim fakirs) or indicate gendered identities (e.g.,
Brothers Circus
poster, England, female sadhvis and yoginis), sectarian affiliations (e.g., Nath or Dasnami), or levels of accomplishment
1946. Collection of
(e.g., guru, teacher, or siddha, literally, perfected one).
Mark Copland/The
Insect Circus Many of these terms were used interchangeably and over time, almost all gained multi-
ple and even contradictory meanings. The valence of yogi ranged from positive to derogatory and from
general to specific (e.g., when it became a term of self-identification for members of the Nath sectarian
order). Moreover, yogi and fakir were often transposed in Indo-Islamic and colonial contexts.17
Both mortal women and goddesses associated with yoga were often known as yoginis, a
term that conveyed different meanings in diverse sociohistorical contexts. Yoginis emerged around the
eighth century within esoteric, often transgressive, rites as the human consorts of Tantric practitioners.
The construction of stone yogini temples across the subcontinent between the tenth and fourteenth
centuries marked their reinscription as goddesses. Sponsored by kings who sought yoginis’ powers to
protect their kingdoms, the Hindu temples were often situated to invite the visits of both Tantric adepts
and broader communities. Inside were stone icons with the idealized bodies and frontal faces of Hindu
deities. Their attributes—like the skull cup, snake and crocodile earrings, and wildly radi-
ating hair of the yogini from Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu (fig. 7, cat. 3a)—marked
them as dangerous. Based upon the icons’ material form and scattered texts,
art historians have long identified them as fierce goddesses.18 Recently
discovered treatises about the temples, which describe Tantric adepts
serving as ritual officiants and devotees offering food and flowers (as
they would within orthodox temples), confirm the yoginis’ divine iden-
tities.19 Combining aspects of Tantric and mainstream Hindu practice
in unprecedented fashion,20 the temples demonstrate how material
culture can shape (rather than merely illustrate) traditions.
New meanings of yogini arose as yoga entered other
courtly and commercial arenas. Paintings from the Bijapur Sultan-
ate (in Central India) that were made in the decades bracketing 1600
are among the copious evidence that Indo-Islamic rulers propitiated
yoginis21 (cats. 3b, 3c). Four centuries later, Koringa, a magicienne
billed as “the only female yogi in the world,” astonished audiences in
France, England, and the United States by wrestling crocodiles and
reading minds (fig. 8; see also cats. 23b, 23c). Born Renée Bernard
in southern France, she assumed an Indian identity to enhance the
allure of her act. Her untamed hair, seated posture, and bare torso
uncannily recall the iconography of the Sackler Gallery yogini.22
Whether Koringa saw any of the Kanchipuram sculptures
when they were taken to C. T. Loo’s gallery in Paris in 1927,23
or whether she picked upon on exotic signifiers that had
floated freely across Europe since the mid-nineteenth century
is unknown.24 Though Koringa was no yogini, her assumed identity
is significant to yoga’s history, because it was partly against such
stereotypes that modern yoga delineated its core traditions.
30 | DEBRA DIAMOND
Essays and Catalogue Entries
Written by scholars from the fields of art history, philology, religion, and sociology, the essays and cata-
logue entries in this book constitute an interdisciplinary conversation about the visual culture of yoga.
The inevitable differences in emphases, terminology, and periodization provide insight into the diverse
scholarly histories and primary sources that contribute to our rapidly evolving knowledge of yoga.
The essays provide deeper contexts for objects that are central to yoga’s visual culture.
To broadly orient readers, David Gordon White’s introductory essay assesses yoga’s origins, lays out the
continuities and differences between classical and Tantric traditions, and demonstrates how contempo-
rary definitions of yoga have been colored by negative perceptions from centuries ago. The subsequent
essays are in rough chronological order. Tamara I. Sears explores the
porous boundary between yogic adept and deity by examining the
ideal and real places in which yoga was practiced; her study illuminates
how medieval Indian imagery and architecture were fundamental in
transforming Hindu aspirants into divinities. Carl W. Ernst traces the
rich but lesser known engagement of Muslim thinkers with yoga and
elucidates important intellectual and practical spheres in which sig-
nificant aspects of yoga’s visual culture emerged after the sixteenth
century. The development of today’s most important sectarian orders
is assessed by James Mallinson, whose essay combines philological,
visual, and ethnographic analysis for new insights into Mughal painting
and yoga’s histories. Joseph S. Alter sheds light on yoga’s transforma-
tion into an Indian system of physical fitness and self-development by
examining how Swami Kuvalayananda and other key figures navigated
tradition, modernity, and nationalist aspirations in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Mark Singleton provides a case study
in the globalization of yoga. Surveying the United States over the
last century and a half, he examines the countercultural, glamorous,
and commercial contexts through which yoga became deeply rooted
within American culture.
Following the essays, thematically grouped catalogue
entries explore key yogic practices, identities, and perceptions that
entered the visual record. Some entries focus on tightly related
groups, such as Jain images or medical illustrations.
Other entries extend across temporal, regional, and
Fig. 9 religious boundaries in order to more fully elucidate yogic concepts and historically situate differences.
Five Holy Men, folio
Respecting yoga’s protean manifestations, the authors have paid particular attention to strategies of
from the Saint
Petersburg Album. translation (across practice, text, and image); moments of cross-cultural contact or innovation; patron-
Attributed to Govard-
age imperatives; and arenas of reception. They give equal consideration to formal qualities and mate-
han. India, Mughal
dynasty, ca. 1625–30. riality to illuminate the distinctive languages and communicative power of visual culture. It is our hope
Formerly collection
that the juxtaposition of image and text throughout the catalogue will contribute to the reader’s expe-
of Stuart Cary Welch,
current location rience of chamatkara, the astonishment or wonder that Abhinavagupta identified as common to both
unknowng
aesthetic experience and enlightenment.25
32 | DEBRA DIAMOND
Notes
Notes on the captions 6. I am grateful to Annapurna Garimella for first 16. More precisely, he appears to be a Dasnāmi
suggesting this dual focus. Sannyasi; for Dasnāmi iconography, see James
a. Selected publications include Debra Diamond,
Mallinson’s essay in this volume.
Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur 7. Tantric treatises from the seventh to the ninth
(Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2008), century, for example, describe antinomian practices 17. See David Gordon White’s essay in this volume,
pp. 174–75, cat. 40. restricted to initiated adepts; some of these Tantric n. 17.
rituals required supports (such as geometric
b. Selected publications include Joseph Dye, The 18. See, for example, Vidya Dehejia’s seminal book
diagrams, or yantras) but they were made from
Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Rich- Yoginī Cult and Temples: A Tantric Tradition (New
ephemeral materials. And the material culture of
mond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2001), pp. Delhi: National Museum, 1986).
Buddhist yogic practice in India, which may have
152–53, cat. 31; and Michael Brand, The Vision of
been substantial, did not survive the passage of time. 19. Shaman Hatley, “Goddesses in Text and Stone:
Kings: Art and Experience in India (Canberra: National
Temples of the Yoginīs in Light of Tantric and Purānic
Gallery of Australia, 1995), p. 76, cat. 50. 8. Locana 2.4: “This enjoyment is like the bliss that
Literature,” in History and Material Culture in Asian
comes from realizing [one’s identity] with the highest
c. Selected publications include Pratapaditya Pal, Religions, ed. Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann
Brahman, for it consists of repose in the bliss which
The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India (New (Oxford, UK: Routledge, forthcoming).
is the true nature of one’s own self …” in Daniel H.
York: Thames and Hudson, 1994), p. 124, cat. 14.
H. Ingalls, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and M. V. 20. Hatley, ibid.
d. This image has been identified by John Patwardhan, The Dhvanyaloka of Ānandavardhana
21. Debra Diamond, “Occult Science and Bijapur’s
Huntington (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ with the Locana of Abhinavagupta (Cambridge, MA:
Yoginīs,” in Indian Painting: Themes, History and
Indo-Eurasian\_research/message/7621). Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 222.
Interpretations (Essays in Honour of B. N. Goswamy),
e. Selected publications include B. N. Goswamy, 9. Ibid. Locana 2.4 in Ingalls, Masson, and Patward- ed. Mahesh Sharma (Ahmedabad, India: Mapin
Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India han, The Dhvanyaloka of Ānandavardhana, p. 222. Publishing, forthcoming).
(Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1992), pp. 106–7,
10. For the idealized and adorned human body 22. In another poster, for the Bertram Mills Circus in
cat. 40.
across visual art, literature, inscriptions, and poetry the 1930s, crocodiles and snakes are depicted below
f. Selected publications include An Exhibition of see Vidya Dehejia, The Body Adorned: Dissolving Koringa’s (disembodied) head, recalling the earrings
the Sculpture of Greater India (New York: C. T. Loo Boundaries Between Sacred and Profance in India’s of the Kanchipuram yoginī.
and Co., 1942), cat. 38; Vidya Dehejia, Yogini Cult Art (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
23. Padma Kaimal, Scattered Goddesses: Travels with
and Temples: A Tantric Tradition (New Delhi: National
11. Haṭhapradīpikā 1.17 lists the qualities of sthairyam, the Yoginīs, no. 8 of Asia Past and Present, ed. Martha
Museum, 1986), p. 181; Padma Kaimal, Scattered
ārogya (literally, freedom from disease), and Ann Selby (Ann Arbor, MI: Association of Asian Stud-
Goddesses: Travels with the Yoginis, ed. Martha Ann
aṅgalāghanam (literally, lightness of limb). ies, 2012), p. 73.
Selby, Asia Past and Present (Ann Arbor: Association
of Asian Studies, 2012), p. 29, fig. 2. 12. Vidya Dehejia and Daryl Yauner Harnisch, “Yoga 24. See cats. 23a–e on fakirs, fakers, and magic in
as a Key to Understanding the Sculpted Body,” in this volume.
g. Selected publications include The Stuart Cary
Representing the Body: Gender Issues in Indian Art,
Welch Collection. Part One: Arts of the Islamic World 25. Camatkāra, cited in David L. Haberman, Acting
ed. Vidya Dehejia (New Delhi: Kali for Women in
(London: Sotheby’s, April 6, 2011), pp. 114–15, cat. as a Way of Salvation: A Study of Rāgānugā Bhakti
association with The Book Review Literary Trust),
94; Stuart Cary Welch, A Flower from Every Meadow: Sādhanā (New York: Oxford University Press), 1988,
pp. 68–81. Dehejia builds upon Stella Kramrisch’s
Indian Paintings from American Collections (New p. 21.
pioneering work on the Indian sculptural aesthetic as
York: Asia Society, 1973), pp. 104–5; Milo Cleveland
a manifestation of a cultural ethos in which yoga was
Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India,
central. Kramrisch first suggested that the controlled
1600–1660 (Williamstown: Sterling and Francine
breathing (prāṇāyāma), which dissolved the gross
Clark Art Institute, 1978), pp. 120–21, cat. 41.
body into “the weightless ‘subtle body’ … was given
concrete shape by art, in planes and lines of bal-
ances stresses and continuous movement”
Notes on the text
(p. 75). Dehejia, however, more specifically assesses
1. David Gordon White, Yoga in Practice (Princeton, yogic postures in sculpture.
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012), p. 2.
13. Michael W. Meister, “Art and Hindu asceticism:
2. Release from the cycle of rebirth differs from Śiva and Vishnu as masters of Yoga,” Art and Archae-
the aim of rebirth in heaven, the goal of even earlier ology of Southeast Asia: Recent Perspectives (New
Brahmanical ascetics as articulated in the Vedas. Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre of the Arts and
Geoffrey Samuel, The Origins of Yoga and Tantra: Aryan Books, 1996), p. 315.
Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge,
14. Sonya Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture
UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 119 in
at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE–100 CE (Leiden: Brill,
particular and more broadly pp. 119–65.
2007), pp. 97–141.
3. White, Yoga in Practice, p. 12.
15. “The seven sages, all sons of Brahmā” is
4. Even renunciation is shaped, in part, by how it inscribed on top border in takri characters; their
rejects social norms. names appear on the recto. From the upper middle,
clockwise, they are: Jamadagni, Gautama, Vasiṣṭha,
5. Those yogic practitioners who made yantras and
Atri, Bharadvāja, Kaśyapa, and Viśvāmitra. B. N.
mandalas (sacred diagrams), ritual implements, and
Goswamy and Erberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters:
humble dwellings likely employed impermanent
Court Painters of India, Artibus Asiae Supplementus
materials, and the role of monastic elites in design-
38, cat. 40, pp. 106–7.
ing architectural programs is unknown.

34 | ESSAYS
David Gordon White
Yoga in Transformation
A vibrant and highly creative segment of global society—identifiable by their distinc-

tive beliefs, behavior, clothing, and language—modern-day practitioners of yoga may be said to consti-
tute a subculture, “an identifiable subgroup within a society or group of people, especially one char-
acterized by beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger group.”1 It may be argued that the
ancient and medieval practitioners of yoga also constituted a subculture. In the modern case, the larger
group comprises the mainstream cultures of an increasingly globalized urban society. In the ancient
and medieval case, the larger group was, for the most part, the mainstream culture of South Asia.
What do these two yoga subcultures have in common? Most modern yoga practitioners
tend to assume that, apart from clothing styles, modern accessories, or adaptations (yoga with dogs,
laughter yoga) on the original Indian template, very little has changed. Most believe that the peren-
nial elements of yoga practice—its spiritual foundations; postural practice; the goals of a healthy mind
and body; and yoga as a means to self-transformation, harmonizing with nature, and discovering the
transcendent within—remained the same in India through the millennia before their introduction to
the West. In fact, yoga grew out of several often unrelated South Asian traditions that were combined
over the centuries into a small number of unified traditions. Over the past 120 years, these traditions
have been adapted by both Indian and Western culture brokers into the many yoga “brands” familiar to
modern practitioners: Raja Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Anusara Yoga, and so forth.
In other words, the complex of transformative practices that we know as yoga today is itself the product
of some four thousand years of transformation.
Early Developments
According to a commonly held assumption, the earliest evidence we have for yoga is a clay seal from
the Indus River Valley archaeological site of Mohenjo-Daro, dated to the latter portion of the third mil-
lennium BCE. What one sees on the seal is a “yogi” seated in a cross-legged posture (fig. 1); however,
since we find ancient images of figures in identical postures from such far-flung places as Scandinavia
and the Near East, we cannot assume that any of them were intended to represent yoga practitioners.
Furthermore, in the earliest literary references to yoga, found in the circa fifteenth-century BCE Rig
Veda, the word yoga did not denote either meditation or the seated posture, but rather a war chariot,
YOGA IN TRANSFORMATION | 35
Fig. 1 (left) comprising the wheeled vehicle, the team of horses pulling it, and the yoke that held the two together.
“Yogi” seal. Indus
(The Sanskrit word yoga is linguistically related to the English yoke.) According to ancient Indian warrior
civilization, ca. 2600–
1900 BCE. National traditions, as attested in early strata of the Hindu epic the Mahabharata (circa 200 BCE–100 CE), a hero
Museum of India
who died fighting on the battlefield would be borne up to heaven and transformed into a god when he
Fig. 2 (center) pierced the sun on a vehicle called a “yoga.”2
Seated Buddha.
Later strata of the Mahabharata (circa 200–400 ce) record another, more familiar, use
Afghanistan or
Pakistan, Gandhara, of the term yoga, which developed in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain circles during the latter half of the first
probably Hadda,
millennium BCE. During this period, wandering ascetics developed a system of practices for controlling
1st century–320.
Cleveland Museum the body and breath as a means for stabilizing the mind (figs. 2 and 3). While these practices were
of Art
referred to as “meditation” in early Buddhist and Jain sources,3 the Hindu Kathaka Upanishad, a scrip-
Fig. 3 (right) ture dating from about the third century BCE, describes them within the context of a set of teachings on
Head of a Rishi. India,
yoga. In these teachings, the link between meditation as a means for reining in the mind and the “yoga”
Mathura, 2nd century.
Cleveland Museum of the ancient chariot warrior is a clear one. We read that the disciplined practitioner who has “yoked”
of Art
the “horses” and “chariot” of his body and senses with the “reins” of his mind rises up to the world of
the supreme god Vishnu.4
Three other points made in the Kathaka laid the groundwork for much of what came to
constitute yoga in the centuries that followed. First, its teaching on yoga introduced a subtle physiol-
ogy, calling the body a “fort with eleven gates” and evoking the soul or Self as a “person the size of a
thumb” who, dwelling inside, is worshiped by all the gods.5 This and other Upanishads also introduced
the breath channels (nadis) that would become so fundamental to the transformative practices of the
medieval tradition of hatha yoga. Second, the Kathaka identified the individual Self with the Universal
Self (brahman): this non-dualist metaphysics would be taken up in several later yoga traditions, begin-
ning with those revealed by the supreme god Krishna in the 200–400 CE Bhagavad Gita, a late por-
tion of the Mahabharata.6 Finally, the Kathaka introduced the hierarchy of mind-body constituents—the
senses, mind, intellect, and so forth—that comprise the foundational categories of samkhya, the dualist
metaphysical system grounding the circa 325 CE Yoga Sutras (YS).7
The Yoga Sutras and Allied Traditions

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali was a pivotal compilation of all of these prior yoga and meditation tradi-
tions, which it framed within the broader context of a unified and rigorous metaphysics. As was the case
in nearly every other Indian religious and philosophical system, the underlying purpose of the YS’s
metaphysics was to resolve the problem of suffering existence. And, like most of those other systems,
the YS viewed the mind as both the crux and the potential solution to that problem. Because the mind
is attached and addicted to the ego-self and the material, death-laden body with which it identifies, it is
blind to the Self’s true identity, which is immortal and unfettered. However, if the mind can be unteth-
ered from the body and the senses, and made to turn inward, toward the luminous Self, it can be freed
from its dysfunctional habits. The principal means to this end is meditation, and the YS’s program of
meditation tracks closely with those found in earlier Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu works.
While most of the YS is a disquisition on the nature of the universe and the Self, the
workings of the mind, and the way to salvation, it also contains practical and “supernatural” components
that mirror contemporary developments in both Buddhism and Jainism and anticipate later yoga sys-
tems. Here, Patanjali’s presentation of eightfold (ashtanga) yoga may be contrasted with an alternative
set of practices known as sixfold (shadanga) yoga.8 Both systems have five components in common:
the progressive stages of breath control (pranayama), withdrawing the senses (pratyahara), meditation
(dharana), fixing the mind (dhyana), and perfect contemplation (samadhi). What distinguishes the two
is the insertion of seated postures (asana) in the YS, in the place of rational inquiry (tarka) or recollection
36 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

(anusmrti) in the sixfold system. In addition, the YS foregrounds this group of six with two bodies of
ethical practice: the inner and outer restraints (yama and niyama). These two may have been inspired
by Jain monastic vows from an earlier time; furthermore, early Jain works also present the way to liber-
ation as an ascending path of ever-deepening meditative states.9
Nearly the entirety of the YS’s third book is devoted to the so-called “supernatural pow-
ers” (vibhuti) acquired through the practice of yoga. These include the power to know past lives, to read
people’s minds, to enter into other creatures’ bodies, and to fly.10 According to the YS’s metaphysics,
they are entirely natural abilities, inherent in a practitioner whose mental functions have expanded
beyond the limits of the physical body. Identical accounts of these sorts of powers are found in early
Buddhist and later Hindu literature, which also correlate consciousness-raising on a cognitive level to
an actual visionary ascent through ever-expanding realms of cosmic space.11 Other Hindu, Buddhist,
and Jain sources also refer to the ability of yogic practitioners to imitate the powers of gods and Bud-
dhas, whose cosmic bodies fill the entire universe (see cat. 10a).12
Tantric Yoga and Hatha Yoga

Two centuries after the YS, a new current of religious thought emerged in Buddhist and Hindu circles in
South Asia. Scriptures called the Tantras identified self-deification and supernatural power as the goals
of religious life, employing “yoga” as an overarching term for the
Fig. 4 entire range of Tantric practice.13 One means to achieve this end
Yogin with Six
Chakras. India, was through a transformative process in which male practitioners
Himachal Pradesh, tapped into and appropriated the boundless energy of the divine
Kangra, late 18th
century. National feminine (fig. 4 and page 34).
Museum of India According to several Tantric scriptures, this inner
Fig. 5 energy was concentrated in the sexual fluids of women who embod-
King Suraghu Visits ied the creative power of the great Goddess. They were known as
Mandavya, folio from
the Yoga Vasishta. Yoginis, Female Messengers (Dutis), Mothers, Great Seals (Maha-
India, Uttar Pradesh, mudras), or simply Goddesses.14 In initiation and other Tantric rites,
Allahabad, Mughal
dynasty, 1602. Chester the principal sacraments—often consumed by practitioners in noc-
Beatty Library turnal, cremation-ground rituals—were alcohol, meat, and the sex-
ual fluids produced through ritualized sex.15
Over time, these ritual practices were internalized,
with the Tantric practitioner’s female consorts becoming the god-
desses of his subtle body.16 In Hindu works, these multiple Tantric
goddesses coalesced into a serpentine energy most often called
Kundalini (She who is coiled).17 Practitioners gradually innovated
the body of techniques known as hatha yoga18: through a combi-
nation of fixed postures, breath control, locks (bandhas), and seals
(mudras), the hatha yogi transformed his body into a hermetically
sealed system within which breath, energy, and fluids were stabilized and forced upward through the
central channel of the subtle yogic body. Linking this to all earlier forms of yogic practice was its final
outcome: supernatural powers, including the power of flight and bodily immortality.
While there are several possible readings for the word hatha,19 the most plausible is that
it denoted the “force” of its practices in effecting the transformation of the body.20 The most important
foundational technical works on the subject are attributed to a twelfth-century figure named Goraksha
or Gorakhnath. These include Sanskrit-language treatises and a vernacular corpus of mystic poetry on
yogic experience.21

Yogis
According to tradition, Gorakhnath founded the ascetic order known as the Naths (Lords).22 In his poems,
he simply refers to himself and his followers as yogis, and both he and his fellow yogis were the subject
of a rich body of legend.
Well before Gorakhnath’s time, several early and important works—including the
Bhagavad Gita, Maitri Upanishad, Yoga Sutras, Yoga Vasistha, and a Jain work titled The Bhaktis23—had
employed the term yogi to denote the ideal subject or agent of yoga practice. In these works, the yogi
was portrayed as a person broadly embodying the virtues of conventional types of yoga practice: med-
Fig. 6
The Goddess Bhairavi
Devi with Shiva
(detail). Attributed to
Payag. India, Mughal
dynasty, ca. 1630–35.
The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Fig. 7
Tantric Feast. India,
Himachal Pradesh,
Nurpur, ca. 1790.
Los Angeles County
Museum of Art
itating, renouncing, wandering, and seeking to find God within (fig. 5). This is the image most modern
people have of India’s yogis: peaceful, meditative holy men, living in harmony with nature in hermit-
ages and caves, and on mountaintops. With the advent of Tantra, however, this idealized image of the
yogi was replaced by a darker one, which has persisted down to the present day in rural South Asia.24
In the fantasy and adventure literature of medieval South Asia, the consorts of the Tantric
yogis, often called yoginis, were cast as their lovers, with their rites described as wholesale orgies taking
place on cremation grounds in the dead of night: “Yogis, drunk with alcohol, fall upon the bosoms of
women; the Yoginis, reeling with liquor, fall upon the chests of men.”25 This was, however, a dangerous
game, because, as the Tantric texts themselves unambiguously state, persons not empowered by Tan-
tric initiations to consort with them generally became “food for the Yoginis.” These yoginis were gener-
ally identified with the creatures of the charnel grounds—not human women at all, but carrion-feeding
jackals and vultures that devoured the bodies of the dead, whose flesh fueled their powers of flight.
Through his initiation, however, the Tantric yogi became transformed into a “second Shiva,”26 who, like

Fig. 8 the great god himself, was able to control the hordes of yoginis who formed his macabre entourage.
A Royal Ascetic. India,
More than this, he was able to see through their horrific appearances and visualize them as embodi-
Karnataka, possibly
Bijapur, ca. 1660. ments of Shiva’s divine consort, the lovely and terrible goddess Bhairavi.27 A remarkable 1630 Mughal
British Library
painting seems to depict just such a transformation (fig. 6). In a cremation ground, a Tantric yogi—
whose transformation into a “second Shiva” is indicated by the glow of the crescent moon surrounding
his head—is shown pronouncing mantras, represented by the puff of flame emitting from his mouth.
Through his mantra, the goddess Bhairavi, who had previously haunted the cremation ground in the
form of one of the jackals pictured in the foreground, shows herself to him in her true form, as a rav-
ishing, albeit horrific goddess-cum-yogini. Here, the artist has ingeniously adorned Bhairavi’s hair with
arrow points to indicate her transformation from a jackal, whose pointed ears they mimic.
Often, Tantric yogis were described as amassing worldly powers at the expense of other
people. A prescriptive account of this practice, called “subtle yoga,” is found in the Netra Tantra, a
ninth-century Hindu Tantra, whose eleventh-century commentary asserts that a person “becomes a
yogi when his activities result in [control over] the movement of every limb of the person [whose body
has been] invaded by him.”28 Nothing more or less than a battery of techniques for entering into and
taking over other people’s bodies, the theory and practice of subtle yoga fused teachings from the YS
with Tantric subtle body constructs. On the one hand, the YS authorized such practices,29 and on the
other, the energies and channels of the subtle body made them technically possible. While such pow-
ers could be used for good—to initiate and thereby assure the salvation of a Tantric novice—they were
most often portrayed as a predatory technique.30
No doubt due to the notoriety of such practices, the Tantric yogi became a stock figure
in medieval literature, playing the villainous evil wizard who worked his nefarious designs on kings,
princes, and innocent maidens, but was undone in the end by his own evil (fig. 7). Even today, parents
in rural South Asia may scold naughty children with the words, “Be good, or the yogi will come and take
you away.”
Yoga and Yogis in the Modern World

Prior to the nineteenth century, when European explorers and empire-builders began to learn of yoga’s
philosophical depth, most Western writers described the yogis and fakirs they encountered as degen-
erates engaging in sexual excesses or as weapon-carrying mercenaries. Indeed, by the eighteenth cen-
tury, armed “ascetics” formed the great bulk of the north Indian military labor market. A number of
generals in these armies styled themselves after Shiva, the Lord of Yogis, such as the royal warrior
described in a medieval chronicle:
[A]ppearing like the Lord of Yogis, [he] was armed with a dagger; his ensigns were an axe
in his hand and a tall trident, and a leather cloak. With a coil of matted hair on his head,
and a musical horn, and ashes of cow dung, he was altogether like Hara [Shiva], the
destroyer of all. With a powerful voice he cried and from his odd eye he scattered masses
of fire. On his throne he might be seen [sitting] in the midst of his own congregation [of
yogis], bearing on his head the moon with the nectar of the immortals.31
A seventeenth-century painting from the Deccan portrays a warrior in just such a guise, wearing the
patchwork robe of a yogi (albeit finely tailored here), with the tiger skin and crescent moon halo indi-
cating his identity with Shiva (fig. 8). So powerful were these armed ascetics that throughout the final
decades of the eighteenth century, the British found themselves pitted against a yogi insurgency that
would come to be known as the Sannyasi and Fakir Rebellion.32

For much of the eighteenth century, the British East India Company was also stymied by
yogis in its attempts to regulate and control north Indian commerce. Cartels of Hindu ascetics and mer-
cenaries exploited their status as “holy men” to transform pilgrimage routes into networks of trade; by
the 1780s, yogis had become the dominant money-lenders and property-owners of several north Indian
trading hubs. Some translated their economic clout into political dominance. In 1768, power-brokering
Nath Yogis were instrumental in the unification of Nepal and the founding of the Gurkha (named after
Gorakhnath) dynasty.33 In 1803, Nath Yogis did the same in Jodhpur, in western India, outmaneuvering
the British in the process.34
In 1823, the British Orientalist Henry Thomas Colebrooke “discovered” the YS and with
it the textual foundation of India’s yoga traditions. Seven decades later, Swami Vivekananda (see cats.
24a-h) introduced yoga to the Western masses as “one of the grandest of sciences,” which had been
nearly lost to the world through the machinations of tantric yogis, “who made it a secret [to keep] the
powers to themselves.”35
With the separation of Indian yoga from India’s yogis, the doors were thrown open to the
brave new world of the modern yoga subculture.

Notes
1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., s.v. “subculture.” 16. David Gordon White, “Yoginī,” Brill’s Encyclopedia 26. White, Alchemical Body, pp. 312–14.
of Hinduism, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 2009), p. 825.
2. David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: 27. White, Kiss of the Yoginī, pp. 247–51.
University of Chicago Press, 2009), pp. 48–54, 17. In Buddhist Tantras, the names Avadhūtī and
28. Netra Tantra 20.28–36, with the commentary
60–61, 67–71. Cāṇḍālī (terms for the “outcaste” women who often
of Kṣemarāja. For a discussion, see White, Sinister
served as Tantric consorts) were most commonly
3. Johannes Bronkhorst, The Two Traditions of Med- Yogis, pp. 161–64.
used.
itation in Ancient India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass
29. Yoga Sūtra 3.38: “From loosening the fetters
1993), pp. 1–5,19–24. 18 David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha
of bondage to the body and from awareness of the
Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago: University of
4. Kāṭhaka Upaniṣad (KU), 3.3–9, in Valerie Roebuck, body’s fluidity, entering into the body of another.”
Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 184–334.
The Upaniṣhads (London: Penguin Books, 2003).
30. White, Sinister Yogis, pp.161–66.
19. The term is first encountered in the eighth-
5. KU 4.12; 5.1,3
century Buddhist Guhyasamāja Tantra; Jason Birch, 31. A. F. Rudolf Hoernle, trans., The Prithirája Rásau
6. KU 5.5, 8–10; Bhagavad Gītā 4.1–7.30; 10.1–12.20, “The Meaning of haṭha in Early Haṭhayoga,” Journal of of Chand Bardáí, Bibliotheca Indica, n.s., no. 452
in The Bhagavadgītā in the Mahābhārata, A Bilingual the American Oriental Society 131, no. 4 (2011), p. 535. (Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press, 1881), pp. 49–50.
Edition, ed. and trans. J. A. B. Van Buitenen (Chicago:
20. Birch, “Meaning,” p. 548. 32. White, Sinister Yogis, pp. 220–26, and William
University of Chicago Press, 1981).
Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cam-
21. For a listing of yogic, tantric, and alchemical
7. KU 3.10–11; 6.7–8. On the date of the Yoga Sūtra, bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp.
works attributed to Gorakhnāth, in both Sanskrit
see Philipp André Maas, Samādhipada: Das erste 82–102.
and vernacular languages, see White, Alchemi-
Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal
cal, pp. 140–41. For a detailed discussion of the 33. Véronique Bouillier, “The King and His Yogī:
kritisch ediert (Aachen, Germany: Shaker Verlag,
Gorakṣaśataka, see James Mallinson, “The Original Pṛthivinārāyaṇ Śāh, Bhagavantanāth and the Unifi-
2006), pp. xv–xvi.
Gorakṣaśataka,” in Yoga in Practice, ed. David Gordon cation of Nepal in the Eighteenth Century,” in Gender,
8. Patañjali’s discussion of eightfold yoga is found in White (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011), Caste and Power in South Asia: Social Status and
YS 2.28–3.3. Sixfold yoga is discussed in the Maitri pp. 257–72. Mobility in a Transitional Society, ed. John P. Neelsen
Upaniṣad (6.18) and other Hindu sources, as well as (Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1991), pp. 1–21.
22. They are also known as Nāth Yogis, or kānphaṭas
the Buddhist canon of the “Highest Yoga Tantras.”
(“split-eared”) for the distinctive way they wore their 34. White, Kiss of the Yoginī, pp. 168–69; and Sinister
On this, see Vesna Wallace, “The Six-phased Yoga
signature earrings, through the cartilage of the ear. Yogis, pp. 219, 239. See also Debra Diamond, Cath-
of the Abbreviated Wheel of Time Tantra (Laghukāla-
In Buddhist and Jain sources, these yogis were most erine Glynn, et al., Garden and Cosmos: The Royal
cakratantra) According to Vajrapāṇi,” in Yoga in Prac-
often called siddhas (“perfected beings”) or Nāths, Paintings of Jodhpur (Washington, DC: Arthur M.
tice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton: Princeton
while Islamic authors identified them as yogis, pīrs Sackler Gallery, 2008), pp. 31–49, 141–71, 280–86.
University Press, 201), pp. 204–22.
(“masters”), or fakirs (“poor men”). Ronald Davidson,
35. Swami Vivekananda, Raja-Yoga: Conquering the
9. On these possible Jain influences, see Christopher Indian Esoteric Buddhism. A Social History of the
Internal Nature (Calcutta: Advaita Ashram, 1896;
Key Chapple, Yoga and the Luminous: Patañjali’s Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia University
rev. ed. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center,
Spiritual Path to Freedom (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, Press, 2002), pp. 173–340; White, Alchemical Body,
1973), p. 18.
2008), pp. 96–99. pp. 19, 80–81, 84–85, 331–32; and Simon Digby,
Wonder-Tales of South Asia: Translated from Hindi,
10. YS 3.18,19, 21, 33, 38, 39, in Barbara Stoler Miller,
Urdu, Nepali and Persian (Jersey: Orient Monographs,
Yoga, Discipline of Freedom (Berkeley: University of
2000), pp. 221–33.
California Press, 1996).
23. John E. Cort, “When Will I Meet Such a Guru?
11. On early Buddhist systems, see Robert Gimello,
Images of the Yogī in Digambar Hymns” (unpub-
“Mysticism and Meditation,” in Mysticism and Phil-
lished paper, Jaina Studies Conference, School of
osophical Analysis, ed. Stephen T. Katz (London:
Oriental and African Studies, London, March 2010).
Sheldon Press, 1978), pp. 182–86. On later Hindu
Traditionally, the third of the twelve “Bhaktis” in
systems, see White, Sinister Yogis, pp. 99–108.
these works is titled the “Yogī Bhakti.” As Cort notes,
12. White, Sinister Yogis, pp. 167–90. the dating of “The Bhaktis” is problematic, with the
earliest Prakrit-language versions likely predating
13. Such was the case in the Buddhist “Yoga Tantras”
the sixth century.
and “Highest Yoga Tantras” as well as in the Hindu
Mālinīvijayottaratantra, which cast its entire path to 24. In the world of medieval Hindu Tantra, there
salvation as “yoga.” Somadeva Vasudeva, The Yoga was a certain division of labor, which distinguished
of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra (Pondicherry: Institut between practitioners whose gnostic meditative
Français de Pondichéry, 2004). practice led to identity with the divine, i.e. self-
divinization, as opposed to those whose goal was
14. For example, in the Hindu Kaulajñānanirṇaya and
supernatural power in the world. Here, the former
the Buddhist Caṇḍamahāroṣana and Hevajra Tantras.
were known as jñānīs (“knowers”), and the latter
For discussions, see David Gordon White, Kiss of
yogis. This is not to say that Tantric yogis were unin-
the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in Its South Asian Contexts
terested in the jñānīs’ transformative knowledge:
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), pp.
they simply maintained that it could be attained
106–14; and David Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Bud-
directly through Tantric initiation, by drinking the
dhism. Indian Buddhists and Their Tibetan Successors,
“fluid gnosis” of their female consort’s sexual emis-
vol. 1 (Boston: Shambhala, 1987), pp. 256–64.
sions. White, Kiss of the Yoginī, pp. 106–14.
15. Today, this is popularly and reductively known as
25. Somadeva Vasudeva, “The Transport of the Haṃ-
“Tantric Sex.”
sas: A Śākta Rāsalīlā as Rājayoga in Eighteenth-Cen-
tury Benares,” in White, ed., Yoga in Practice, p. 250.

46 | ESSAYS
Tamara I. Sears
From Guru to God: Yogic

Prowess and Places of Practice
in Early-Medieval India
It is hard to imagine the history of Indian art without envisioning a meditating yogi or
sage deep in contemplation, seated in lotus pose or standing in the absolute stillness that is achieved
only upon final emancipation from worldly bonds. Among the most enduring of India’s visual tropes,
the image of the yogic master signifies far more than it shows. In the past, yoga was not a publicly avail-
able practice that could be studied either casually or with varying degrees of seriousness. Rather, it was
a highly exclusive ritual activity that could lead either toward liberation or to the acquisition of powerful
magical abilities, otherwise known as siddhis. While the path to obtaining siddhis was potent enough
to turn a sage into a sorcerer, the path to liberation often constituted a dramatic ontological shift at the
level of the soul. Because knowledge of yoga gave the practitioner the potential to transcend the realm
of human existence and enter a state akin to becoming divine, it was restricted to highly accomplished
gurus and their most dedicated pupils.
The transformative potency of yoga was not limited to human practice. By the early cen-
turies of the first millennium, Hindu gods too came to be represented as masters of the discipline.
Deities were understood to be living presences who made and remade the world through the power of
yoga. Like their human counterparts, they drew strength from yoga, in the form of a fiery heat (or tapas)
that enabled them to act efficaciously in the world. Shiva was seen as the quintessential sage who,
seated on the lotus at the center of the cosmos, created the world through his practice. Vishnu took on
the form of Nara, an ideal sage, whose ascetic practice was represented visually as producing Narayana,
or the form responsible for cosmic generation (fig. 2).1 By the turn of the first millennium, prominent
gurus and yogis had become canonized as divine incarnations and remained alive and present in their
images long after their lifetimes on Earth.
Mythological Landscapes and the Poetics of Practice

One of the best known depictions of yoga’s power is found in a relief sculpted across the vast façade of
an unfinished rock-cut temple in the southern Indian village of Mamallapuram, not far from the shores Fig. 1
of the Bay of Bengal, facing toward the sea (fig. 1). Created in the seventh century during the reign of the Descent of the
Ganges. India, Tamil
Pallava kings, the monument has long presented a striking visual enigma, as its imagery suggests more Nadu, Mamallapuram,
than one story.2 Some have interpreted it as representing the descent of the Ganges River through ca. 7th century
FROM GURU TO GOD | 47

Fig. 2 the intervention of King Bhagiratha, who became an ascetic and performed penance to obtain Shiva’s
Nara and Narayana,
assistance in bringing the river goddess Ganga down from the heavens so that he could appropriately
Vishnu Temple, relief
from the east side. perform the final rites for his dead ancestors. Others have argued that it better fits an account from the
India, Uttar Pradesh,
Mahabharata in which the Pandava Prince Arjuna wandered the wilderness as an ascetic, seeking Shiva
Deogarh, ca. 500 CE
in order to acquire a magical weapon that would help him recover his lost kingdom. What is striking is
not the differences in the two narratives but their primary points of convergence on the level of compo-
sition and theme. (For more on Prince Arjuna, see cat. 10a.)
Both narratives center on a king or prince who becomes a sage in order to ultimately
fulfill his worldly duties. Through the performance of bodily austerities and meditation, he is able to
directly encounter the supreme god, who, appeased by the sage’s yogic prowess, grants him a boon
that redresses past wrongs and restores cosmic order. In both interpretations, the key moment can be
located in the relief’s upper left quadrant, where we encounter a penitent sage performing a rigorous
yogic practice. The iconography of the sage’s stance has been interpreted as representing either the
penance of gazing into the sun (suryopasthana tapas) or the penance of the five fires (panchagni tapas)
performed to conquer passion, anger, greed, attachment, and jealousy.3 Here, the external iconography
evokes the internal process: the sage’s eyes and arms are raised to the sky as he stares up into sun.
Once he is king, the sage becomes a true ascetic, marked as such by such iconographic features as his
long beard and matted locks of hair (jata), the noticeable gauntness of his body, and his simple attire,
consisting only of a loincloth and sacred thread (yajnopavita). Besides him stands none other than the
god Shiva, fully manifest in anthropomorphic form, marked as both a deity, possessing four arms and a
sacred trident, and a powerful ascetic, sporting similarly matted locks of hair. The efficaciousness of the
practice is indicated most clearly by the iconography of Shiva’s response: the supreme god’s lower left
hand extends outward in a boon-granting gesture (varada mudra), communicating to the viewer that
the sage has been successful in procuring his desired favor.
The lush and sacred setting for both stories can be understood as an ideal landscape for
yoga, populated by gods, sages, and animals of the forest, and watered by the Ganges River situated in
the cleft at the relief’s center. While the ascetic performing penance in the relief’s upper left quadrant
demonstrates the ability to access Shiva on a heavenly plane, the scene just below constitutes a land-
scape of yogic aspiration and emphasizes the importance of practice in the human world (fig. 1). The
action unfolds around a hermitage so idyllic that even normally inimical animals, seen here as lions and
deer, can reside peaceably side by side. The most prominent human figure, a solitary sage in a moment
of deep meditation, sits leaning forward, facing the Vishnu temple that dominates the scene. Below
and to the right is a group of three seated sages. The first wears a yoga strap (yogapatta) prominently
around his legs. Further below and toward the river, at the center of the relief, are others worshiping at
the river. The first of this group, to the viewer’s far left, stands upright in urdhvabahu (raised arm) pose,
which, in this context, functions as a less masterful mirror of the panchagni tapas performed by the
ascetic high above. It may well be that we are witnessing multiple iterations of the same sage, caught at
different moments in the process of perfecting his practice.
Scholars have offered various interpretations of the figures in this lower portion of the
relief. One reading identified the overall setting as the Badari hermitage, home of Vishnu’s incarna-
tion as Nara and Narayana, which too was positioned near the banks of the Ganges. Textual accounts
of Arjuna’s penance, which were known to the relief’s patrons, described Arjuna as worthy of wielding
Shiva’s weapon because Arjuna had been Nara in one of his previous lives. If this were the case, it
seems certainly meaningful that the temple housing the icon is directly below, and the sage is per-
forming penance before Shiva above, which creates a visual analogy between the perfected human
practitioner and an icon of god.4 Proponents of the Descent of the Ganges story have since pos-
ited the alternative theory that the solitary meditating figure to the left of the temple may represent
48 | TAMARA I. SEARS
Bhagiratha thanking the god Vishnu in his form as the sage Kapila, who set in motion the events
leading to the quest.
In addition to emphasizing the ways in which yoga could set the world in good order, the
relief at Mamallapuram includes one final scene that reminds us that not every yogi was necessarily
honorable. To the immediate right of the river-cleft, just opposite the figures praying at the banks near
the forested hermitage, is a small but carefully delineated figure of a yogic cat, standing upright in imi-
tation of the human practitioners on the left. Like the perfected sage in the upper left quadrant, he is
depicted as an ascetic with a protruding ribcage. But his practice yields a very different effect. He is not
accompanied by Shiva or Vishnu, but by a flock of worshipful mice blindly holding their paws together
in anjali mudra, or the gesture of devotion. Rather than representing the power of yoga to illuminate
truth, this vignette emphasizes the danger of false gurus whose practice is directed primarily toward
quelling their own worldly hungers.5 While the trope of the hypocritical cat was quite common in well-
known classics such as the Hitopadesha, the trope of the false guru, particularly associated with antiso-
cial Tantric groups like the Kapalikas, was frequently found in dramatic parodies such as the Mattavilasa
(Drunken Games) and the Bhagavadajjukīya (The Hermit and the Harlot), which were popular in the
nearby Pallava court at Kanchipuram.6
Establishing Real Places for Yogic Practice

The ideal landscapes associated with yoga were not merely poetic tropes confined to the spheres of
visual and literary representation. They were real places of natural beauty whose sanctity encouraged
the establishment of temples and ascetic abodes. It is no coincidence that the small Vishnu temple
in the Mamallapuram relief closely resembled contemporary temples built at the same site, which
unlike the capital at Kanchipuram, functioned both as idyllic retreat and growing port town. Elsewhere
in India, the seventh and eighth centuries witnessed the formalization of new kinds of Hindu monas-
teries (mathas), presided over by head gurus whose authority was rooted in their mastery of sacred
Figs. 3a–d
scriptures and yoga. By the turn of the first millennium, monasteries had grown significantly through
Plan and views of
Shaiva Monastery. royal patronage, and in some cases had become large-scale multifunctional centers, serving variously
India, Madhya
as colleges, rest-houses, charitable distribution centers, hospices, and foci for worship.7 Despite the
Pradesh, Chandrehe,
ca. 973 increasing institutionalization of ascetic practice, great attention was given to establishing places that
could provide an idyllic locale for austerities and yoga.
A good case in point can be seen in the survival
of a Shaiva monastery in the village of Chandrehe, located in
the modern-day central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (figs.
3a–d). Situated not far from the banks of the holy Son River,
the monastery was intended to serve as a quiet and peaceful
retreat. An inscription still affixed to the front verandah reveals
a delightfully complex history.8 According to the inscription,
the “spacious and lofty” monastery was built in 973 by a guru
named Prabodhashiva, who intended it to accompany a tem-
ple established a generation earlier by Prashantashiva, his
spiritual teacher and predecessor. Prashantashiva, in turn,
had intended the site to be one of two remote hermitages; the
other one was located along the Ganges River at the famed
pilgrimage city of Varanasi (Banaras or Benares).9
Both of the hermitages established by Prashan-
tashiva were meant to be places of peaceful respite from
the more centralized monastery at Gurgi, which had been built a generation earlier “at an enormous
expense” by the emergent Kalachuri King Yuvarajadeva I (reigned 915–45) in conjunction with a large
royally sponsored temple.10 At Gurgi, resident sages inevitably became involved in the administration
of state religious affairs. But the retreats at Varanasi and Chandrehe were reserved for “siddhas” and
“tranquil yogins,” who were intent on destroying all obstacles to achieving clarity of mind and success at
meditation, with the goal of reaching final liberation.11 Fittingly, both Prashantashiva and Prabodhashiva
were described in ways that emphasized their yogic prowess. In the Gurgi inscription, Prashantashiva
was praised as a highly learned sage “who had mastered [all] the asanas” and “who felt the inner joy”
that comes from keeping his “steady mind absorbed in the meditation of Shiva seated in the midst of
the lotus of his heart.”12 The text from Chandrehe similarly described the sage Prabodhashiva as “prac-
ticing austerities even in his boyhood on the bank washed by the river [Son]” and as having “realized
God through the performance of religious austerities and meditation, and living on fruits [priyala and
amalaka], greens, and lotus roots [shaluka].”13
The yoga practiced at Chandrehe was not one of the radical variations associated with
esoteric Tantric sects, but rather part of a more mainstream strand. Prashantashiva and Prabodhashiva
belonged to a prominent lineage, the Mattamayuras or Drunken Peacocks, within a broader, pan-Indic,
religious tradition known as Shaiva Siddhanta and associated with a body of ritual manuals, the Shaiva
Agamas (or, more broadly, Tantras).14 Although today Shaiva Siddhanta is widely associated with south-
ern India, it may have emerged as early as the eighth or ninth century in the northern region of Kashmir,
and then spread through Central India in subsequent centuries.15 In the Shaiva Agamas, yoga formed
one of four major categories referred to as “four feet” (chatushpada), the other three of which included
knowledge (jnana), action (kriya), and proper conduct (charya). Together, these four were understood as
essential components in the attainment of liberation. Jnana led to a state of union with God (sayujya);
kriya brought about a nearness to God (samipya); yoga helped one attain the form of God (sarupya);
and charya ensured that the soul attained residence in the region of God (salokya).16 Within Shaiva
Siddhanta, yoga was a distinct discipline or an individual practice, taught only to those initiated at the Fig. 4
Guru and Disciples,
right level, and it was considered essential for the achievement of final liberation. The power of yoga to
Lakshmana Temple.
help one attain immortality after death was articulated beautifully in a contemporary inscriptional verse India, Madhya
Pradesh, Khajuraho,
from a related site, where the head guru, described as “the foremost among Shaivas … went [to his rest]
ca. 954
in the place of Shiva, the eternal station, through yoga.”17
Situated near the banks of holy rivers, the Ganges and Son respectively, Varanasi and
Chandrehe may have been envisioned as ideal spaces for performing yoga. While Varanasi was a holy
city long associated with a sacred geography, Chandrehe offered a forested setting not entirely unlike
that depicted in the lower left quadrant of the relief at Mamallapuram. Even as Prabodhashiva was
actively making the monastery more accessible to travelers—through an infrastructure of roads and
bridges, described as “a wonderful way through mountains [and] across rivers and streams, and also
through forests and thickets,”18—Chandrehe remained fairly removed, even in modern terms. The real
geography of the site may have resonated quite well with the poetics of its inscription, which described
Chandrehe as a place where “herds of monkeys kiss the cubs of lions [and] the young one of a deer
sucks at the breast of the lioness,” and where “other hostile animals forget their [natural] antipathy [to
one another]; for the minds of all become tranquil in penance-groves.”19
Such a locale may have evoked not only the poetics of ideal landscapes but also the pragmat-
ics of practice as articulated in Shaiva ritual manuals. The Sarvajnanottara Agama, for example, dictates that
the student, pure, after performing his bath and ablutions, should bow his head to Shiva,
salute [his lineage of] preceptors of yoga, and [then] engage in yoga in an empty build-
ing, or in a delightful monastery, or in an auspicious temple. Or [he may practice] on the
bank of a river, in a desolate spot, an earthen hut or in a forest; [provided it is] sheltered,
windless, noise-free and unpopulated, free from obstacles to yoga, free from doubt
[about its ownership] and not too hot.20

Chandrehe offered both a “delightful monastery” and an “auspicious temple,” located
near the bank of a river in a fairly secluded and forested landscape. Moreover, it was a place that
remained thoroughly under the ownership and purview of the resident monastic community, a place
where one could practice highly potent rituals without fear of interruption at a critical moment. It may
well be that such monastic sites formed the real world analogue for visual and literary representations
of landscapes populated by sages practicing yoga.
Portraying Divine Teachers

The development of monastic communities such as the one at Chandrehe corresponded with the
increasing proliferation of sculpted images of gurus actively engaging in the dissemination of religious
teachings (fig. 4). Known as shikshadana scenes, such images typically featured a guru—usually shown
with a large belly indicating the retention of breath, and seated upon a special cushion or throne—fac-
ing a group of disciples who express their devotion through anjali mudra. Sometimes he was accompa-
nied by male and female attendants holding ritual implements; at other times he was surrounded on
all sides by his students. Often the guru would hold his hands in the dharmachakra mudra, indicating
the act of teaching, or touch the head of a disciple, suggesting perhaps a more personal act of devotion
or even possibly the conferral of initiation.21 The scenes were typically framed as distinct architectural
spaces. The entrance was sometimes indicated through the presence of an armed gatekeeper, and the
Figs. 5 and 6
Lakulisha in a central
guru’s spot was frequently differentiated through the presence of a pillared hall or overhanging canopy.
wall niche. India, In addition to emphasizing the prominence of the guru, shikshadana scenes evoke the
Madhya Pradesh,
structure of ascetic communities in ways that were analogous to the real space of the monastery. Within
Batesara, ca. 8th
century the dwelling at Chandrehe, for example, were spaces specially designated for a range of ritual activities,
including teaching, worshiping, and meeting individually with the guru. Of particular interest is a set of
sculpted figures found in the center of the door lintel marking entrance to the room that likely served
as the primary seat of the resident guru (fig. 3). Although positioned in a spot normally reserved for an
icon of a deity, the group instead featured a guru flanked by two worshipful disciples, one of whom is
no longer visible. Both figures are portrayed as bearded ascetics, clad only in loincloths, and wearing
tall matted locks of hair. But only the guru faces frontally, like an icon, engaging the viewer; he holds a
palm-leaf manuscript, embodying spiritual knowledge, in his surviving hand. The room may have been
analogous to a space sometimes found in monasteries today, specially designated as “the place where
the [guru’s] mind is always fixed on God,” where he sits meditating on Shiva, and where he performs
yoga.22 In the context of the matha at Chandrehe, it may have further resonated with the notion of a
sage who had achieved a divine stature through the practice of austerities, meditation, and yoga.23
The idea that once-living sages could be perceived and treated as manifestations of
divinity has a long history in the Indian subcontinent. In early centuries, the Buddha himself took on a
deity-like persona, even though he was understood to be technically human. In Hindu mythology, sages
such as Nara were fundamentally understood as humans who were in fact manifestations of god. But
an even clearer comparison can be found in Lakulisha, the human founder of the Pashupata sect, who,
by the middle of the first millennium, had already been transformed into a fully endowed manifestation
of the god Shiva.24 His identity as a human aspirant was established most clearly through his distinc-
tive iconography (fig. 5). He was typically portrayed as a two-armed yogi, holding a club and a rosary
(akshamala), and seated in meditation, his legs crossed in lotus posture. Occasionally his right hand
was positioned in dharmachakra mudra to signify his function as a religious teacher. But his status as
a deity was established through texts and visual contexts. After the Puranas incorporated him into the
mythology of Shiva by considering him the twenty-eighth manifestation of the great god and teacher
of yoga, his image began appearing in key places on Hindu temples. Beginning around the seventh and
eighth centuries and persisting well through the eleventh and twelfth, it was not uncommon to position
elaborately framed images of Lakulisha on temple walls, in locations traditionally reserved for a fully
manifest image of the god himself (fig. 6).
This transition from human sage to manifestation of divinity was in keeping with broader
transitions mapped out at many other places. Yoga, which had emerged initially as a highly individual-
ized and often esoteric practice reserved only for renunciants, had become both a discursive strategy
and a source of power. Prominent gurus seated at the head of growing monastic lineages almost uni-
versally claimed mastery of yoga and established a network of centers intended to facilitate yoga as
a practice. The transformation of human aspirant to divinized and often royally patronized agent was
articulated forcefully through the history of visual imagery and architectural interventions into wilder-
ness landscapes. The slippage between humanity and divinity, and between worldly and spiritual, was
embodied at places such as Mamallapuram and Chandrehe. At Mamallapuram, the ambiguity in the
portrayal may have been a means to encompass the king’s multiple duties—as military commander
charged with protecting his kingdom (as in the case of Arjuna’s penance) and as a pious individual
seeking to perform the rites associated with the death of his ancestors (as in the case of the Descent of
the Ganges). At Chandrehe, the sages Prashantashiva and Prabodhashiva remained closely connected
both to larger royal centers and to a prominent lineage of rajagurus, or royal religious preceptors. In
medieval India, the power of yoga was known for its multiple potentials, for its ability not only to fulfill
spiritual desires, but also to achieve worldly ends. However, in the end, the true power of yoga remains
rooted in its ability to transform the body and mind of the practitioner in deeply powerful ways, which
has ensured its longevity through the present day.

Notes
1. See, for example, Michael Meister, “Art and Hindu 6. The Hitopadeśa (Instructions in Well-Being) is a 14. For more on the Mattamayūras, see V. V. Mirashi,
Asceticism: Śiva and Viṣhṇu as Masters of Yoga,” in compendium of Sanskrit fables of great antiquity “The Śaiva Ācāryas of the Mattamayūra Clan,” Indian
Art and Archaeology of South Asia: Essays Dedicated that was based on the earlier Pañcatantra (Five Historical Quarterly 26 (1950), pp. 1–16; R. N. Mishra,
to N. G. Majumdar, ed. Debala Mitra (Calcutta: Direc- Texts), compiled around 300 BCE. Because the “The Saivite Monasteries, Pontiffs and Patronage
torate of Archaeology and Museums, Government of stories are narrated by animals, they are often in Central India,” Journal of the Asiatic Society of
West Bengal, 1996), pp. 315–21, esp. p. 319. categorized as children’s literature, even though the Bombay, vols. 64–66 (1993), pp. 108–24; Richard
narratives are deeply satirical. The Mattavilāsa, which Davis, “Praises of the Drunken Peacocks,” in Tantra
2. Interpreters of the narrative relief at Mamallapu-
is often attributed to the Pallava king Mahendra in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton, NJ:
ram have included the following: Michael D. Rabe,
Vikrama Varma (reigned 600–630 CE) has been Princeton University Press, 2000), pp. 131–45.
The Great Penance at Māmallapuram: Deciphering a
edited and translated many times. See L. D. Barnett, Tamara Sears, Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings:
Visual Text (Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies, 2001),
“Matta-vilāsa: A Farce,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental Architecture and Asceticism in Medieval India
and “The Māmallapuram Praśasti: A Panegyric in
Studies, University of London 5, no. 4 (January 1, 1930), (under review).
Figures,” Artibus Asiae 57, nos. 3/4 (January 1, 1997),
pp. 697–717; Michael Lockwood and Vishnu Bhat,
pp. 189–241; Padma Kaimal, “Playful Ambiguity and 15. On the pan-Indic nature of Śaiva Siddhānta, see
eds. and trans., Mattavilāsa Prahasana: The Farce of
Political Authority in the Large Relief at Māmallapu- Richard H. Davis, Ritual in an Oscillating Universe:
Drunken Sport (Madras: Christian Literature Society,
ram,” Ars Orientalis 24 (January 1, 1994), pp. 1–27; Worshiping Śiva in Medieval India (Princeton, NJ:
1981); and David N. Lorenzen, trans., “A Parody of
Marilyn Hirsh, “Mahendravarman I Pallava: Artist and Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 14–19, and
the Kāpālikas in the Mattavilāsa,” in Tantra in Practice,
Patron of Māmallapuram,” Artibus Asiae 48, nos. 1/2 “Aghoraśiva’s Background,” Journal of Oriental
ed. David White (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
(January 1, 1987), pp. 109–30; Mary-Ann Lutzker, “A Research, vols. 56–62 (1986–92), pp. 367–78);
Press, 2000), pp. 81–96. The Bhagavadajjukīya has
Reinterpretation of the Relief Panel at Māmal- Karen Pechilis Prentiss, “A Tamil Lineage for Śaiva
been translated by A. B. van Buitenen in “The Hermit
lapuram,” in Chhavi II: Festschrift in Honor of Rai Siddhānta Philosophy,” History of Religions 35, no. 3
and the Harlot,” Mahfil 7, nos. 3/4 (October 1, 1971),
Krishnadas, ed. Anand Krishna (Banaras: Bharat Kala (February 1996), pp. 232–34; Helene Brunner-
pp. 149–66.
Bhavan, 1981), pp. 116–17; Gabriel Jouveau-Dubreu, Lachaux, Somaśambhupaddhati (Pondicherry, India:
“La Descente de la Gaṅgā à Mahabalipuram,” Études 7. See Prasanna Kumar Acarya, A Dictionary of Hindu Institut français de Pondichéry, 1998), pp. xliii–lii.
d’Orientalisme 2 (1932), pp. 293–97; A. H. Longhurst, Architecture: Treating of Sanskrit Architectural Terms Also significant are Devangana Desai’s recent argu-
Pallava Architecture, pts. 1 and 2, Memoirs of the (London: Oxford University Press, 1927), pp. 463–67; ments for understanding the central Indian temple
Archaeological Survey of India 17 (1924) and 33 R. K. Sharma, The Kalachuris and Their Times (Delhi: site of Khajuraho, located to the west of Chandrehe,
(1928) (repr. New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1982), Sundeep Prakashan, 1980), pp. 196–202; J. Van as a Śaiva Siddhānta site (Religious Imagery, pp.
pp. 40–44; Michael Lockwood, Gift Siromoney, and Troy, “The Social Structure of the Śaiva-Siddhāntika 57–60, 149–74). On Śaiva Siddhānta in Kashmir, see
P. Dayanandan, Mahabalipuram Studies (Madras: Ascetics (700–1300 A.D.),” Indica 2, no. 2 (1974), Alexis Sanderson, “The Śaiva Age,” in Genesis and
Christian Literature Society, 1974), pp. 34–41; Victor pp. 81–84; J. Ramayya Pantulu, “Malkapuram Development of Tantrism, ed. Shingo Einoo (Tokyo:
Goloubew, “La Falaise d’Arjuna de Mavalipuram Stone-Pillar Inscription of Rudradeva (Rudrāmba),” Sankibō Busshorin, 2009), pp. 41–349; Alexis
et la Descente de la Gaṅgā sur la Terre, selon le Journal of the Andhra Historical Research Society 4 Sanderson, “The Śaiva Exegesis of Kashmir,” in
Rāmāyaṇa et le Mahābhārata,” Journal Asiatique, 2nd (1929), pp. 147–62. Mélanges Tantriques à la Mémoire d’Hélène Brunner.
ser., vol. 4 (1914), pp. 210–12. Tantric Studies in Memory of Hélène Brunner, ed.
8. The inscription from Chandrehe has been edited
Dominic Goodall and André Padoux (Pondicherry,
3. Kaimal, “Playful Ambiguity,” p. 5; Rabe, “The and translated by V. V. Mirashi, Inscriptions of the
India: Institut français d’indologie, École française
Māmallapuram Praśasti,” p. 191. Kalachuri-Chedi Era, vol. 4, pt. 1, Corpus Inscriptio-
d’Extrême-Orient, 2007), pp. 231–442.
num Indicarum (Ootacamund, India: Gov. Epigraphist
4. Ramachandran, “The Kīratārjunīyam,” pp. 69–77.
for India, 1955), no. 44, pp. 198–204. 16. R. N. Misra summarizes these in “Beginnings of
Michael Rabe has written more recently in support
Śaiva Siddhānta and Its Expanding Space in Central
of this interpretation in “The Māmallapuram Praśasti,” 9. This second hermitage is described by in an
India,” in Sāmarasya: Studies in Indian Arts, Philos-
pp. 194–96. inscription from the royal center of Gurgi, which has
ophy: Interreligious Dialogue—in Honour of Bettina
been edited and translated by Mirashi, Inscriptions,
5. Ananda Coomaraswamy noted this image quite Baumer, ed. Sadanand Das and Ernst Furlinger
pp. 224–33, no. 46.
early in his History of Indian and Indonesian Art (1927; (New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2005), pp. 275–306.
repr. New York: Dover, 1985), p. 103. Michael Rabe 10. On the extent of the archaeological remains at See also Dominic Goodall, ed. and trans., Bhaṭṭa
suggests that this “hypocritical cat” serves as a foil Gurgi, see Sir Alexander Cunningham, Reports of a Rāmakaṇṭha’s Commentary on the Kiraṇatantra
to the righteous practice of the human practitioners, Tour in Bundelkhand and Rewa in 1883–84; and of a (Pondicherry, India: École Française d’Extrême-
and to the Pallava patron king Narasiṃhavarman, Tour in Rewa, Bundelkhand, Malwa, and Gwalior, in Orient, 1998), p. xxxvii.
who he somewhat controversially identifies as the 1884–85 (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government
17. Verse 10 of a tenth-century inscription discovered
central figure with the yogapaṭṭa in the lower left Printing, 1885), pp. 149–54; H. B. W. Garrick, Report
at the Mattamayūra monastic site of Kadwaha, edited
quadrant of the relief. See Rabe, “The Māmallapu- of a Tour Through Behar, Central India, Peshawar,
by V. V. Mirashi and Ajay Mitra Shastri, “A Fragmen-
ram Prashasti,” pp. 226–27. and Yusufzai, 1881–82 (Calcutta: Superintendent
tary Stone Inscription from Kadwaha,” Epigraphia
of Government Printing), 1885, pp. 85–90; R. D.
India 37, no. 3 (1967), pp. 117–24.
Banerji, The Haihayas of Tripurī and Their Monuments,
Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, no. 18. Chandrehe inscription, verse 13.
23 (New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1931),
19. Chandrehe inscription, verse 14. It is notable that
pp. 41–47.
such evocations mirrored the representation of ideal
11. Gurgi inscription, verse 13. places of practice seen in Māmallapuram, where lion
and deer sit peaceably and in close proximity to the
12. Gurgi inscription, verse 15.
forest hermitage in the lower left quadrant of the
13. Chandrehe inscription, verse 11. Praśāntaśiva is Descent of the Ganges relief.
described just a few verses earlier as living on “fruits,
lotus-stalks and roots” (verse 7).
20. As translated by Somadeva Vasudeva, The Yoga
of Mālinīvijayottaratantra: Chapters 1–4, 7–11, 11–17
(Pondicherry, India: Institut français de Pondichéry;
École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2004), pp.
250–51. In addition, Somadeva Vasudeva compiled
a range of idealized places from other Śaiva texts,
including “a quiet, pleasant cave or earthen hut, free
from all obstructions (Mālinīvijayottaratantram),”
“a cave or inaccessible spot on a mountain, in a
Śaiva temple or in a house or in an auspicious site”
(Kiraṇatantra), a “secluded, level, clean, agreeable
and remote” place “free from all obstructions”
(Mataṅgapārameśvara), and “a secluded spot
frequented by Yogins, avoiding areas that have
been damaged by malevolent sorcerers (kīlita) or
are guarded (Svāyambhuvasūtrasaṅgraha)” (ibid.,
pp. 247–52). For comparable sources, see Dominic
Goodall, Parākhyatantram: The Parākhyatantra, A
Scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta (Pondicherry, India:
Institut français de Pondichéry; École Française
d’Extrême-Orient, 2004).
21. Thomas Donaldson has also identified a great

number of such scenes in Orissa. For further
discussion, see Thomas E. Donaldson, “Lakulīśa to
Rājaguru: Metamorphosis of the ‘Teacher’ in the
Iconographic Program of the Orissan Temple,” in
Studies in Hindu and Buddhist Art, ed. P. K. Mishra
(Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1999); Tamara Sears,
“Encountering Ascetics On and Beyond the Indian
Temple Wall,” in History and Material Culture in Asian
Religions, ed. Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann
(London: Routledge, forthcoming).
22. Glenn E. Yocum, “A Non-Brāhmaṇ Tamil Śaiva

Mutt: A Field Study of the Thiruvavaduthurai
Adheenam,” in Monastic Life in the Christian and
Hindu Traditions, ed. Austin Creel and Vasudha
Narayanan (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990),
pp. 250–52.
23. Yocum, “A Non-Brāhmaṇ Tamil Śaiva Mutt,”

pp. 250–52.
24. For more on Lakulīśa, see D. R. Bhandarkar, “An

Ekliṅgjī Stone Inscription and the Origin and History
of the Lakulīśa Sect,” Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bombay 22 (1906), pp. 151–65; M. C. Choubey,
Lakulīśa in Indian Art and Culture (Delhi: Sharada
Pub. House, 1997).

58 | ESSAYS
Carl W. Ernst
Muslim Interpreters of Yoga
Yoga is perhaps the most successful Indian export in the global marketplace of spiri-
tuality. In terms of religious associations, it is most often juxtaposed with the Hindu and Buddhist tradi-
tions, though it is also presented today as a generic or stand-alone form of spiritual or physical practice.
Because of the way that modern identity politics have played out in recent years, most people may be
quite surprised to find yoga connected with Islam in any way. Yet there is a long and complex history
of Muslim interest in yoga, going back 1,000 years to the famous scholar al-Biruni (died 1048), who
not only wrote a major Arabic treatise on Indian sciences and culture, but also translated a version of
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras into Arabic.1
Over the centuries, other Muslim figures followed al-Biruni in seeking to understand
the philosophical and mystical teachings found in India. Such efforts were part of a long tradition of
intercultural engagement that resulted in a vast series of translations of Indian texts into the Persian
language, the lingua franca of government and culture throughout much of the Middle East, Central
Asia, and South Asia. This translation movement—which covered subjects ranging from the arts and sci-
ences to politics and metaphysics for roughly eight centuries—is comparable in scope and significance
to the translation of Greek philosophy and science into Arabic, or the translation of Buddhist texts from
Sanskrit into Chinese and Tibetan.2
Alongside this wide-ranging interest in Indian culture was a more specialized focus on
the meditative practices and occult powers of Indian ascetics and mystical adepts known as yogis (or
jogis, in North Indian pronunciation). A good part of this interest was very practical, and it is obvious
from royal chronicles and travelers’ accounts that a number of Muslims were intrigued by the benefits
to be found in the wonderworking practices of yogis.3 This fascination is especially noticeable in the
case of Muslim rulers in South Asia; like other kings, they were always eager for any kind of special
knowledge or power (such as astrology, magic, or medicine) that would give them an edge. Thus when
the fourteenth-century North African traveler Ibn Battuta was in Delhi, he observed Sultan Muhammad
ibn Tughluq interviewing a yogi who was successfully demonstrating his ability to levitate in the air. In
a similar fashion, the Mughal emperor Jahangir regularly met with the Hindu ascetic Gosain Jadrup, as
depicted in his memoirs (fig. 1). Since narratives about the amazing powers of yogis pervaded much of
India’s popular literature, it is not surprising that Muslims in South Asia were familiar with and sought
greater acquaintance with this lore. It is fair to say that Muslim interest in yoga ranged from the quest for
MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF YOGA | 59

60 | CARL W. ERNST
philosophical knowledge to engagement with spiritual practices to simply the desire for occult powers. Fig. 1 (opposite)
Jahangir converses
Indian ascetics were assimilated to the model of the Muslim fakir or dervish. They were labeled with
with Gosain
those Persian terms, and they frequently appeared in illustrated Mughal histories, Persian translations Jadrup, from the
Jahangirnama.
of Sanskrit texts, and album paintings.
Attributed to Payag.
On the philosophical side, the primary framework for understanding Indian religions was India, Mughal dynasty,
ca. 1620. Musée du
the Ishraqi form of Neoplatonic thought known as Illuminationism, developed by the Persian thinker
Louvre
Suhrawardi (died 1191). In this formulation, the degrees of being that emanate from the divine source of
Fig. 2
the cosmos are identified as more or less intense manifestations of light. At the same time, following
The King and Karkati
the philosophical theory of prophecy articulated by the philosophers Farabi and Ibn Sina, religions were Discuss Brahman,
from the Yoga
considered to be symbolic explanations of philosophical truths in forms that the uneducated masses
Vasishta. By Iman
could comprehend. From this perspective, it was not difficult to view yogic or Vedantic teachings as one Quli. India, Allahabad,
1602. Chester Beatty
more example of the adaptation of philosophy to local traditions. There are quite a few indications of
Library
the popularity of the Illuminationist philosophy among intellectuals in Mughal India, some of whom
indeed speculated on Indian religious thought and practice.4 Some Vedantic texts were quite popular in
Persian translations, particularly the Yoga Vasishta, one copy
of which features an important series of illustrations (fig. 2).5
From the perspective of Sufism (Islamic
mysticism), yoga was also a subject worth exploring. These
two traditions often have been brought together in a con-
sideration of comparative mysticism, and many scholars
have assumed that Sufism must have been derived from
yoga in some way or other. First proposed in the late eigh-
teenth century by early Orientalists, starting with Sir William
Jones, this theory rested upon a deep conviction that all
Eastern doctrines are ultimately the same, along with the
axiomatic assumption that Islam was a harsh and legalistic
religion incompatible with spirituality. It is in fact impossi-
ble to make a convincing historical case that Sufism some-
how originated from Indian sources; Islamic mysticism is
actually Islamic, and it took shape primarily in Baghdad
and Khorasan before arriving in India around the eleventh
or twelfth century.6 Yet by a curious coincidence, just as the
Sufis arrived, ascetics practicing hatha yoga assumed new
roles of dramatic importance in the theater of Indian reli-
gions. Because those yogis had undergone ritual death and
were not bound by the purity restrictions of upper-caste
Hinduism, they were free to drop in on the open kitchens
that were often maintained by Sufi masters at their retreats
in India, much like the “charitable serai” depicted in the
Hindi Sufi romance Mrigavati (fig. 3). For this reason, from
an early date we have numerous examples of conversa-
tions and reflections on yoga in the writings of Indian Sufis.
Sometimes, this is limited to the observation that breath
control is a helpful adjunct to meditation. But in other cases,
it is obvious that Sufis paid close attention to more sophis-
ticated yogic teachings involving the subtle physiology of
chakras and the power of mantras, which were arguably

quite similar to the subtle centers (lata’if) of Sufi meditation and
the zikr formulas consisting of the Arabic names of God. Indeed,
one of the most important Sufis, Muìn al-Din Chishti (died 1236),
founder of the Chishti Sufi order in India, is credited with the
authorship of a widely circulated Persian text on yoga and med-
itation, variously known as the Treatise on the Human Being or
the Treatise on the Nature of Yoga, among other titles. There is
some question about the authorship of the text, since none of
the manuscripts are older than the seventeenth century, and
Muìn al-Din’s successors maintained that he wrote no books of
any kind. Nevertheless, the popularity of this work in Sufi cir-
cles—and its association with the supreme spiritual experiences
of a founding figure of Indian Sufism—reinforced the notion
that yoga in some respects was fundamentally compatible with
Sufism, or at least could be interpreted in that way.7
The first major Persian text devoted to the sub-
ject of yoga was composed by an anonymous author in the four-
teenth century, with the Hindi title, The Fifty Verses of Kamarupa
(Kamaru panchasika).8 The title alludes to Kamarupa (the king-
dom of Assam in northeastern India), traditionally considered the
source of magic and wonders; it also invokes scriptural authority
in a rather mysterious fashion. The text’s date and wide circula-
tion is established by the appearance of an excerpt in an import-
ant Persian encyclopedia compiled in Shiraz by Sharaf al-Din
Amuli (died 1353). Appearing in the category of natural sciences,
the quoted sections dealt with breath control for predicting the
future and meditative practices involving the chakras.9
The Italian traveler Pietro della Valle acquired
a complete version of the text (now preserved in the Vatican
Library) while traveling in southern Persia in 1622; the fact that
he obtained this manuscript from a group of provincial Persian
intellectuals indicates that it was still popular outside of India.
Fig. 3 This fuller text reveals, in addition to the material on breath control and chakra meditations, extensive
The feast of the yogis
from the Mrigavati.
practices involving the summoning of sixty-four yoginis, whom the translator refers to as “spiritual
India, Allahabad, beings” (ruhaniyat). Particular prominence is given to the goddess Kamak Devi (Sanskrit: Kamakhya),
1603–4. Chester
Beatty Library
who was associated in various Indo-Islamic texts with the symbolism of plantain and cave, which
appear in a painting of a yogini from the court of Bijapur (fig. 4). While the tradition of yogic physi-
ology is present in the text to some extent, the main concern is the practical benefit to be gained by
summoning the yoginis by using powerful mantras that can deliver to the practitioner whatever he
desires. The translator maintains that he rendered this material from the most famous book of the
Hindus (although no trace of it appears to survive in any Indian language), and he attempts to use
the language of Islamic literary scholarship (and other Islamizing touches) to give credibility to what
seem to be oral teachings. The key terms that he uses to describe these practices are “magical imagi-
nation” (Arabic: wahm) and “ascetic discipline” (Persian: riyazat); the latter term is the regular Persian
equivalent for yoga (jog).10 Della Valle claimed to have employed the practices described in the text
with some success, and announced his intention to translate it into Italian, though he never seems to
have accomplished that task.
62 | CARL W. ERNST
Fig. 4
Yogini by a Stream.
India, Bijapur, ca.
1605–40. Victoria and
Albert Museum

Fig. 5 But by far the most important work on yoga by a Muslim author is an Arabic text known
Tratak posture, from
by several different titles: The Mirror of Meanings for the Comprehension of the Human World; Do-It-Your-
the Bahr al-hayat. AH
11 Rabi al-awwal, 1130 self Medicine; and, most commonly, The Pool of the Water of Life (Hawd ma’ al-hayat, often shortened to
(February 12, 1718).
Hawd al-hayat or The Pool of Life). This popular text, composed by an anonymous author, claims to have
University of North
Carolina Rare Book originated in the transitional moment when Turkish armies conquered the eastern limits of Bengal in
Collection
1212. It is ostensibly a translation of a famous Sanskrit work known as Amritakunda or The Pool of Nectar
(although here too there is no trace of any such original text).11
The later history of The Pool of Nectar is complex. There are two different versions of the
Arabic translation, one containing more Indic material and the other demonstrating a noticeable degree
of Islamization. The Arabic text was translated into Ottoman Turkish twice and was popular among mem-
bers of the Mevlevi order (the Whirling Dervishes) in Istanbul in the late nineteenth century. Many man-
uscript copies in Istanbul libraries are erroneously attributed to the famous Andalusian Sufi master Ibn
Àrabi (died 1240), although other copies are simply classified as Indian magic. The next major step in
the transmission of these teachings took place in sixteenth-century India, when the noted Sufi master of
the Shattari order, Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari (died 1563), translated the Arabic version of The Pool
of Nectar into Persian, under the title The Ocean of Life (Bahr al-hayat).12 This expanded and revised ver-
sion probably drew upon oral communications from contemporary yogis, and there are also signs that it
was based on an earlier Arabic version than the text we currently possess. Several copies of the Persian
translation are lavishly illustrated, with twenty-one paintings depicting yogic postures; by way of com-
parison, the Persian text of this chapter is four times as long as the Arabic original, which only describes
five postures.13 Known as asanas in yogic traditions, these postures are named by two joined terms, the
Hindi shabda (“word”) and the Persian dhikr (“recollection”), in the Persian translation, which suggests
that mantra chants rather than physical postures are the key element. But for convenience’s sake, I will
continue to refer to them as postures. (The oldest illustrated copy, in the Chester Beatty collection, is
finely done, while the later manuscripts exhibit a much simpler style; see fig. 5).
Close study of half a dozen manuscripts of the fourth chapter of The Ocean of Life, where
the illustrations are found, calls for some new observations.14 There are major verbal discrepancies and
even lacunae in the manuscripts; an entire folio is missing from the Chester Beatty manuscript after
folio 22.15 This gap has obscured the fact that the text actually describes twenty-two postures, not the
twenty-one that were announced, suggesting the possibility that there may have been another illus-
tration (for the bodhak position, whose description is likewise missing). Beyond that, there are wide
variations in the names of these practices among the manuscripts (which is all too predictable in scribal
transcriptions of difficult technical terms). Even where discrepancies can occasionally be clarified by
terms spelled in Devanagari script (as found in India Office, Ethé 2002), the names of positions in The
Ocean of Life often differ significantly from the names of the same yogic postures found in later San-
skrit texts on hatha yoga, and the descriptions in Persian frequently provide details that are otherwise
unavailable. In other words, the text of The Ocean of Life provides a valuable historical documentation
on yogic practices and terminology that is an important supplement to the Sanskrit tradition.
The last major Persian sources to be considered for documenting the practice and
depiction of yoga were not written by Muslim authors, but by Hindu munshis (secretaries) working in
the administration of the Mughal Empire, and later for the British. Deeply immersed in the Islamicate
and Persianate culture of the time, these Hindu scholars contributed to the gazetteer literature mod-
eled on the A’in-i Akbari by the Mughal minister Abu’l Fazl, providing not only revenue statistics for
the empire’s provinces, but also information about the customs and beliefs of Indian religious groups.
From the mid-eighteenth century to roughly 1830, when Persian was the language of colonial admin-
istration, British officials commissioned a considerable number of Hindu scholars to write Persian trea-
tises on the religions of India. Several of these Anglo-Persian compositions included depictions of
64 | CARL W. ERNST
yogis and ascetics in the Company style, providing a sort of field guide to the identification of these
groups. Two notable examples are The Chain of Yogis (Silsila-i jugiyan), composed by Sital Singh in
1800, and The Gardens of Religions (Riyaz al-mazahib), written by a Brahmin named Mathuranath and
commissioned by John Glyn in 1812 as a guide to the religions of Varanasi. The history and character
of the portrayals of yogis have yet to be fully explored, but it is safe to say that these late Persian texts
connected Mughal understandings of Indian religions to the colonial religious categories enacted by
the census, the courts, and Orientalist scholarship.16
The long history of Muslim interest in the philosophy and practice of yoga is a helpful
corrective to the blinders that we often bring to the understanding of religion today, which is frequently
defined in purely scriptural terms without reference to history and sociology. Current ideological oppo-
sitions between Islam and Hinduism, which are strongly underpinned by nationalist agendas, leave no
room for understanding the intercultural engagements that have taken place across religious lines over
the centuries. The transmission of yoga—in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu translations and through
images—is an important reminder that the history of Indian religions needs to take account of a wide
range of sources, including those Muslim interpreters who were so fascinated by yoga.
66 | CARL W. ERNST
Notes
1. Bruce B. Lawrence, “Bīrūnī, Abū Rayḣān, viii, Indol- 11. Carl W. Ernst, “Fragmentary Versions of the Apoc-
ogy,” Encyclopaedia Iranica 4 (1990), pp. 285–87; ryphal ‘Hymn of the Pearl’ in Arabic, Turkish, Persian,
www.iranicaonline.org/articles/biruni-abu-rayhan- and Urdu,” Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 32
viii. (2006), pp. 144–88; and “The Islamization of Yoga
in the Amrtakunda Translations,” Journal of the Royal
2. Carl W. Ernst, “Muslim Studies of Hinduism? A
Asiatic Society, 3rd ser., vol. 13, no. 2 (2003), pp.
Reconsideration of Persian and Arabic Translations
199–226. None of the Arabic manuscripts is older
from Sanskrit,” Iranian Studies 36 (2003), pp. 173–95.
than the seventeenth century. This work is framed
All my articles cited here are available online at
by a complicated narrative about yogis who convert
www.unc.edu/~cernst/articles.htm. For further
to Islam and introduce Muslim scholars to the
documentation of Persian literature on India, see the
Amrtakunda, followed by an excerpt from an ancient
Perso-Indica project, http://perso-indica.net.
Gnostic text and a passage from the Illuminationist
3. Carl W. Ernst, “Accounts of Yogis in Arabic and Per- philosopher Suhrawardi. These texts introduce the
sian Historical and Travel Texts,” Jerusalem Studies in practices of yoga, which are recounted in ten succes-
Arabic and Islam 33 (2008), pp. 409–26. sive chapters, including descriptions of yogic pos-
tures, control of subtle physiology, the macrocosm
4. Carl W. Ernst, “The Limits of Universalism in
and the microcosm, mantras, predicting the time of
Islamic Thought: The Case of Indian Religions,”
death, and meditations involving chakras and yoginis.
Muslim World 101 (January 2011), pp. 1–19. A notable
In all likelihood, the author was a sixteenth-century
example is a Persian treatise on Vedanta attributed
intellectual who drew upon Persian philosophical
to the poet Fayzi, The Illuminator of Gnosis, which
teachings to explain the religions of India; there is
links Greek and Indian wisdom to explain Krishna
also evidence that he was familiar with the earlier
as the manifestation of the divine reality. See Carl
Persian Kamaru pancasika, which is mentioned by
W. Ernst, “Fayzi’s Illuminationist Interpretation of
name in the preface of the best and oldest manu-
Vedanta: The Shariq al-Ma`rifa,” Comparative Studies
script of the Arabic text (Paris Ar. 1699). His interpre-
of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30, no. 3
tive strategy was to “translate” yogic references into
(2010), pp. 156–64.
Islamic equivalents, either by equating mantras with
5. See Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Dreams, Illusion the Arabic names of God or by identifying yogis and
and Other Realities (Chicago: University of Chicago deities with the prophets of Islam.
Press, 1984), and my review of the latter in Journal of
12. Carl W. Ernst, “Sufism and Yoga according to
Asian and African Studies 20 (1985), pp. 252–54.
Muhammad Ghawth,” Sufi 29 (spring 1996), pp.
6. Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Sufism: The Formative 9–13; Nazir Ahmad, “The Earliest Known Persian
Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, Work on Hindu Philosophy and Hindu Religion,” in
2007); Carl W. Ernst, “Situating Sufism and Yoga,” Islamic Heritage in South Asian Subcontinent, vol. 1,
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd ser., vol. 15, ed. Nazir Ahmad and I. H. Siddiqui (Jaipur: Publica-
no. 1 (2005), pp. 15–43. tion Scheme, 1998), pp. 1–18.
7. Carl W. Ernst, “Two Versions of a Persian Text on 13. The oldest of the illustrated copies is the Chester
Yoga and Cosmology, Attributed to Shaykh Muìn Beatty manuscript described elsewhere in this
al-Din Chishti,” Elixir 2 (2006), pp. 69–76, 124–25; volume. Three other copies, which clearly follow the
rev. ed. by Scott Kugle, in Sufi Meditation and same illustration program, are found in (1) the Uni-
Contemplation: Timeless Wisdom from Mughal India versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rare Book
(New Lebanon, NY: Suluk Press/Omega Publica- Collection (dated 1718); (2) the Salar Jung Museum,
tions, 2012), pp. 167–92. Hyderabad (Madhahib Farsi 1, dated 1815); and (3)
reportedly in the collection of the late Simon Digby.
8. Kazuyo Sasaki, “Yogico-tantric Traditions in the
Hawd al-Hayat,” Journal of the Japanese Association 14. The manuscripts I have consulted, in addition to
for South Asian Studies 17 (2005), pp. 135–56. Sasa- the Chester Beatty copy, are India Office, Ethé 2002;
ki’s reading of this title is more convincing than my Ganj Bakhsh 6298, Islamabad; Liyaqat Memorial
earlier suggestion, Kamrubijaksa or The Kamarupa Library 46, Karachi; British Library Or. 12188; and
Seed Syllables. India Office, Ashburner 197.
9. Carl W. Ernst, “A Fourteenth-Century Persian 15. Confirming the suggestion of Sir Thomas Walker
Account of Breath Control and Meditation,” in Yoga Arnold and J. V. S. Wilkinson, The Library of A. Ches-
in Practice, ed. David Gordon White, Princeton Read- ter Beatty, A Catalogue of the Indian Miniatures, vol. 1
ings in Religions (Princeton: Princeton University ([London]: Oxford University Press, 1936), p. 82.
Press, 2011), pp. 133–39.
16. Carl W. Ernst, “Anglo-Persian Taxonomies of
10. Carl W. Ernst, “Being Careful with the Goddess: Indian Religions,” keynote address at conference on
Yoginis in Persian and Arabic Texts,” in Performing “Indian Pluralism and Warren Hastings’s Orientalist
Ecstasy: The Poetics and Politics of Religion in India, Regime,” Tregynon, Wales, July 18–20, 2012.
ed. Pallabi Chakrabarty and Scott Kugle (Delhi:
Manohar, 2009), pp. 189–203.

68 | ESSAYS
James Mallinson
Yogis in Mughal India
Artists in the ateliers of the Mughal emperors (reigned 1556–1857) produced a wealth
of paintings of yogis,1 drawing their subjects from life or from memory after observing them firsthand.
Some were created to depict historical events or specific sites; others became archetypes that circu-
lated over decades in genre scenes and illustrated literary texts, in particular epic romances.2 Sixteenth-
and seventeenth-century Mughal paintings of yogis have enormous value as historical documents. The
consistency of their depictions and the astonishing detail they reveal allow us to flesh out—and some-
times rewrite—the incomplete and partisan history of yogis that can be surmised from texts, travelers’
reports, hagiography, and ethnography.3
The paintings confirm two contrasting features of premodern Indian asceticism sug-
gested by other sources. First, a variety of traditions shared an ascetic archetype and freely exchanged
doctrines and practices. Second, increasing sectarianism came to accentuate the differences between
the yogi lineages, gradually giving rise to the clearly demarcated ascetic orders of today.
The Ascetic Archetype

Early Mughal paintings bear witness to an ascetic archetype (see cat. 2a) whose elements are attested
in sources from the first millennium BCE. Yogis have long matted hair and beards, are naked or nearly
so, and smear their bodies with ashes.4 In addition, Mughal-era yogis display more recent traits and
practices: they wear hooped earrings,5 sit around smoldering fires,6 and drink suspensions of cannabis.7
Both types appear on an early seventeenth-century folio from the Gulshan Album:
archetypal ascetics are represented in the lower landscape; the two figures at the top share their basic
attributes but are covered with sectarian markers (fig. 1, cat. 19a). The sharing of attributes by what are, Fig. 1
as we shall see below, different yogi traditions is paralleled by the lack of emphasis on sectarianism in Folio 6b from the
Gulshan Album
the texts of the early hatha yoga corpus. A thirteenth-century text, the earliest to teach a yoga explicitly (detail). India,
called hatha, declares: “Whether a Brahmin, an ascetic, a Buddhist, a Jain, a Skull-Bearer or a materi- Mughal dynasty,
early 17th century.
alist, the wise one who is endowed with faith and constantly devoted to the practice of [hatha] yoga will Staatsbibliothek,
attain complete success.”8 Berlin
YOGIS IN MUGHAL INDIA | 69

The Two Traditions of Yoga
A close reading of the corpus of Sanskrit texts that taught hatha yoga in its formative period (approx-
imately the eleventh to the fifteenth century) shows that it consisted of a variety of ancient physical
techniques aimed at achieving liberation by controlling the breath, mind, and semen. Overlaid onto
those techniques were more recently developed Tantric visualizations of the ascent of Kundalini up
the body’s central column through a series of chakras.9 This blend of yogic methods became widely
accepted as the essence of yoga, but the heirs of the two traditions, even though they both practiced
the hybrid hatha yoga, remained distinct. The ancient tradition—whose yoga practice was linked to
long-attested ascetic techniques of bodily mortification, such as holding both arms in the air for years
on end—was represented by forerunners of the two biggest Indian ascetic orders today, the Dasnami
Sannyasis and Ramanandis, while the Tantric tradition was, and is, represented by the Nath Yogis.10
Nath Yogis
The development of hatha yoga is closely associated with the master yogi Gorakhnath,11 who probably
lived in South India in the eleventh or twelfth century.12 Nath hagiography has Gorakhnath establishing
the Nath order, but external historical sources provide no evidence that the order’s twelve subdivi-
sions—many of which trace their origins to other yogi gurus—were conceived of as a single entity before
the sixteenth century. The same sources suggest that Gorakhnath’s hegemony over these disparate
lineages was not established until perhaps the eighteenth century.
The Naths of the Mughal era were closely linked with the Sant tradition of holy men and,
like many of them, believed in a formless, unconditioned Absolute.13 This theological openness, which
manifested in, among other things, a disdain for the purity laws adhered to by more orthodox Hindu
ascetics, allowed them to mix more freely with mlecchas, “barbarians,” such as the Muslim Mughals.
Furthermore, the Naths were not militarized,14 unlike certain subdivisions of the Sannyasi yogi tra-
dition, whose belligerence would have proved an impediment to interaction with the Mughals. The
Naths’ greater influence on Sufism and the Mughal court is borne out by the predominance of Naths in
Mughal depictions of ascetics15 and the foregrounding of their doctrines in Persian yoga texts produced
during the Mughal period.16
Naths appear in two illustrations from a circa 1590 manuscript of a Baburnama (figs. 2
and 3) in the British Library. These depict a visit made in 1519 by the future Emperor Babur (reigned
1526–30) to a monastery at Gurkhattri in modern-day Peshawar, Pakistan. The illustrated manuscript
was commissioned by Babur’s grandson, Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), who visited Gurkhattri
twice in 1581,17 so the illustrations are likely to depict the monastery and its inhabitants at that later
date.18 Until the 1947 partition of India, Gurkhattri was an important center of the Nath ascetic order,
Fig. 2 (left) and there is still a Gorakhnath temple there today. While many such shrines have changed hands over
The Yogis at Gurkhattri
time, and Babur’s text calls the monastery’s inhabitants jogi(s)19—a vernacular form of the Sanskrit
in 1505, from Vaki’at-i
Baburi (The Memoirs yogi that could refer to any ascetic—the illustrations suggest that the site was in the hands of Naths
of Babur). By Gobind.
during Akbar’s time. Almost all of the ascetics in the illustrations wear horns on threads around their
India, Mughal dynasty,
1590–93. British necks (see, for example, fig. 3, specifically, the yogi wearing a yogapatta or meditation band around his
Library
legs on the left). The single most reliable indicator of membership in today’s Nath order is the wear-
Fig. 3 (right) ing of such horns,20 which Naths now call nads but were formerly known as singis, and, as the follow-
Babur’s Visit to
ing evidence suggests, this appears also to have been the case in the medieval period. Yogis wearing
Gurkhattri in 1519.
By Kesu Khurd. India, horns are identified as Nath gurus in inscriptions on several seventeenth-century Mughal paintings.21
Mughal dynasty,
In medieval Hindi literature, singis are frequently mentioned among the accoutrements of yogis, and
1590–93. British
Library often those yogis are identified as followers of Gorakhnath.22 In keeping with their lack of sectarianism,
70 | JAMES MALLINSON
Sanskrit texts on hatha yoga, even those associated with Gorakhnath, make few mentions of sect-specific Fig. 4
A Party of Kanphat
insignia, and none of singis, but other Sanskrit sources do associate yogi followers of Gorakhnath with
Yogis Resting around
the wearing of horns. An early sixteenth-century South Indian Sanskrit drama describes a Kapalika or a Fire. India, Mughal
dynasty, ca. 1700.
“Skull Bearer” ascetic as uttering “Goraksha, Goraksha” and blowing a horn,23 and a Sanskrit narrative
British Library, India
from Bengal dated to no later than the second half of the sixteenth century24 describes the yogi Chan- Office
dranatha as being awoken from his meditation by other yogis blowing their horns.25 From the four-
teenth to the sixteenth century, travelers to the regions in which the earliest references to Gorakhnath
are found26 often reported the use of horns by yogis.27
A Jesuit account allows us to identify the necklace and fillet (headband) worn by three
of the ascetics in the British Library Baburnama folio (fig. 2) as an attribute of Nath yogis during this
period.28 At the end of the sixteenth century, the Jesuit traveler Monserrate visited Balnath Tilla, a
famous Nath shrine in the Jhelum district of Pakistani Punjab, which was the headquarters of the order
until the partition of India.29 Describing the Tilla’s monastic inhabitants, Monserrate noted, “The mark of
[the] leader’s rank is a fillet; round this are loosely wrapped bands of silk, which hang down and move
to and fro. There are three or four of these bands.”30 This description seems to conflate two items of
apparel often depicted in Mughal paintings of yogis: a simple fillet worn around the head and a neck-
lace, from which hang colored strips of cloth (Monserrate’s silk bands).31
These indicators of membership of the Nath order—horns, fillets, and necklaces—enable
ascetics in a large number of early Mughal paintings—including those in a lightly colored drawing of
yogis gathered beneath a banyan tree (fig. 4)—to be identified as Naths.32 They also make it possible to
identify a number of other Nath attributes, which are not found in representations of other ascetics of
the period. These include the wearing of cloaks and hats, the accompaniment of dogs, and the use of
small shovels for moving ash.
By identifying Nath yogis in Mughal paintings, we may correct mistaken ideas about Nath
identity and history. The Naths have been said by some historians to be the first Hindu ascetic order to
develop a militarized wing. Yet, corroborating a historical record
Fig. 5
in which Naths are never named as combatants in the many
Balak Nath Kothari
ascetic battles reported between the sixteenth and eighteenth wearing antelope
horn kanphata
centuries,33 no depictions of Naths (Mughal or later) show them
earring. Jvalamukhi,
fighting or bearing weapons.34 In contrast, the Dasnami Sanny- November 8, 2012
asis are portrayed armed and fighting bloody battles from the
sixteenth century onward (fig. 9).
By now the reader acquainted with the Naths will
perhaps have wondered why little mention has been made of
their earrings. Today’s Naths are known for wearing hooped ear-
rings through the cartilages of their ears, which are cut open with
a dagger at the time of initiation (fig. 5). This practice has earned
the Naths the name kanphata, “split-eared,” a name they them-
selves eschew.35 Historians of yogis have accepted uncritically
the Naths’ assertion that the practice originated with Gorakhnath
in the twelfth century. The pictorial record tells a different story:
it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that Naths were depicted wearing their earrings
kanphata-style. In earlier representations, their earrings were worn through their earlobes. Furthermore,
in the Mughal era, this practice was not restricted to Nath Yogis: other ascetics, such as the Sannyasis
fighting in figure 9, were also depicted with hooped earrings in their earlobes.
The adoption of kanphata-style earrings sometime around 1800 appears to have been
associated with Gorakhnath becoming the titular head of the order and is always associated with him

Fig. 6 (opposite)
Jālandharnāth at
Jalore (detail). By
Amardas Bhatti. India,
Rajasthan, Marwar,
Jodhpur, ca. 1805–10.
Mehrangarh Museum
Trust
Fig. 7
Aughar and Kanphata
Yogi, from Tashrih
al-aqvam. India, Delhi
or Haryana, 1825.
British Library
in legend. The transition can be seen most clearly in paintings from Jodhpur. Depictions of Naths from
the early part of the reign of Maharaja Man Singh (reigned 1803–43) show them with earrings through
their earlobes (e.g., fig. 6), but from approximately 1815 onward, their earrings are worn kanphata-style
(cat. 4a).36 In the Jodhpur paintings, we also see a lengthening of the threads on which the Naths’ horns
are worn, to such an extent that they come to resemble the brahminical sacred thread. This change was
probably connected with the Naths’ rise in status at the maharaja’s court and their associated adoption
of high-caste ways.
The new kanphata earring and brahmin-style thread appear to have been embraced rap-
idly by the Naths. They are worn by two ascetics in a painting on page 399 of the Tashrih al-aqvam (fig.
7), an account of various Indian sects, castes, and tribes commissioned by Colonel James Skinner and
completed in 1825. These two Naths appear in other contemporaneous pictures, and are named in one
of them. The one on the left is said to be an Aughar Jogi, i.e., a yogi who is yet to take full Nath initiation;
the one on the right is a full initiate named Shambhu Nath.37
Yogi Followers of Shiva and Vishnu

The most significant fault line in Hindu theology is the division between Shaivas—those who hold that the
supreme being is Shiva or his consort, Devi—and Vaishnavas, those who hold that it is Vishnu or one of
his incarnations (avataras), most usually Rama or Krishna. This division was at its most violent in the eigh-
teenth century, when battles between the military wings of two yogi orders, the Shaiva Dasnami Sannyasis
and the Vaishnava Ramanandis, resulted in the deaths of thousands of ascetics. To this day, the sadhu
camps at the triennial Kumbh Mela festivals are divided into the army of Shiva and the army of Rama.
Today, the Naths are avowedly Shaiva, but the pictorial record again indicates a historical
shift. Naths are not shown sporting Shaiva insignia such as rudraksha beads and horizontal forehead
markings until the late eighteenth century.38 The Naths’ roots in Shaiva Tantric traditions make this

Fig. 8
Naga Sannyasis at the
1995 Allahabad Ardh
Kumbh Mela
absence surprising; perhaps it is symptomatic of their devotion to a formless Absolute, evident in the
vernacular texts attributed to them and prevalent among ascetic orders in late medieval North India.39
Even more surprising is that the Sannyasis depicted in Mughal-era paintings also show no Shaiva sec-
tarian markings. Indeed, there are no Shaiva insignia in any Mughal images of ascetics.40
Dasnami Sannyasis
The Dasnami Sannyasis are the best known of India’s ascetic orders, with pictures of their naked or “Naga”
subdivision parading at Kumbh Mela festivals broadcast around the world every three years (fig. 8). Among
their number are several practitioners of hatha yoga, and some of the most influential teachers of yoga in the
modern period have been affiliated with the order, including Swami Shivananda and Satyananda Sarasvati.
As noted above, nowadays the Dasnami Nagas are doggedly Shaiva, but Mughal paint-
ings provide us with compelling evidence that they were originally Vaishnava.41 In 1567, Emperor Akbar
witnessed a battle between two rival yogi suborders, who were fighting over the best place to collect
Fig. 9
Akbar Watches
a Battle between
Two Rival Groups
of Sannyasis at
Thaneshwar (detail).
By Basawan and
Tara the Elder. India,
possibly Pakistan,
Mughal dynasty,
1590–95. Victoria
and Albert Museum
alms from pilgrims attending a festival.42 In the Akbarnama, author Abu’l Fazl describes the battle
and names the combatants as Puris and Giris, which remain two of the ten names of the Dasnami or
“Ten-named” Sannyasis.43 A large number of the Sannyasis in a depiction of the battle in an illustrated
Akbarnama dated circa 1590–95 clearly wear urdhvapundras, the distinctive V-shaped Vaishnava fore-
head markings (fig 9 and cat. 12b).
The most detailed Mughal representation of an ascetic encampment is the St. Petersburg
Album folio painted circa 1635 (fig. 10). Although there is no context to confirm that its subjects are San-
nyasis, it depicts two of their modern-day practices. First, an ascetic at the bottom left has undertaken the
ancient penance of permanently holding one or two arms in the air (Sanskrit: urdhvabahu). Second, two of
the ascetics, including the figure performing the urdhvabahu penance, are naked. Six of the ascetics in the
picture, including the mahant or abbot in the center, have Vaishnava urdhvapundras on their foreheads.
(To see the full painting, see the expanded version of this essay at www.asia.si.edu/research.)
It might be supposed that such markings were merely a conceit or that the artists were
depicting forehead markings indiscriminately. But—leaving aside the remarkable naturalism and consis-

Fig. 10 tency of Mughal depictions of ascetics, and the complete absence of Shaiva forehead markings in all
Mughals Visit an
such paintings—other Vaishnava features of Dasnami Sannyasi identity are legion: all Dasnami ascetics
Encampment of
“Sadhus” (detail), from greet one another with the ancient Vaishnava “eight-syllable” mantra, om namo narayanaya (“Homage
the St. Petersburg
to Narayana”—Narayana is another name for Vishnu); Shankara, the putative founder of their order, was
Album. Attributed to
Mir Sayyid Ali. India, Vaishnava; prior to the sixteenth century, the Dasnami nominal suffix Puri was only appended to the
Mughal dynasty, ca.
names of Vaishnava ascetics44; and today the tutelary deities of the two biggest akharas or regiments of
1635. St. Petersburg
Institute of Oriental the Dasnamis are Dattatreya and Kapila, both of whom are included in early lists of the manifestations
Manuscripts, folio 47r
of Vishnu.45
It is not clear how, why, or when the Dasnamis acquired an overarching Shaiva orienta-
tion. It is likely to have been the result of a variety of historical processes, including both the formal-
ization of the order, in particular its affiliation with the southern Shringeri monastery, whose doctrinal
principles, a blend of Advaita Vedanta and Shrividya tantric Shaivism, were adopted by the Dasnamis,
and the contemporaneous (and connected) attribution of the founding of the order to Shankaracharya,
who by the seventeenth century was said to have been a Shaiva. Their Shaiva orientation further hard-
ened in reaction to the extreme Vaishnavism of their arch-rivals, the Ramanandis.
Ramanandis
The Rama-worshiping Ramanandis are the largest ascetic order in India and, like the Dasnamis, include
among their number some expert hatha yogis.
The Ramanandis were not formalized as an order before the early eighteenth century,
but ascetics who worship Rama have been part of the North Indian religious landscape since at least
the twelfth century.46 Our Mughal paintings, however, have shown us only Dasnami Sannyasis and Naths.
Where were the ascetic worshipers of Rama hiding? Close inspection tells us that they were right before
our eyes: the Ramanandis were originally Sannyasis. In addition to their Vaishnava insignia, some of the
yogi warriors in the Akbarnama depiction of the battle at Thaneshwar have words written on their bodies.
Only one is discernible, on the chest of the Sannyasi in the bottom right-hand corner (see cat. 12b): it is
ramā, presumably a mistake for rām. And on the body of the Vaishnava ascetic depicted in the upper left
of the Gulshan folio (fig. 1), we find more writing. The words are not clear—one wonders how good the
Mughal court painters’ Devanagari orthography was—but rām again is the most likely intended reading.
Certain features of the Sannyasis depicted in Mughal paintings argue against their
being the Ramanandis’ forerunners because they are shunned by the Ramanandis of today. These
include nakedness, the urdhvabahu penance, and the wearing of ochre-colored cloth. A key aspect of
Ramanandi identity as it coalesced in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the adoption of
the ultra-Vaishnavism associated with the various bhakti or devotional orders that came together during
that period under the banner of the char sampraday or “four traditions” of Vaishnavism. The differences
between the Ramanandis and Dasnami Sannyasis can all be understood as parts of this process. Thus,
to highlight those evident from Mughal painting, the new ultra-Vaishnavas wore white cloth, eschewing
the saffron of traditional (now Shaiva) renouncers, which modern Ramanandis claim is stained with the
menstrual blood of Parvati, Shiva’s wife. They will not perform penances such as urdhvabahu because
they may permanently deform the body, rendering it unfit for the Vedic rituals that they, unlike the San-
nyasis, perform. And they never go naked, claiming that to do so offends Lord Rama.47
In matters of doctrine, the Sannyasi tradition is now most closely associated with the rig-
orous monism of Advaita Vedanta. But bhakti, devotion, has held an important, if overlooked, place in
their teachings, and some sixteenth-century North Indian Sannyasi gurus were renowned for their devo-
tion to Rama.48 The formalization of the Dasnami Sannyasi order involved the incorporation of a broad
variety of different renouncer traditions, all of whose followers considered themselves to be honoring
Fig. 11
Ramanandi Yogiraj
Jagannath Das at the
2010 Haridwar Kumbh
Mela
the ancient tradition of renunciation (sannyasa). During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the
generic name for a renouncer, Sannyasi, became associated with this particular formalized order. When
the Ramanandis seceded from the order, in the course of their adoption of ultra-Vaishnavism, their
ascetics differentiated themselves from the Sannyasis by calling themselves Tyagis, which is an exact
Sanskrit synonym of Sannyasi. In a similar fashion, as a Nath corporate identity solidified in the eigh-
teenth century, the name yogi came to be associated exclusively with the Naths and was shunned by
the Sannyasis and Ramanandis.
Mughal Painting: Windows onto the History of Yoga and Yogis

There has long been confusion over the identity of the yogis depicted in Mughal paintings. This has
resulted from a lack of understanding of the complex and constantly changing makeup of yogi sects in
the early modern period, and the concomitant absence of terminological rigor in both Indian and foreign
descriptions of yogis from the Mughal period to the present day. Yet a close reading of these pictures
together with other historical sources allows us to identify the sectarian affiliations of the yogis depicted,
and thereby to cast new light on their history and the nature of the yoga they practiced. The pictures’
naturalism and the associated consistency of their depictions mean that seemingly trivial details, such
as the position of an earring, are of great significance.
Mughal paintings provide evidence for—and have inspired—many new ways of look-
ing at Indian yogis and their history. Doubtless some of the theories proposed in this essay will be
rejected or refined in the light of further research, whether textual, ethnographic, or art historical, but
the details shown in these beautiful images, hitherto overlooked in histories of yoga and yogis, need to
be addressed by historians. They bear testament to the fluidity of India’s religious landscape and the
transformations undergone by her yogis as they adapted to the changes around them.
An expanded and more extensively referenced version of this essay, with more illustra-
tions, can be found online at www.asia.si.edu/research.
Notes
1. In this essay I use the word yogi with the same lack pictures of ascetics smoking cannabis that date to Albert Museum (IM 262-1913). There are no signifi-
of specificity used in many historical sources, both earlier than the eighteenth century. cant differences in the two paintings’ depictions of
within the yogi tradition and without. Thus it refers to the yogis’ features under consideration in this essay.
8. Dattātreyayogaśāstra, 41a–42b:
an ascetic—someone who has renounced the norms
brāhmaṇaḣ śramaṇo vāpi bauddho vāpy ārhato 19. Annette Susannah Beveridge, The Babur-nama in
of conventional society in order to live a life devoted
’thavā| English (London: Luzac and Co., 1922), p. 230.
to religious ends—who may or may not practice the
techniques commonly understood to constitute kāpāliko vā cārvākaḣ śraddhayā sahitaḣ sudhīḣ|| 20. I note here some rare exceptions to this principle.
yoga. While not all these yogis practice yoga as such, yogābhyāsarato nityaṃ sarvasiddhim avāpnuyāt| The Nāth followers of Mastnāth eschew wearing
it is among their number that practitioners of yoga From an unpublished critical edition by the author, the siṅgī, claiming to have internalized it; Rājeś
par excellence are found. based on the following witnesses: Dattātreyayo- Dīkṣit, Śrī Navnāth Caritr Sāgar (Delhi: Dehati Pustak
gaśāstra, edited by Brahmamitra Avasthī, Svāmī Bhaṇḍār, 1969), p. 22, Hazārīprasād Dvivedī, Nāth
2. Of the large number of paintings of yogis pro-
Keśavānanda Yoga Saṃsthāna (1982); Man Singh Sampradāy (Ilāhābād, India: Lokbhāratī Prakāśan,
duced under the patronage of the Mughal courts,
Pustak Prakash nos. 1936; Wai Prajñā Pāṭhaśālā 1996), p. 17. The image of Bābā Bālaknāth and the
very few depict them actually practicing yoga,
6/4–399, 6163; Baroda Oriental Institute 4107; Daśanāmī Saṃnyāsī priests at his temple at Dyot
whether seated in meditational postures or holding
Mysore Government Oriental Manuscripts Library Siddh in Himachal Pradesh wear very small siṅgīs
more complex nonseated āsanas. Exceptions
4369; Thanjavur Palace Library B6390. The edition even though, according to legend, Bābā Bālaknāth
include the beautiful illustrations to manuscripts
was read by Professor Alexis Sanderson, Jason Birch, was avowedly not a Nāth; he defeated Gorakhnāth
of the Bahr al-ḣayāt andYogavāsiṣṭha, both in the
Péter-Dániel Szántó, and Andrea Acri at Oxford in in a magical contest. On March 24, 2009, I asked
collection of the Chester Beatty Library (mss. 16
early 2012, all of whom I thank for their valuable the current mahant, Rajendra Giri—who sports a fine
and 5 respectively; see also cats. 9a–j and 13 in this
emendations and suggestions. golden siṅgī and is, as his name suggests, a member
volume).
of the Giri suborder of the Daśanāmī Saṃnyāsīs—
9. James Mallinson, “Śāktism and Haṭhayoga,” in The
3. Many aspects of yogis’ lives are rarely, if ever, why he wore what I thought was a Nāth emblem. He
Śākta Traditions (London: Routledge, forthcoming).
recorded in writing; often these paintings are our told me that the siṅgī itself has no particular sec-
only historical sources. See, for example, Hope 10. The combination of the two types of yoga was tarian connotation. It may be that Bābā Bālaknāth’s
Marie Childers, “The Visual Culture of Opium in universally accepted, but to this day the two yogi tra- lineage constituted one of the maḍhi divisions of
British India” (PhD diss., University of California, Los ditions each display a predilection for the methods the Giri suborder of the Daśanāmī Saṃnyāsīs. All
Angeles, 2011), p. 18, on depictions of drug con- they originated. Thus āsana-practice is found among twenty-seven of the Giri maḍhis have names ending
sumption by ascetics in premodern India. the Rāmānandīs and Dasnāmis, but is almost absent in -nāth and are said to trace their lineage back to
among the Nāths, while the latter are renowned for Brahm Giri, who defeated Gorakhnāth in a display of
4. What cloth they do wear is saffron in color; paint-
their mastery of Tantric ritual and yoga. Mallinson, siddhis, after which he took the name Augharnāth;
ers typically used a pinkish coral to depict this.
“Śāktism and Haṭhayoga.” Śrī Mahant Lāl Purī, Daśanām Nāgā Saṃnyāsī evaṃ
5. The earliest references to the wearing of earrings Śrī Pancāyatī Akhāṛā Mahānirvāṇī (Prayāg, India: Śrī
11. Gorakh or Gorakhnāth is his Hindi name; in
by ascetics are in the context of first-millennium Pancāyatī Akhāṛā Mahānirvāṇī, 2001), pp. 66–69.
Sanskrit he is known as Gorakṣa or Gorakṣanātha.
Mahayana Bodhisattvas and Tantric siddhas. Bābā Bālaknāth is sometimes identified with Jāland-
12. On the history of the Nāth order, see James harnāth, and this myth may represent the still unset-
6. The ascetic practice of sitting in the sun sur-
Mallinson, “Nāth Saṃpradāya,” entry in Brill’s Ency- tled rivalry between the more Tantric Jālandharnāth
rounded by fires is attested in textual and visual
clopedia of Hinduism, vol. 3, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen and the reformist/heretical Gorakhnāth: there are
sources from before the Common Era. But the quint-
(Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 407–28. followers of the former who refuse to accept the
essential ascetic practice of living around a smolder-
latter as the founding guru and tutelary deity of the
ing dhūni fire, found to this day, is neither shown in 13. On the Sants, see Karine Schomer, and W. H.
Nāth order (personal communication Kulavadhuta
images prior to the Mughal period nor mentioned McLeod, eds., The Sants: Studies in a Devotional
Satpurananda, July 16, 2010; see also http://tribes.
in textual sources. Orthodox brahmin ascetics are Tradition of India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987).
tribe.net/practicaltantra/thread/1e75639b-474a-
enjoined to renounce the use of fire, but it seems fair
14. See n. 35. 4ed6-872e-0675b3b286c0). The Siddhānt Paṭal,
to assume that heterodox ascetics living away from
a ritual handbook used by the Rāmānandīs and
society have always used fire to cook and keep warm, 15. Mughal paintings of Nāths other than those
attributed to Rāmānand, mentions siṅgīs three times
and that only the depiction of this—not the practice discussed in this essay are listed in n. 33.
(pp. 2 l.2, 9 l.2, 17 l.1). A Rāmānandī ascetic, Bālyogī
itself—was an innovation of the Mughal era.
16. See Carl W. Ernst, “The Islamization of Yoga in Śrī Rām Bālak Dās, informed me on October 27, 2012,
7. The consumption of cannabis arrived in India with the Amṛtakuṇḍa Translations,” Journal of the Royal that this referred to tiger’s claws when worn in pairs
Islam. It first appears in Ayurvedic texts in the elev- Asiatic Society 13, no. 2 (2003), pp. 1–23, and Kazuyo as an ornament on a Rāmānandī’s jaṭā or dreadlocks.
enth century; G. J. Meulenbeld, “The search for clues Sakaki, “Yogico-tantric Traditions in the Ḥawd The Ṣoḍaśamudrā, of which I have seen a single circa
to the chronology of Sanskrit medical texts as illus- al-Ḥayāt,” Journal of the Japanese Association for seventeenth- or eighteenth-century manuscript,
trated by the history of bhaṅgā,” Studien zur Indologie South Asian Studies 7 (2005), pp. 135–56. includes the śṛṅgī among the accoutrements of a
und Iranistik 15 (1989), p. 64; D. Wujastyk, “Cannabis yogi but makes no mention of anything specifically
17. H. Beveridge, The Akbar-nāma, translated from
in Traditional Indian Herbal Medicine.” Āyurveda at Nāth. The text is ascribed to Śuka Yogī. Śuka, son of
Persian, vol. 3. Bibliotheca Indica: A Collection of
the Crossroads of Care and Cure (Lisbon and Pune: Vyāsa, is said to practice yoga in the Mahābhārata
Oriental Works published by the Asiatic Society of
Centro de História del Além-Mar, Universidade Nova (12.319), and the Bhāgavatapurāṇa is framed as a dis-
Bengal (Delhi: Rare Books, 1972), pp. 514, 528.
de Lisboa), pp. 45–73. It was probably introduced course by Shuka to King Parīkṣit. He is not included
into the ascetic milieu by Madariyya fakirs in the four- 18. As noted by Ellen S. Smart, “Paintings from the in Nāth lineages but is mentioned frequently in
teenth or fifteenth centuries; Alexis Sanderson, “The Bāburnānama: a study of the sixteenth-century those of the Rāmānandīs, e.g., Monika Horstmann,
Śaiva Religion among the Khmers. Part I,” Bulletin de Mughal historical manuscript illustration” (PhD diss., “The Rāmānandīs of Galta (Jaipur, Rajasthan),” in
l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient 90–91 (2003–4), University of London, 1977), pp. 221–40, the illustra- Multiple Histories: Culture and Society in the Study of
p. 365, n. 43. Prior to the arrival of tobacco in India at tion of Babur’s visit to Gurkhattri in fig. 3 (folio 320 Rajasthan, ed. Lawrence A. Babb, Varsha Joshi, and
the beginning of the seventeenth century, cannabis in a British Library manuscript of the Bāburnāma [Or. Michael W. Meister (Jaipur, India: Rawat Publications,
was eaten or drunk, not smoked, and I know of no 3714]) is likely to be a derivative of that in a single 2002), p. 173, and is among the traditional teachers
folio from the text now found in the Victoria and

(ācāryas) of the Daśanāmī Saṃnyāsīs; Matthew Clark, Nāth lineages united under Gorakhnāth (on which, dans leurs rangs une branche combatante.” With
The Daśanāmī-Saṃnyāsīs: The Integration of Ascetic see Mallinson, “Nāth Saṃpradāya”). The earliest some early localized exceptions—such as the warrior
Lineages into an Order (Leiden: Brill, 2006), p. 116 n. reference to it by this name that I have found is from yogis in the service of the king of the yogis on India’s
46; Purī, Daśanām Nāgā Saṃnyāsī, p. 21. the Saṃnyāsī Purn Puri’s account of his travels in west coast in the early sixteenth century (Bad-
the second half of the eighteenth century, in which ger, The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema, pp. 273–74)
21. Two ascetics wearing horns are identified as Mat-
it is referred to as “Gorakh-tala”; Purn Puri, “Oriental and the armies of yogis mentioned in two Sufi
syendra (Gorakhnāth’s guru) and Gorakhnāth in “An
Observations, No. X—The Travels of Prán Puri, a romances, the Padmāvati (Jogī khaṇḍ) and Kanhāvat
Assembly of Dervishes,” a painting of the annual Urs
Hindoo, who travelled over India, Persia, and part of (342)—there are no indications that Nāths were ever
festival of Mu’inuddin Chishti at Ajmer completed in
Russia,” 1792. Reprinted in The European Magazine organized into fighting forces. Two or three Nāths
the 1650s (Elinor Gadon, “Note on the Frontispiece,”
and London Review, vol. 57 (1810), p. 269. are seen on the edges of the battle depicted in fig-
in The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India,
ure 9, but they are not involved in the action. There
ed. Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod [Delhi: Motilal 30. J. S. Hoyland, The Commentary of Father
has long been a friendly interaction between the
Banarsidass, 1987], p. 420) and now in the collection Monserrate, S.J., On His Journey to the Court of Akbar
Saṃnyāsīs and Nāths, and at some point it appears
of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, I.S.94- (London: Oxford University Press, 1922), p. 114.
that certain Nāth lineages were absorbed into the
1965. A horn-wearing ascetic in a painting dated to
31. Monserrate himself wrote: Dignitatis insigne, Saṃnyāsīs, in particular their Giri suborder (see
1610 in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library
est, infula bombycinis fasciolis, è fastigio, per gyrum n. 21). It may be that Saṃnyāsī military units were
(2.209) is identified as Gorakhnāth in a later notation
infulae, ordine affixis, quae impendeant, et facile joined by some early isolated groups of militarized
above the picture.
moueantur · tribus, quattuorue || ordinibus, a fastigio, proto-Nāths, such as those encountered by Tavernier
22. See Miragāvatī 106g; Padmāvatī 12.1.4; Madhu- ad extremam infulae oram, quae frontem cingit (Mon- in 1640 (V. Ball, trans., Travels in India by Jean-Bap-
mālatī 173 (Aditya Behl, and Simon Weightman, with golicae Legationis Commentarius, p. 597). Hoyland tiste Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne [1676, repr. Delhi:
Shyam Manohar Pandey, Madhumālatī: An Indian omits from his translation the last part of Monser- Munshiram Manoharlal, 1995], pp. 66–68), who were
Sufi Romance [Oxford: Oxford University Press, rate’s description of the bands of silk: ordinibus, a perhaps members of the army of the Malabar king of
2000], p. 72); Dādū sākhī 25.20, pads 213.2, 214.2; fastigio, ad extremam infulae oram, quae frontem the yogis, exiled after the oppression of his monas-
Kabīr granthāvalī pads 142.3, 172.1; Nāmdev pad 52.1; cingit, i.e., “in rows, from the top to the edge of the tery at Kadri by Veṅkāṭappa Nāyaka. A single warrior
Hardās pads 1.3, 25.0; Gorakh pad 19.3, 60.4; Sund- fillet, they encircle the forehead.” Such a headpiece in the thick of the action in the Akbarnāma depiction
ardās pads 122.2, 144.2; Gurugranth 145.1, 208.5, is not shown in any Mughal depictions of yogis, of Saṃnyāsīs fighting at Thanesar (Thaneshwar; fig.
334.18, 360.2, 605.12, 730.11, 730.17, 877.9, 886.14, which only show a similar item worn as a necklace, 9) can be seen to be wearing a siṅgī, an archetypal
907.15, 908.13, 970.16. Pañc Mātrā 11, 15, 19. but in the early eighteenth-century picture from piece of Nāth insignia. On being initiated, today’s
Jodhpur reproduced in fig. 6, Jālandharnāth appears Nāths vow not to “keep dangerous weapons” (H. A.
23. Bhāvanāpuruṣottama, p. 98. I am grateful to
to be wearing one. Perhaps they could be worn as Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Pun-
Péter-Dániel Szántó for pointing out this reference
necklaces and also wrapped around the head if so jab and North-West Frontier Province, vol. 2 [Lahore:
to me.
desired. Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1911],
24. Sekaśubhodaya, introduction, pp. x–xi. This text p. 401), and the first Sanskrit Nāth text written after
32. Among the earliest examples (pre-1605) are
is a fictitious account of a Muslim shaykh (seka) the formalization of the order, the Siddhasiddhānta-
the following: Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga
overcoming yogis and brahmins. paddhati, scorns those who carry arms (6.94).
Khan collection M.286 (Sheila R. Canby, Princes,
25. Harimohan Mishra, the editor of the early Poets and Paladins: Islamic and Indian Paintings from 35. See Véronique Bouillier, Itinérance et vie monas-
fifteenth-century Maithili Gorakṣavijaya, suggests the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga tique: Les ascètes Nāth Yogīs en Inde contemporaine
that siṅgīs may be referred to in that text’s third gīt, Khan (London: British Museum Press, 1998), p. 109; (Paris: Éditions de la Maison des sciences de
although the reading is unclear (p. 28). The circa Rajesh Bedi and Ramesh Bedi, Sadhus: The Holy l’homme, 2008), pp. 22–23, on the wearing of ear-
1700 Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati, a Nāth sectarian text, Men of India (Delhi: Brijbasi, 1991), p. 94 (this picture rings by ascetic Nāths. On Rajasthani householder
includes siṃhanāda among the accoutrements of is said in the text to be in the Jaipur Savai Man Singh Nāths, see Daniel Gold, “Experiences of Ear-Cutting:
the yogi (5.15). II Museum, but staff there are currently unable to The Significances of a Ritual of Bodily Alteration for
locate it); British Library, J.22,16; Staatsbibliothek, Householder Yogis,” Journal of Ritual Studies 10, no.
26. The earliest references to Gorakhnāth are from
Berlin, Gulshan Album, f.13b, cat. 12b; the Chester 1 (1996), pp. 91–112; Gold, “Nāth Yogis as Established
South India, in particular the Deccan. Mallinson,
Beatty Library’s Bahr al-ḣayāt manuscript (see cats. Alternatives: Householders and Ascetics Today,”
“Nāth Saṃpradāya,” p. 411.
9a–j); San Francisco Museum of Asian Art, 1988.27; Journal of Asian and African Studies 34, no. 1 (1999),
27. Mahdi Husain, The Reḣla of Ibn Battūta (Baroda, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard, 2002.50.29; pp. 68–88; and Gold, “Yogis’ Earrings, Household-
(Baroda, India: Oriental Institute, 1953), p. 166; Chester Beatty Library, In44.3, Yogavāsiṣṭha 128v, er’s Birth: Split Ears and Religious Identity among
George Percy Badger, The Travels of Ludovico di and Mrigāvatī In37 f.25r, f.28v, f.44r; Walters Art Householder Nāths in Rajasthan,” in Religion, Ritual
Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Museum, W.596 f.22b (dated 1593, another illustra- and Royalty, ed. N. K. Singhi and Rajendra Joshi
Felix, in Persia, India and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508 tion of the Bāburnāma description of Babur’s visit (Jaipur and New Delhi: Rawat Publications, 1999), pp.
(London: The Hakluyt Society, 1863), p. 112; Vasund- to Gurkhattri); Bāburnāma, Cynthia Hazen Polsky 35–53. See also George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnāth
hara Filliozat, Vijayanagar as seen by Domingo Paes Collection, New York; Bāburnāma, Victoria and and the Kānphaṭa Yogīs (1938, repr. Delhi: Motilal
and Fernao Nuniz (16th Century Portuguese Chroni- Albert Museum, IM 262-1913; Bāburnāma, British Banarsidass, 1989), pp. 6–11; Hazārīprasād Dvivedī,
clers) and others (Delhi: National Book Trust, 1999), Library, Or. 3714, f.197r. Nāth Sampradāy (Ilāhābād, India: Lokbhāratī
p. 79; Mansel Longworth Dames, The Book of Duarte Prakāśan, 1996), pp. 15–16.
33. See Clark, The Daśanāmī-Saṃnyāsīs, pp. 61–64,
Barbosa: An account of the countries bordering on the
for a summary of these reports. 36. Three Aspects of the Absolute, folio 1 from the
Indian Ocean and their inhabitants, written by Duarte
Nath Charit, by Bulaki, 1823, Mehrangarh Museum
Barbosa, and completed about the year 1518 a.d., vol. 34. It is thanks to the perennial confusion caused
Trust, RJS 2399. See Garden and Cosmos: The Royal
1 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1918), p. 231. by the ambiguity of referents of the name yogī that
Paintings of Jodhpur (Washington, DC: Arthur M.
various scholars have alleged that the Nāths were
28. Neither of these insignia is currently worn by Sackler Gallery, 2008), cat. 40, pp. 174–77, detail
India’s first organized military order (see, e.g., David
Nāths and my field enquiries about them have drawn on p. 176.
Lorenzen, “Warrior Ascetics in Indian History,” Jour-
a blank.
nal of the American Oriental Society 98 (1978), p. 68; 37. The same two yogis are accompanied by four
29. For historical accounts of Bālnāth Tillā,
̣ see Wil- cf. Véronique Bouillier, “La Violence des Non- more ascetics in a painting dating to circa 1820–25
liam R. Pinch, “Nāth Yogīs, Akbar, and Bālnāth Ṭ illā,” violents ou les Ascètes au Combat,” Puruṣārtha 16 by an artist of Ghulam Ali Khan’s circle. All six ascet-
in Yoga in Practice, ed. D. G. White (Princeton: Prince- (1993), p. 218, who is surely correct when she writes ics are named in accompanying inscriptions; I thank
ton University Press, 2011), pp. 273–88. It later came of non-Muslim ascetics “Ce sont donc les Dasnāmī Bruce Wannell for transcribing them. The larger
to be known as Gorakh Tillā
̣ as the various disparate Sannyāsīs … qui sont les premiers à ainsi instaurer painting is reproduced in Archeologie, Arts d’Orient,
July 2, 1993, p. 61, no. 185, and Joachim K. Bautze, conceptions of the Absolute as formless are found 46. This is the date of the Agastyasaṃhitā, the earli-
Interaction of Cultures: Indian and Western Painting in many of their texts, both Sanskrit and vernac- est text to teach devotion to Rama. Hans Bakker, “An
1780–1910: The Ehrenfeld Collection (Alexandria, ular, and in the circa 1650 Dabistān, in which yogi Old Text of the Rāma Devotion: The Agastyasaṃhitā,”
VA: Art Services International, 1998), pp. 56–57. followers of Gorakh are said to call god “Alíka” (i.e., in Navonmeṣa (Varanasi, India: M. M. Gopināth
The ascetic on the right is depicted on his own in a Alakh, “the imperceptible”) … They believe Brahma, Kaviraj Centenary Celebration Committee, 1987), pp.
picture from a private collection reproduced in Chris- Vichnu, and Mahadeva to be subordinate divinities, 300–306.
topher Bayly, ed., The Raj: India and the British 1600– but they are, as followers and disciples, addicted to
47. The Rāmānandīs’ disavowal of nakedness is
1947 (London: National Portrait Gallery Publications, Gorakhnath; thus, some devote themselves to one
somewhat specious. Members of their military
1990), p. 223, pl. 283, in which his earrings are in the or the other of the deities.” David Shea and Anthony
divisions (like the Daśanāmī warriors) are still called
lobes of his ears, not kānphaṭa-style. On page 323 Troyer, The Dabistān or School of Manners, vol. 2
Nāgā, “naked,” and they and their Tyāgī brethren
of the Tashrīh al-aqvām is a picture of a Sanpera or (London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain
often sport loincloths that leave little to the imagi-
snake charmer with earrings in the cartilages of his and Ireland, 1843), pp. 127–28.
nation.
ears. Several snake-charmer castes claim affiliation
40. The earliest North Indian paintings of ascetics
with the Nāth tradition, which became an umbrella 48. See, for example, Anand Venkatkrishnan,
wearing Śaiva forehead markings that I have seen
organization for a broad variety of religious special- “Mīmāṃsā, Vedānta, and the Bhakti Movement,”
are late seventeenth-century Rajput miniatures (e.g.,
ists with roots in the Tantric traditions. Snake charm- paper published online at academia.edu (2012),
Smart et al., Indian Painting, pp. 50–51, cf. the depic-
ers have an old Tantric pedigree, as evinced by refer- p. 10, on the Saṃnyāsī Rāmatirtha. A significant
tion of Vishvamitra’s tapas in a seventeenth-century
ences from as early as the sixth century to a category difference between Rāma-bhakti traditions, from the
Rajput illustrated Rāmāyaṇa in the British Library
of texts called Gāruḍa Tantras, which are primarily time of the twelfth-century Agastyasaṃhitā onward,
[MS 15295 f. 173] and The Seven Great Sages, Gov-
concerned with curing snakebites; Michael J. Slouber, and other Vaiṣṇava ascetic traditions is the former’s
ernment Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh 1343,
“Gāruḍa Medicine: A History of Snakebite and Reli- use of the six-syllable Rāma mantra as opposed
fig. 7 in Debra Diamond’s introductory essay in this
gious Healing in South Asia” (PhD diss., University of to the eight-syllable oṃ namo nārāyaṇāya. But the
volume).
California, Berkeley, 2012). A slightly earlier painting same sixteenth-century Saṃnyāsī teachers who had
(1815–20), also in the British Library collection (Add. 41. In addition to the paintings discussed in this essay, no difficulty with Rāma-bhakti also admit to chanting
Or.114), shows a “Kaun Fauttah (Beggar)” in Varanasi Mughal pictures of Saṃnyāsīs include the following: the name of God, whether that name be Hari or
with earrings in the cartilages of his ears. Pramod San Diego Museum of Art 1990:355; British Museum Rāma (or Śiva, etc.), as a means to religious goals;
Chandra also noticed the absence of kānphaṭa-style 1941,0712,0.5; British Museum 1920,0917,0.38; Venkatkrishnan, p. 13.
earrings in early Mughal pictures: “Actually, and Harvard 1983.620r (pl. 231 in The St. Petersburg
rather surprisingly, I have yet to see an early Mughal Muraqqa‘); Two Ascetics, Museum Rietberg, 2012.132
representation of the split ear and I wonder what to (see cat. 7b).
make of it. Could it be possible that the practice is
42. The battle took place at Kurukshetra, 150 kilome-
more modern than is commonly thought?” Pramod
ters north of Delhi.
Chandra, “Hindu Ascetics in Mughal Painting,” in Dis-
courses on Śiva: Proceedings of a Symposium on the 43. There are three accounts of this encounter, in
Nature of Religious Imagery (Philadelphia: University which the combatants are referred to inconsistently
of Philadelphia Press, 1985), p. 312. as both Jogis and Saṃnyāsīs. Ahmad and Al-Badauni
say that they are Jogis and Saṃnyāsīs. Nizamuddin
38. The earliest depiction of Nāths with Śaiva insig-
Ahmad, Tabakat-i Akbari, trans. H. M. Elliot and J.
nia of which I am aware is a circa 1780 Kishangarh
Dowson, in The History of India as Told by Its Own His-
painting of four Nāths by a dhūni fire in front of a Śiva
torians, vol. 5 (London: Trubner and Co, 1873), p. 318.
liṅga reproduced in Daniel J. Ehnbom, Indian Min-
Al-Badauni, Muntakhabu-t-Tawārīkh, vol. 2, trans. W.
iatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection (New York: Hudson
H. Lowe (Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1898), p. 95. Abu’l
Hills Press, 1985), pl. 75, in which the yogis all sport
Fazl says that both sides are Saṃnyāsīs, identifying
the Śaiva tripuṇḍra or horizontal forehead marking.
one group as Kurs, the other as Puris; H. Beveridge,
The first overtly sectarian Nāth Sanskrit text, the
The Akbar-nāma, translated from Persian, Bibliotheca
Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati, which can tentatively be
Indica: A Collection of Oriental Works published
dated to approximately 1700, enjoins the yogi to wear
by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. 2 (Delhi: Rare
a tripuṇḍra (5.16).
Books, 1972), p. 423. Kur is a corruption, resulting
39. The lack of importance of a Śaiva orientation for from Persian orthography, of Giri. This is supported
Nāth identity in the premodern era is demonstrated by the list of the Daśanāmīs’ ten names given in the
by occasional references to, and depictions of, Dabistān, where in the place of Giri we find Kar; Shea
Vaiṣṇava Nāths. The Nāth holding a peacock-feather and Troyer, The Dabistān, pp. 139 (cf. 147–48, which
fan in figure 4 sports the Vaiṣṇava V-shaped fore- mentions a Saṃnyāsī called Madan Kir).
head marking. Gorakh pad 12.6 says that King Rāma
44. For example, Īśhvara Puri, the mantra guru of the
pervades the body; thus one can know the place
Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava guru Caitanya Mahāprabhu and
of Hari, i.e., Viṣṇu, cf. Gorakh sākhī 162. Bhartṛhari,
Īśhvara Puri’s guru Madhavendra Purī. On other early
Goraknāth’s disciple, is a devotee of Nārayāna in
Vaiṣṇava ascetics with the nominal suffix Purī, see
the eighteenth-century Bhartṛharinirveda; Louis H.
Stuart Mark Elkman, Jīva Gosvāmin’s Tattvasandar-
Gray, “The Bhartṛharinirveda of Harihara, Now First
bha: A Study on the Philosophical and Sectarian
Translated from the Sanskrit and Prākrit,” Journal of
Development of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Movement
the American Oriental Society 25 (1904), pp. 197–230.
(Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986), pp. 16–17.
George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnāth and the Kān-
phaṭa Yogīs (1938, repr. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 45. Sāttvatasaṃhitā 9.98–109 in Sanjukta Gupta,
1989), pp. 203–5, relates a version of the famous “Yoga and Antaryāga in Pāñcarātra,” Ritual and Spec-
Nāth legend of Gopīcand in which at his initiation ulation in Early Tantrism: Studies in Honour of André
five Vaiṣṇavas came and dressed him in a loincloth Padoux (New York: New York University Press, 1992),
and put a “Rama rosary” around his neck. When he pp. 175–208. V. Krishnamacharya, ed., Lakṣmītantra
broke a fast, he said, “Shri Krishna.” But there are (Madras: Adyar Library, 1959), 11.19–25.
many more references to Nāths worshiping Śiva,
in particular as Adinātha, “the primal Nāth.” Nāth

84 | ESSAYS
Joseph S. Alter
Yoga, Bodybuilding, and

Wrestling: Metaphysical Fitness
Despite the cognitive dissonance produced by the visual contrast between yoga, body-
building, and martial arts, these seemingly disparate domains of practice are intimately linked on a
number of different levels. The invention of postural yoga in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-cen-
tury India1 is directly linked to the reinvention of sport in the context of colonial modernity and also to
the increasing use of physical fitness in schools, gymnasiums, clinics, and public institutions.2
Prior to the early nineteenth century, yoga was understood as a practice that focused
on the acquisition of power, which involved the manipulation of supernatural and natural elements,
both physical and ecological, gross and subtle.3 As such, metaphysical mysticism and meditation, while
important, were always grounded in the more encompassing and complicated problem of materialism.
Given that yoga is now conceptualized in terms of balanced holistic health, spirituality, and esoteric
mysticism, it is important to appreciate the extent to which a range of premodern and early modern
practices were focused on radical embodied ideals of physical and metaphysical self-transformation.
This essay is divided into three sections. After briefly highlighting the structure of early
modern ideals and how they reflect an understanding of the body, perception, and nature in relation
to physiology, sexuality, and power, I will provide a broad contextualization of modern practice through
an examination of the role played by three key figures: Swami Kuvalayananda, Sri Yogendra, and (to a
lesser extent) Sri Krishnamacharya. It is directly in relation to these early twentieth-century figures—
and a number of others who transformed yoga into a system of Indian physical fitness and self-develop-
ment—that we can understand how and why athleticism, sport, and yoga came together in modern life.
This practice is exemplified by Dr. Shanti Prakash Atreya, philosopher of yoga and mid-century Uttar
Pradesh wrestling champion, and Bishnu Charan Ghosh, bodybuilder and Bengali innovator of muscu-
lar yoga. Atreya was the son of a professor of Sanskrit at Banaras Hindu University, the institution from
which he earned a PhD. Ghosh was the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952; fig.
2), whose iconic Autobiography of a Yogi (1946) has come to define what many people in the West want Fig. 1
to see when they look past the body toward a mystical, otherworldly India. In essence, my argument is Five athletes,
symbolizing a musical
that the science of medical physiology and physical education did for the body subject to colonialism mode (Deshakha
and nationalism what alchemy did for bodies animated by the biopolitics of medieval kings, councilors, raga). India, ca.
1880–1900. Asian
and world renouncers. Atreya in particular conceptualized the physical power he embodied as a cham- Art Museum of San
pion Indian wrestler in terms of the material essence of ojas (supernatural vitality) and semen, thus Francisco
YOGA , BODYBUILDING, AND WRESTLING | 85

inverting and internalizing—in yogic terms—the externalized logic of bodybuilding and muscle control
exemplified in asana performances.
Because of the canonical status of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, and
because of the way in which yoga involves, but seems to disarticulate, physical discipline and meta-
physical speculation, yoga has come to mean a phenomenal range of different things to different
individuals and groups. As David Gordon White has shown, the history of yoga is often a history of
misinterpretation and the morphing of highly malleable meanings.4 The way in which Patanjali’s some-
what arcane second-century aphorisms leave room for endless, almost unrestricted translation and
interpretation helps to explain why yoga has such varied meanings in the public culture of modernity.
Significantly, this is very different from understanding the history of ideas and practices that are linked
to interpretations of philosophical commentaries on the Yoga Sutras, which provide a much clearer and
more coherent—if less “popular”—perspective on systematic and logical intellectual transformations
and metaphysical developments in practice.5
A key point that seems to have been lost in translation, but that helps to explain a num-
ber of otherwise incomprehensible details in modern and early modern practice, is what White refers
to as yogic perception.6 As the first commentary on the Sutras makes clear, and as other commentaries
would clarify over the course of a millennium, yogic perception
Fig. 2 is metaphysical in that the senses—sight in particular—change
Paramahansa
Yogananda, the nature of reality, effecting a synthesis of the process in the
founder of the material structure of consciousness rather than reproducing a
Self-Realization
Fellowship cognitive representation of the world as it appears to be. Yoga
is concerned with the material embodiment of a perceptual
change in the nature of reality—not a change of perception but
a change in perception. Perception is both means and end, and
the body is both the medium and the message. What appears to
be magic in the Yoga Sutras, and what appears to be the erotic
alchemy of sexual transubstantiation in medieval literature is,
quite literally, the physical and metaphysical matter of percep-
tion rather than a matter of mental perception.7
In this sense, the physical nature of yoga encom-
passes more than postures and breathing exercises, since mind
and thought derive from the same material substance as the
rest of the body. Yoga entails practice, which is inherently embodied. In these terms, textual representa-
tions of yoga are removed from practice, similar to what occurs when the “love of wisdom” in representa-
tions of classical Greek philosophy is extracted from the intimacy of the gymnasium. Yoga is, in essence,
what yogis do; and what they were doing, according to texts from the early modern period, was using the
material nature of their bodies to exercise various forms of authority in relation to people’s perception
of power.8 These included yogis embodying alchemical transubstantiation to change the nature of time;
changing the nature of their bodies to change the dynamics of space; entering into other people’s bod-
ies to change their perception of reality; and using their own bodies—and people’s fear of their down-to-
earth supernatural power—to fight as mercenaries to secure gold, silver, and land.9
As documented in accounts of practice, early modern yogis were often viewed as sinister
characters whose fearsome power was manifest in their ability to weave their own images in the illu-
sion of reality—and weave the illusion of reality into their own images—and convince people that they
should be perceived as powerful.10 In this light, late medieval hatha yoga texts explain how the physical
manipulation of the body comes into the play of power. The texts provide a way to understand meta-
physical fitness as the matter of perception rather than to misperceive what they say about magic and
86 | JOSEPH S. ALTER
eroticism in light of modern sensibilities. In the late nineteenth-century reading of the texts, modern
sensibilities held sway, such that the moral opprobrium of black magic and the perversity of eroticism
produced large measures of misunderstanding, even though sanitized asana and pranayama were eas-
ily adapted into the rubric of early twentieth-century physical culture.
Jagannath Gune was one of the first to sanitize, systematize, and professionalize hatha
yoga, drawing inspiration from Vivekananda’s assertive masculine Hinduism11 as well as the project of
nationalist swaraj (self-rule). Gune, who later became better known as Swami Kuvalayananda (1883–
1966), drew directly on lessons learned from his guru, Paramahansa Madhavadasji (1798–1921), a Ben-
gali barrister who renounced the world, wandered in the Himalayas for many years, and then settled in
Gujarat and prescribed yoga asana, kriya, and pranayama for the treatment of medical problems. While
studying in Baroda, Gune joined the newly designated Vyayam Mandir (Temple of Exercise) established
by Professor Rajratna Manikrao, who taught physical fitness, athletics, and paramilitary drills with the
aim of challenging British political authority and cultural hegemony. Manikrao sought to develop a pro-
gram of modern Indian physical culture, drawing directly on nineteenth-century traditions as well as
twelve years of training in wrestling and martial arts in Jummadada’s akhara, a gymnasium under the
patronage of the maharaja of Baroda (fig. 1). In addition, as the moniker “professor” suggests, Manikrao
took direct inspiration from modern principles of physical culture and masculine self-development that
captured the middle-class imagination in many parts of the British Empire.
Gune became a devotee of Madhavadasji while engaged in educational development
under the auspices of the Kandesh Education Society, which was located near the ashram. Having
already taken a vow of celibacy under Manikrao’s tutelage, he renounced his professional ambitions,
adopted the title Swami Kuvalayananda, and committed himself to the study and practice of yoga.
Based on Madhavadasji’s application of yoga therapy for the treatment of health problems, his own
athletic predilections, and a strong inclination toward scientific research, Kuvalayananda began a proj-
ect to demystify yoga, prove its medical efficacy, and, perhaps most important, establish asana and
pranayama as the basis for a national scheme of physical education and fitness.12 While other practi-
tioners, such as Krishnamacharya and his disciples, captured the limelight, it was Kuvalayananda who
established the institutional infrastructure for the broad-based national integration of yoga into schools
and clinics and also “theorized” the interface of the gross and the subtle body by focusing on physiol-
ogy and metaphysical fitness (fig. 3). In doing so, he drew directly on Manikrao’s mass-drill program of
nationalist martial arts and physical education.13
As was the case with supporters of Ayurveda, advocates for the modernization of asana
and pranayama were often conflicted about whether and to what extent science was necessary to
claim legitimacy, with the further complication that the modernization of yoga required contortions
of logic with regard to magic, sex, and supernatural power.14 What is perhaps most significant about
Kuvalayananda’s project is his resolute insistence on trying to identify the illusive connections between
gross physiology and subtle forms of power. This led him to conduct numerous experiments to iden-
tify, quantify, and measure the effects of breath retention, dhauti (internal and external cleaning and
self-purification), and samadhi (perfect contemplation).15
The results of these experiments are less significant than the way in which they reflect
a history of modern practice that is, perhaps in spite of itself, consistent with medieval alchemy and
with Patanjali’s understanding of perception. On a number of different levels, Kuvalayananda was con-
cerned with power, the embodiment of power, and the material manipulation of what is perceived to
be supernatural. In the context of colonialism, Kuvalayananda developed a program of asana and pra-
nayama physical education, integrating programs of mass drill into schools in Gujarat and Maharash-
tra and the outline of a comprehensive plan for yoga physical education in Uttar Pradesh soon after
independence. Beyond popularization and demystification, what is most significant about his project is

that it established a logic of cultural translation in which embodied practices coded to alchemy took on
meaning within a framework of fitness, health, and power.16
While Kuvalayananda was engaged in institution building and scientific research, another
of Madhavadasji’s disciples was engaged in a parallel effort to promote asana and pranayama physical
culture.17 As a boy, Manibhai Haribhai Desai (1897–1989) had developed into a strong wrestler after
turning to the popular rural sport in western Maharashtra to treat a serious, debilitating illness. To the
dismay of his Brahmin father, his propensity for athleticism was encouraged by his schoolteachers and
principals, who took their mission of muscular Christianity quite seriously.18 While studying at St. Xavier’s
College in Bombay, Desai heard Madhavadasji give a talk and almost immediately left school to follow
his guru, once again to his father’s great disappointment.
Like Gune, Desai’s thinking was profoundly shaped by his experience at Madhavadasji’s
ashram in Malsar, Gujarat. Correspondingly, he reshaped his body through the practice of asana and
pranayama, transforming a wrestler’s body into that of a yogi, but not losing sight of power in the pro-
cess of translation and transubstantiation. Leaving Malsar, Desai made his way to Bombay where he
impressed a number of businessmen with his adept prowess and started teaching asana and pran-
ayama and prescribing yoga as therapy. In doing so, he was among the first to fully integrate yoga with
the “nature cure,” a form of alternative European medicine that was gaining widespread popularity in
middle-class circles in India.19 With financial backing from wealthy Bombay patrons, Desai traveled to
New York to teach and popularize yoga. During this time, he prescribed asana and pranayama therapy,
but also became increasingly focused on the development of a yoga physical fitness program based
on the principles of gymnastic athleticism. Returning to Bombay in 1923, Desai—now calling himself
Yogendra—developed the Yoga Institute as a center for research, teaching, and physical education. As
Fig. 3
Yoga asanas, from
The Yoga Body
Illustrated by M. R.
Jambunathan.
India, 1941. Library
of Congress
publications from the institute indicate, primary emphasis was placed on the practice of simple, regi-
mented, rhythmic yoga for fitness and health.20 As was the case with Kuvalayananda, Yogendra’s pro-
gram of simplified asana and yoga personal hygiene had a larger cultural impact on the shape and form
of modern yoga in India. Since Desai established it in the early 1920s, the Yoga Institute has been train-
ing certified yoga instructors, many of whom have taken up teaching positions in schools and nature
cure clinics around the country. As such, all of these instructors teach permutations of rhythmic asana
and pranayama within the rubric of physical education and athletics.
Yogendra and Kuvalayanda are less well known internationally than Sri Tirumalai Krish-
namacharya (1888–1989), who is often regarded as the father of modern yoga, largely due to the pro-
found influence two of his disciples—B. K. S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois21—have had on contemporary
practice all over the world. But like his pioneering contemporaries in western India, Krishnamacharya was
strongly influenced by gymnastic physical culture, organized athletics, and the nature cure, especially
after he was recruited by the maharaja of Mysore in the early 1930s to teach and provide physical edu-
cation training.22 With royal patronage, he established a gymnasium for yoga training that emphasized
physical strength, stamina, and muscle tone. Along with many Indian physical culturists of the time,
such as Kodi Ramamurty Naidu and Bhishnu Charan Ghosh, Krishnamacharya put on demonstrations of
physical prowess that blurred the line between natural and supernatural power, for example, stopping
both his pulse and moving cars as well as lifting heavy objects while performing difficult asanas. Physical
strength and stamina notwithstanding, Krishnamacharya focused his training on postural movement and
pranayama, which finds dynamic expression in the form of Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga developed by Jois.
In light of the history of modern postural yoga in India, it is clear that Jois’s and Iyengar’s
success on the global stage was, in part, a result of their focus on adept athletic asana gymnastic
Fig. 4 and 5
Yogi Selvarajan
Yesudian,
Bodybuilding and
muscle control poses,
1958

performance, whereas Kuvalayananda, Yogendra, and others, such as Selvarajan Yesudian (1916–1998;
figs. 4, 5), highlighted how physical education and fitness were institutionalized. All, however, worked
within the same rubric of athleticism, physical culture, and muscular Christianity23 even though there
is a tendency to forget this and represent modern movements as the perfect reflection of what looks
like an ancient tradition. It is relatively easy to perform a difficult asana and make it look as though it is
both supernatural and mystically archaic but more challenging to make it fit explicitly into the rubric of
modernity and modern physiology.
Here, the case of Bishnu Charan Ghosh (1903–1970) is important. Ghosh, the younger
brother of Swami Yogananda, was directly involved in the development of Yogoda physical fitness as an
integral component of the Self-Realization Fellowship, both in India and the United States.24 Yogoda
was a hybrid form of postural practice similar to Yogendra’s rhythmic exercises and Kuvalayananda’s
mass-drill asana program, but was intended for school curricula. In 1930, Ghosh established Ghosh’s
College of Yoga and Physical Culture in Calcutta and began to experiment with bodybuilding exercises
combined with asana. As documented in Barbell Exercise and Muscle Control,25 Ghosh achieved signif-
icant physical development and muscular definition, clearly establishing himself as a bodybuilder in
the mold of Eugene Sandow (1867–1925; fig. 6) and a spectrum of other bodybuilders in India, such
as Professor K. V. Iyer, Professor J. Chandrashekhar, Swami Shivanand Teerth, Manotosh Roy, Ramesh
Balsekar, Chit Tun and the iconic Monohar Aich, who started his career as a strong man in P. C. Sorcar’s
traveling magic show. Ghosh modified asana routines to produce muscle definition and control, includ-
ing the articulation of abdominal recti, which is distinctive of nauli kriya (one of the shatkarma cleansing
procedures that involves isolating and rotating the abdominal recti muscles; fig 7). His legacy is most
clearly visible in his most famous student, Bikram Choudhury, who was a bodybuilder and weightlift-
ing champion in India before the global success of Bikram Yoga put him in the international spotlight,
placing emphasis on the athletic body in a way that brought asana directly back into focus and linked it
to muscle control.
With this in mind, one can better appreciate the significance of Dr. Shanti Prakash
Atreya’s (1917–1990) perspective on yoga and the way in which the martial art of wrestling fits into
the history of modern Indian postural practice. What Atreya—a yoga philosopher and wrestling cham-
pion—does, in essence, is invert the logic of Kuvalayananda and Yogendra’s innovation as well as
Krishnamacharya’s synthesis of asana and gymnastics, making the argument that wrestling is yoga
with a slight twist and that the body of the wrestler reflects the material essence of yogic power. His
perception of how this power is embodied in the material essence of ojas and semen is thus “inside
Fig. 6 out” relative to Ghosh’s “outside in” perspective on bodybuilding and muscle control.
British muscle man
Atreya himself sought to embody his theory of yogic wrestling and did so quite success-
Eugene Sandow
posing as the Farnese fully, both in terms of athletic success in tournaments and by becoming one of the most articulate,
Hercules, 1897
authoritative, and respected voices in the arena of nationalistic rhetoric concerning the development
Fig. 7 of nonviolent, muscular, moral masculinity.26 From the mid-1960s until his death in 1990 he published
Buddha Bose, a
extensively, primarily in a specialized magazine dedicated to the promotion of wrestling in India.27
student of yoga
master Bishnu Ghosh, That Atreya is not nearly as well known as Jois and Iyengar (or even Ghosh) is due to many
shows his skills
issues, including social class and the language of publication and communication, but it also points
at a yoga exercise
demonstration, directly to the relative marginality of the history of wrestling as a sport in relation to yoga metaphysical
London, ca. 1930s
philosophy. While the importance of wrestling has waned since the golden age of Plato’s dialogues in
the gymnasium, yoga has unambiguously risen on the tide of colonial and postcolonial popular Oriental-
ism.28 In any event, that Atreya is relatively unknown should not be taken as a reflection on the significance
of his insights, especially given the profound and wide-ranging influence of athleticism on modern yoga.
In a number of books and articles, Atreya draws on the architecture of samkhya phi-
losophy to structure an approach to physical and moral development within a framework of vigorous
athletic self-discipline that accords with the logic of yoga if not with the form of common practice man-
ifest in asana.29 As explained in a series of articles by a disciple and historian of wrestling, Ramchandra
Kesriya,30 one of Atreya’s points of entry into the logic of physical and moral self-development is through
pranayama; a second point of entry is through elemental transubstantiation, semen, and a conceptu-
alizing of embodied power that crosscuts subtle and gross domains of experience and perception.31
In terms of pranayama, Atreya’s reasoning is simple and straightforward, and clearly indi-
cates the extent to which power is manifest in the dynamic interface of gross and subtle dimensions of
embodiment. Regimented breathing can be understood as a way to exercise and develop the dynamics
of this interface such that the subtle power of prana promotes the development of energized stamina,
which can be understood in terms of various gross physiological measurements and the ability to wres-
tle for hours at a time. Similarly, the practice of celibacy—
Fig. 8 one of the coordinates of self-restraint in yoga practice—
A yogi practicing yoga
in Benares (Varanasi), generates ojas, the subtle essence of radiant strength that,
Uttar Pradesh, India in terms of samkhya, is the metabolic “distillate” of dhatu
transubstantiation. Based on an Ayurvedic interpretation
of samkhyan ecological physiology, Atreya reasons that a
combination of exercise and diet generates an efficient and
dynamic transformation of specialized foods—milk, ghee,
and almonds—into semen and ojas, which manifests as the
hybrid articulation of gross and subtle power called shakti.
Not only is the quantity of food increased proportional to
the proposed development of shakti—Atreya advocates
consumption of milk, ghee, and almonds in liter and kilo-
gram measures—but it is produced by sets of physiologi-
cal exercises that develop physical strength as a derivative
expression of semen, given that semen is metabolized
in the body by means of specific exercises. As one of the
two primary exercises in the wrestler’s regimen of training,
Atreya advocates dandas as a kind of modified yogic exercise that results in semen control. Depending
on one’s perception, dandas can be seen as identical to the rhythmic articulation of Yogendra’s asana
gymnastics in so far as they take shape in practice by combining several postures, including—to use
contemporary parlance—a sequence that moves the gross body from downward dog to plank to cobra
and back to downward dog. Wrestlers are instructed to do as many as a thousand of these ojas-building
exercises every day.
In many ways Atreya’s argument is that wrestling is more “yogic” than various forms of
modern postural yoga that place emphasis on the gross features of muscle control, flexibility, and phys-
ical fitness (fig. 8). In any case, his argument is perfectly consistent with a history of many perceptive
innovations, extending from Patanjali through to Bikram, and highlights the way in which yoga in modern
India must be understood with a clear perspective on the material nature of metaphysical fitness.
Notes
1. See “Globalized Modern Yoga” by Mark Singleton 15. Joseph Alter, Yoga in Modern India: The Body 25. Keshab Chandra Sen Gupta and Bishnu Charan
and cats. 26a–i on modern postural yoga in this between Philosophy and Science (Princeton: Ghose, Barbell Exercise and Muscle Control (Calcutta:
volume. Princeton University Press, 2005). Dhautī involves Published by the authors, 1930).
a number of different procedures for cleaning the
2. Joseph Alter, “Yoga and Physical Education: 26. Brij Dube, “Kuśtī ke Āchārya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī
body—such as swallowing a cloth and then pulling it
Swami Kuvalayananda’s Nationalist Project,” Asian 27, no. 11 (1990), pp. 57–62; Ramchandra Kesriya,
back out—to prepare oneself for other forms of yoga
Medicine: Tradition and Modernity, 3 (2007), pp. “Aise the Mahātmā Ātreya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 26, no.
practice, including procedures that ultimately culmi-
20–36; Alter, Moral Materialism: Sex and Masculinity 11 (1990), pp. 39–46; Govardandas Mahrotra, “Bāhu
nate in samādhi, a state of embodied transcendence
in Modern India (New Delhi: Penguin, 2011). Mark Āyāmī Vyaktitva ke Dhanī the,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 27, no.
in which the individual self is realized in the cosmic,
Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture 11 (1990), pp. 71–78. Pranab Singh, “Mahātmā jī aur
Universal Self. · ,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 27, no. 11 (1990), pp. 79–83.
Practice (Oxford and New York: Oxford University maim
Press, 2010). 16. Joseph S. Alter, “Yoga and Physical Educa-
27. Shanti Prakash Atreya, “Malla Śiromaṇi, Śrī
tion: Swami Kuvalayananda’s Nationalist Project,”
3. David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: Siddha Kṛṣṇa,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 9, nos. 10, 11, 12 (1972), pp.
Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 3 (2007),
Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago: University of 31–35; Atreya, “Sacchā Pahalvān Devtā Hotā Hai,”
pp. 20–36; Joseph S. Alter, “Yoga at the Fin de
Chicago Press, 1996); White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: Bhāratīya Kuśtī 10, nos. 7, 8, 9 (1973), pp. 21–26;
Siècle: Muscular Christianity with a ‘Hindu’ Twist,”
University of Chicago Press, 2009); White, Yoga Atreya, “Brahmāchārya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 10, nos. 10,
International Journal of the History of Sport 23, no. 5,
in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 11, 12 (1973), pp. 21–34; Atreya, “Kuṭhālgate, Rājpur
(2006) pp. 759–76. For an analytical discussion of · Kuśtī Praśikṣan Kendra Chunne kā
2012). A distinction between “gross” (material and kā Yoga evam
embodied alchemy, see Joseph S. Alter, “Sacrifice
tangible) and “subtle” (ethereal and intangible) Viśiṣṭ Rahasiya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 18, nos. 10, 11, 12
and Immortality: Theoretical Implications of Embod-
elements and physiology is integral to the practice of (1981), pp. 62–64; Atreya, “Bharat meṃ Śārīrik
iment in Hathayoga,” South Asia: Journal of South
yoga. Thus breathing “gross” air is a form of exercise Śikṣa,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 31, no. 12 (1993), pp. 37–62.
Asian Studies 35, no. 2, pp. 408–33.
(pranayama) whereby the body internalizes and
28. Joseph Alter, “Sex, Askesis and the Athletic
transubstantiates the element into its subtle form 17. Joseph Alter, “Sri Yogendra: Magic, Modernity and
Perfection of the Soul: Physical Philosophy in the
as “pran.” Similarly the subtle form of gross semen the Burden of the Middle-Class Yogi,” in Gurus in
Ancient Mediterranean and South Asia,” in Subtle
is embodied through the practice of various yoga Modern Yoga, ed. Mark Singleton (Oxford and New
Bodies, ed. Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnson
techniques. York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
(London: Routledge, 2013).
4. White, Yoga in Practice, p. 2. 18. See John MacAloon, Muscular Christianity in Colo-
29. Shanti Prakash Atreya, Yoga Manovigyān kī Rūp
nial and Post-Colonial Worlds (London: Routledge,
5. White, Yoga in Practice. Rekhā (Moradabad, India: Darshan Printers, 1965).
2007).
Sāṃkhya is one of the six classical schools of philos-
6. White, Sinister Yogis.
19. Other forms of alternative healing were becoming ophy that dates to the early centuries CE. It is based
7. David Gordon White, Kiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” popular in many parts of the world, and there are on the dualist principle that puruṣa, a perfect and
in Its South Asian Context (Chicago: University of interesting and important links between Theoso- transcendent animating principle, is categorically
Chicago Press, 2003). phy, New Thought, Swedenborgianism, and health distinct from prakṛti, all that is inanimate, material,
reform and physical culture in India, Europe, and the and manifest in the world. Sāṃkhya philosophy
8. Joseph Alter, “Sacrifice and Immortality: Theo-
United States. Some of these issues are examined provides the logical structure for understanding
retical Implications of Embodiment in Hathayoga,”
in Joseph S. Alter, Gandhi’s Body: Sex, Diet, and the how yoga physiology relates to the more abstract,
South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 35, no. 2
Politics of Nationalism (Philadelphia: University of encompassing and ecological dynamics of puruṣa
(2012); White, Yoga in Practice.
Pennsylvania Press, 2000), and are being explored in and prakṛti.
9. White, Sinister Yogis. a current research project on the integration of ecol-
30. Ramchandra Kesriya, “Haṭhayoga yukt Pahal-
ogy, yoga, and nature cure in contemporary India.
10. White, Sinister Yogis. wānī,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 30, no. 12 (1992), pp. 35–46;
20. Sri Yogendra, Yoga Personal Hygiene (Bombay: Kesriya, “Haṭhayoga yukt Pahalwānī,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī
11. For more on Vivekananda, see cats. 24a–h and
Yoga Institute, 1930); Yogendra, Yoga Āsanas Simpli- 31, no. 3 (1993), pp. 65–82; Kesriya, “Haṭhayoga
Singleton’s discussion in “Globalized Modern Yoga.”
fied (Bombay: Yoga Institute, 1991). yukt Pahalwānī,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 31, no. 12 (1993),
12. Swami Kuvalayananda, Āsana (Lonavala: pp. 63–72; Kesriya, “Haṭhayoga yukt Pahalwānī,”
21. B. K. S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga (New York:
Kaivalyadhama SMYM Samithi, 1924); Kuva- Bhāratīya Kuśtī 34, no. 2 (1996), pp. 35–48; Kesriya,
Schocken Books, 1976); K. Pattabhai Jois, Yoga Mala
layananda, Yoga Therapy: Its Basic Principles and “Haṭhayoga yukt Pahalwānī,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 34, no.
(New York: North Point Press, 2002).
Methods (New Delhi: Government of India, 1963). 11 (1996), pp. 45–58.
22. See cats. 26a–i, especially the discussion on the
13. Alter, “Yoga and Physical Education.” 31. See also Atreya, “Brahmāchārya,” Bhāratīya
1938 archival film of Krishnamacharya performing
Kuśtī 10; “Brahmāchārya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 11; and
14. See Jean Langford, Fluent Bodies: Ayurvedic and demonstrating āsanas that was sponsored by
“Brahmāchārya,” Bhāratīya Kuśtī 24, no. 12 (1987),
Remedies for Postcolonial Imbalances (Durham: Duke the Mysore maharaja.
pp. 25–52. Based on sāṃkhya philosophy, one can
University Press, 2002); Dagmar Wujastyk and Fred-
23. See Joseph Alter, “Yoga at the Fin de Siècle: understand the relationship with semen as a highly
erick Smith, Modern and Global Ayurveda: Pluralism
Muscular Christianity with a ‘Hindu’ Twist,” in Muscu- refined and more or less subtle derivative of prakritic
and Paradigms (Albany: SUNY Press, 2008); Mark
lar Christianity and Colonialism, ed. John J. MacAloon elements and ojas, that element of embodied
Singleton, “Body at the Centre: The Postural Yoga
(New York: Routledge, 2007). experience that reflects—as the most refined of all
Renaissance and Transnational Flows,” in The Magic
elements—the transcendence of puruṣa.
of Yoga: Conceptualizing Body and Self in Transcultural 24. The Self-Realization Fellowship was established
Perspective, ed. Beatrix Hauser (Heidelberg: Springer, by Paramahansa Yogananada in 1920 to develop a
2012). spiritual way of life based on meditation, prayer, and
various forms of yoga exercise. See the section on
Yogananda in “Globalized Modern Yoga.”

94 | ESSAYS
Mark Singleton
Globalized Modern Yoga
For the first several thousand years of its development, yoga was largely confined to
South Asia, i.e., the geographical region corresponding to the modern nation states of India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet, and Bhutan. Although there is evidence of exchanges of yogic
knowledge and practice outside this region through the centuries, it is only in the modern period that
yoga began to be transmitted in a systematic and widespread fashion in other parts of the world. By the
beginning of the twenty-first century, yoga had become a truly global phenomenon, with yoga classes
available in virtually every metropolis in the world—most prominently in North America, Europe, and
Australasia, but also in Central and South America, the Middle East, Asia, and parts of Africa. Yoga is
now a household word far from its place of origin, although in its modern forms and modalities it can
be quite distinct from the South Asian forebears commonly invoked as their source and authority. There
is a great deal of variety in the content and mode of yoga’s global transmissions, and variation also in
the claimed or actual links to Indian tradition. This article will consider some of the most important
historical stages of this globalization process as well as several of the ways in which yoga has adapted
and accommodated itself to the modern, transnational world.
The Modern Yoga Renaissance

The latter part of the nineteenth century saw a reconstruction of the cultural and religious foundations
of Hinduism by certain sections of the Indian intelligentsia. This reworking of the basic concepts and
principles of Indian religious tradition—a result of the encounter with new ideas and concepts from
the West—is sometimes referred to as “neo-Hinduism.”1 The Bengali cultural association known as the
Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1828 by Rammohan Roy (1774–1833), repositioned Hinduism as a univer-
salist, rational faith that could synthesize ancient Indian religious culture with the insights of contem-
porary science, philosophy, and comparative religion. Roy propounded an earthly, utilitarian religion
and was fascinated by the teachings of Christianity, in particular the tenets of Unitarianism (he helped
establish the Unitarian Mission in Bengal in 1821). He was also influential in spreading “Hindu” ideas Fig. 1
Yoga on the National
abroad, including to Emersonian transcendentalists in the United States. It was out of such revisionist
Mall, Washington, DC,
enterprises that certain modern, transnational yoga forms took shape.2 May 2013
GLOBALIZED MODERN YOGA | 95

Keshubchandra Sen (1838–1884), who joined the Brahmo Samaj in 1857, was instru-
mental in furthering the dialogue between neo-Hinduism, Western esoteric and occultist culture, Uni-
tarianism, and American transcendentalism. He also propounded new ways of thinking about yoga.3
Speaking in 1881, Sen declared,
We Hindus are specially endowed with, and distinguished for, the yoga faculty, which is
nothing but this power of spiritual communion and absorption […] Waving the magic wand
of yoga … we command Europe to enter into the heart of Asia, and Asia to enter into the
mind of Europe, and they obey us, and we instantly realize within ourselves a European
Asia and an Asiatic Europe, a commingling of oriental and occidental ideas and principles.4
In many respects, Sen’s explicitly synthetic conception of yoga as a melding of Asia and
Europe predicted yoga’s later development and laid the foundations for the influential experiments
undertaken subsequently by another Brahmo member, Swami Vivekananda (born Narendranath Datta,
1863–1902).
In 1893, Vivekananda visited the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago and was
an instant success (see fig. 2 and cats. 24a–h).5 He was adopted by the esoteric avant-garde of East Coast
America and subsequently authored a number of books influenced by this audience and written with
them in mind. He became “the first teacher of yoga in the West.”6 His Raja Yoga (1896) is one of the most
important foundational documents in the history of modern, transnational yoga. It is in part a translation
of the ashtanga (eight-limb) yoga section of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras,7 and in part an elaboration of practical
yoga techniques. De Michelis has argued that Vivekananda’s teachings in Raja Yoga and elsewhere were
strongly influenced by the currents of Brahmo-style neo-Hinduism, and represent an amalgam of West-
ern esotericism, modern European philosophy, and “classical” yoga.8 Vivekananda was also greatly influ-
enced by the teachings of the now famous Bengali saint, Sri Ramakrishna, who was his guru. Vivekanan-
da’s work was to form a blueprint for many of the global experiments in yoga that followed.
Fig. 2
Swami Vivekananda
on the platform of
the Parliament of the
World’s Religions,
September 11, 1893.
Vedanta Society, V16
96 | MARK SINGLETON
Also vital to the modern, global transformation of yoga was the Theosophical Society,
an esoteric spiritual organization founded in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891; fig. 3) and
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907).9 Theosophical constructions of yoga were far-reaching, and
the society’s literary output immense. It is not without considerable reason that Blavatsky could claim
in 1881 that “neither modern Europe nor America had so much as heard” of yoga “until the Theoso-
phists began to speak and write.”10 Theosophical yoga author Rama Prasad, in a 1907 Theosophical
edition of the Yoga Sutras, even went so far as to claim that whatever knowledge Hindus within the
society possessed was “due to their contact with and the influence of Western brothers.”11 The society’s
profoundly influential interpretations of yoga did much to disseminate a Western esoteric understand-
ing of the discipline’s theory and practice. It also republished the earliest book-length study of yoga
Fig. 3
as medicine, by N. C. Paul, thus contributing another significant strand to the development of modern Madame Blavatsky,
understandings of yoga’s function and goals.12 1870
Other immensely influential figures in the global transmission of yoga include: Swami
Sivananda (1887–1963), who borrowed significantly from Vivekananda’s model of yoga and whose
Divine Life Society produced many pamphlets and books that were distributed around the world13;
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952; fig. 4), who arrived in the United States in 1920 and went on
to found the Self-Realization Fellowship and publish one of the most influential books on yoga ever
written, the inspirational Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)14; and Sri Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950) whose
work has also had a profound effect on global conceptions of yoga.15
New Thought, Globalized Metaphysics, and Perennialism

Vivekananda’s emphasis on universalism, and his openness to popular spiritual currents of the day,
made his yoga highly compatible with the heterogeneous array of beliefs and practices that flourished
Fig. 4
within and around the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau, Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Sci-
Paramahansa
ence, and the hugely popular “Mind Cure” movement, better known as “New Thought.” Elements of Yogananda,
founder of the
these popular esoteric doctrines were ubiquitous in practical yoga primers intended for the European
Self-Realization
and American reading public, and it seems to have been widely taken for granted that positive thinking, Fellowship
auto-suggestion, and the “harmonial,” this-worldly belief framework of New Thought were not so much
contributions to yoga as its full expression. Conversely, it was largely assumed that yoga was the peren-
nial, exotic repository of these newly (re-)discovered truths. Transcendentalism, Christian Science, and
New Thought enacted a popular revolution in personal religious belief. Many assumptions of what it
means to practice yoga in the West today can be traced back to these beginnings. Perhaps the clearest
example of this merger of popular Western spirituality and yoga is the slew of books Swami Ramacha-
raka authored between 1903 and about 1917. Ramacharaka was the pen name of prolific Chicago lawyer
and New Thought guru William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932).16
Yoga has flourished globally within the framework of the “perennial philosophy,” a theo-
logical position that asserts that, despite differences at the level of ritual, doctrine, and institutional
reality, all religions are one at their mystical core. This belief—closely related to the “spiritual but not
religious” commitments of Unitarianism, New Thought, and various Hindu revivalist movements—has a
history with roots in the more distant past, but which began to predominate after the Second World War,
with the publication of Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy in 1945 and Joseph Campbell’s The
Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949. Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions, which first appeared in 1958
as The Religions of Man, also promoted a perennialist vision of religion.17 Perennialism has enormous
global currency today, and provides an underpinning belief system to many expressions of modern yoga,
which exist in what Catherine Albanese describes as “an intercepted Asia, caught in complex thickets
between separate Asian pasts, Westernized Asian presents, and American polysemous perceptions.…”18

Yoga and Magic
The yogi was the object of an intense fascination for European occultists, who naturally emphasized
the wondrous magical powers that such figures could acquire through yoga, often claiming personal
experience and mastery of these techniques. Many early twentieth-century books on yoga emphasize
magical powers and are full of fortune-tellers, sorcerers, and miracle workers. They appeal to an esoteric
audience’s thirst for stories about the yogic magicians of the mystical East, but are rarely reliable when
it comes to information regarding the techniques and belief frameworks of traditional yogins. One of
the most famous of these Western yoga magicians was Aleister Crowley (fig. 5), who was referred to in
Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast as “the wickedest man in the world.”19 Crowley’s fascination with
yoga and Tantra contributed to a generalized identification of them with magic, especially “sex magick.”20
Yoga, Health, and Physical Culture

The popular postural component of globalized yoga practice, asana, tended to be absent from early
formulations in the yoga renaissance. This may have been because of the connection between posture
and the figure of the hatha yogin, who was often associated with backwardness, magic, and super-
stition. Hatha yoga in this mode was not in keeping with the modern, scientific, and respectable face
of modern, transnational yoga, as presented by Vivekananda and others. The revival of postural yoga
forms from the 1920s and 1930s onward saw asana incorporated into the pre-
dominant discourse of physical culture, healthism, and “keep fit.” In this model,
the more esoteric or abstruse Tantric elements of hatha yoga were replaced by
an interpretive framework borrowed from modern medicine, health science, body-
building, and gymnastics. Innovators like Swami Kuvalayananda (1883–1966) and
Sri Yogendra (1897–1989) established the world’s first yoga institutes, dedicated to
developing yoga as a health and fitness regimen on the one hand, and as a system
of medicine on the other. Another influential teacher of the time, Sri T. Krishnam-
acharya (1888–1989; fig. 6), innovated similar rigorous, health- and healing-ori-
ented modes of posture practice, varieties of which became immensely influen-
tial around the world through his famous disciples: B. K. S. Iyengar (born 1918),
the eponymous founder of Iyengar Yoga (fig. 7); Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (1915–2009),
who taught the dynamic “jumping” system known as Ashtanga Vinyasa; Indra Devi
(1899–2002), a Latvian woman who helped to popularize yoga in America with the
help of high-profile Hollywood students like Gloria Swanson, Greta Garbo, and
Marilyn Monroe (fig. 10); and Krishnamacharya’s son, T. K. V. Desikachar. It was due
Fig. 5 to the efforts of early innovators like Kuvalayananda, Yogendra, and Krishnamacharya that globalized
Aleister Crowley as
yoga came to be associated so strongly with postural practice (see cats. 26a–26i).21
Paramahamsa Shivaji
As yoga spread to the West, it interacted with traditions of “spiritual gymnastics” that
arose in Europe and America during the nineteenth century, often developed by and for women. These
forms of purposive exercise (i.e., exercise done for the sake of cultivating the body, in contrast to man-
ual labor, etc.) used stretching and deep, “rhythmical” breathing to open up the body to divine influ-
ences. The theoretical basis for these practices (especially in America) often came from the same
“unchurched,” para-protestant, spiritual milieus that underpinned New Thought and Christian Science.
In both Europe and America, women’s exercise was increasingly associated with stretching, as opposed
to the more masculine modalities of weight resistance, tumbling, and balancing. Many popular “hatha
yoga” classes of the twenty-first-century urban West are in some sense a continuation of these wom-
en’s gymnastic forms and their “spiritual” framework.22
98 | MARK SINGLETON
Fig. 6
Sri T. Krishnamacharya
(1888–1989), Chennai,
India, 1988
Fig. 7
Indian yoga master
B. K. S. Iyengar
demonstrates four
postures, 1930s
Fig. 9
Peace Pilot
(Vishnudevananda),
Palam Airport, New
Delhi, India, October
26, 1971
Fig. 8
Swami Muktananda
Arrives in Santa
Monica, California,
1980

The 1960s and Counterculture
In the 1960s, the rise of flower power brought yoga to the attention of a generation of young Ameri-
cans and Europeans. The wholesale embrace of Indian metaphysics and yoga by many countercultural
icons—such as the Beatles’ spiritual romance with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (fig. 11)—reinforced yoga’s
position in the popular psyche and inspired many to join the “hippy trail” to India in pursuit of alternative
philosophies and lifestyles. Indian gurus arriving in America from 1965 onward brought a fresh infu-
sion of “Eastern wisdom” into the American psyche. These included Swami Muktananda (1908–1982),
founder of Siddha Yoga (fig. 8); A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896–1977), founder of the International
Society for Krishna Consciousness, more commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement; Amrit Desai
(born 1932), who in 1965 founded the Yoga Society of Pennsylvania, later renamed Kripalu in honor of
Desai’s guru, Swami Kripalvandanda (1913–1981); and two disciples of Swami Sivananda: Swami Satchi-
dananda (1914–2002), who founded the Integral Yoga Institute, and Swami Vishnudevananda (1927–
1993), who established International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta centers around the world and published
the highly influential postural manual The Complete Book of Yoga (1960; fig. 9). Increased media atten-
tion brought yoga closer to the mainstream, and printed primers and television series throughout the
1960s and 1970s, such as Richard Hittleman’s Yoga for Health (first broadcast in 1961), encouraged
many to take up posture-based yoga in the comfort of their own homes.23
Post-1960s
The 1970s and 1980s were a period of consolidation for yoga in the West with the establishment and
expansion of a significant number of dedicated schools and institutes. The period also saw a further
and enduring rapprochement of yoga with the burgeoning New Age movement, which in many ways
represented a new manifestation of yoga’s century-old association with currents of esotericism. In con-
Fig. 10
Yoga Curl (Marilyn
Monroe), 1948
100 | MARK SINGLETON

trast, some postural yoga schools developed more secular models of practice, distancing themselves Fig. 11
The Beatles and the
from the often controversial religious gurus of the 1960s. B. K. S. Iyengar and his organization’s work Maharishi, Rishikesh,
with adult education authorities in the United Kingdom make an interesting case in point.24 Dehradun, India,
March 1, 1968
By the mid-1990s, posture-based yoga had become thoroughly acculturated in many
urban centers in the West. More athletic, dynamic systems began to gain in popularity, often based on
Jois’s Ashtanga Vinyasa method. These systems are one of the predominant modes of yoga practice in
the United States today, and are variously referred to as Vinyasa Yoga, Flow Yoga, and Power Yoga. They
are characterized by dynamic, flowing series of postures and repetitive, linking sequences (known as vin-
yasas, a usage coined by Jois’s guru, T. Krishnamacharya).25 Bikram Yoga, founded by Bikram Choudhury
(born 1946), also gained massive popularity in the 1990s and into the 2000s. This physically demanding
system comprises twenty-six asanas performed twice through in temperatures of at least one hundred
degrees Fahrenheit. In 2003 Choudhury, who claims to have brought hatha yoga to the West, took con-
troversial measures to franchise his brand of yoga, taking out lawsuits against unauthorized teachers.26

Fig. 12
Heat Wave Hits New
York City on the First
Day of Summer by
John Moore, June 20,
2012
The Contemporary Yoga Boom

A U.S. poll suggests that more than six million Americans (approx. 3.3 percent of the population) were
practicing yoga in 1994, 1.86 million of them regularly.27 Ten years later, another national poll esti-
mated that fifteen million Americans were practicing yoga regularly, while the proportion “interested
in yoga” had also risen substantially.28 The popular magazine Yoga Journal estimated in 2003 that
approximately 25.5 million Americans (12 percent of the population) were “very interested” in yoga.
A further 35.3 million people (16 percent) intended to try yoga within the next year, and 109.7 million
(more than one-third of the American population) had at least a “casual interest” in yoga.29 A 2008 Yoga
Journal market study suggests that while the U.S. population practicing yoga has stabilized, spending
on classes, yoga vacations, and products has almost doubled.30 The 1990s “boom” turned yoga into an
important commercial enterprise, with increasing levels of merchandising and commodification (fig.
12). In response, many contemporary teachers have challenged the commercialization of yoga by offer-
ing donation-based classes or encouraging social activism as an antidote to the perceived narcissism
of the contemporary yoga marketplace.31 What yoga will become in the future is unknown, but it will
doubtless continue to grow and adapt in tension between its ancient roots and pressing contemporary
concerns such as these.
102 | MARK SINGLETON

Notes
1. See Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe: An Essay 18. Catherine Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit: 31. See, for example, Yoga to the People, which
in Understanding (Albany: State University of New A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion offers classes by donation (yogatothepeople.com;
York Press, 1988), pp. 219–20. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 334. accessed March 2013); Seane Corne’s yoga activist
For a useful summary of the arguments against movement Off The Mat (offthematintotheworld.com;
2. See David Kopf, The Brahmo Samaj and the
perennialism as a valid philosophical/religious accessed March 2013); and the organization Yoga
Shaping of the Modern Indian Mind (Princeton, NJ:
position, see the introduction to Stephen Prothero’s Activist (yogaactivist.org; accessed March 2013).
Princeton University Press, 1979).
God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the
3. See Elizabeth De Michelis, A History of Modern World—and Why Their Differences Matter (New York:
Yoga: Patañjali and Western Esotericism (London: HarperOne, 2010).
Continuum, 2004), p. 50.
19. Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (New York:
4. Keshubchandra Sen, Lectures in India I (London: Scribner, 2009), p. 80.
Cassell, 1901), pp. 484–85.
20. See Hugh B. Urban, Magia sexualis: sex, magic,
5. Richard Hughes Seager, The World’s Parliament and liberation in modern Western esotericism (Berke-
of Religions: The East/West Encounter, Chicago, 1893 ley, CA: University of California Press, 2006).
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009).
21. See Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of
6. Dermot Killingley, “Manufacturing Yogis: Swami Modern Posture Practice (New York: Oxford University
Vivekananda as a Yoga Teacher,” in Gurus of Modern Press, 2010).
Yoga, ed. Mark Singleton and Ellen Goldberg (New
22. Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 144–62.
York: Oxford University Press, 2013).
23. See Philip Goldberg, American Veda: From
7. Yoga Sutras II.28 to III.8, 325–425 CE.
Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation,
8. De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga. How Indian Spirituality Changed the West (New York:
Doubleday, 2010); and Stefanie Syman, The Subtle
9. See Joscelyn Godwin, The Theosophical Enlight-
Body: The Story of Yoga in America (New York: Farrar,
enment (Albany, NY: State University of New York
Straus and Giroux, 2010).
Press, 1994).
24. See Suzanne Newcombe, “The Institutionaliza-
10. H. P. Blavatsky, Collected Writings, Vol. III:
tion of the Yoga Tradition—‘Gurus’ B. K. S. Iyengar
1881–1882 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing
and Yogini Sunita in Britain,” in Gurus of Modern Yoga.
House, 1982), p. 104.
25. See Benjamin Smith, “With Heat Even Iron Will
11. Ram Prasad, Self-Culture; or, the Yoga of Patanjali
Bend: Discipline and Authority in Ashtanga Yoga,” in
(Madras: Theosophical Office, 1907), p. 11.
Yoga in the Modern World: Contemporary Perspectives,
12. Nobin Chunder Paul, A Treatise on the Yoga Phi- ed. Mark Singleton and Jean Byrne (London: Rout-
losophy (1850, repr. Bombay: Tukaram Tatya for the ledge Hindu Studies Series, 2008), pp. 141–60; and
Bombay Theosophical Fund, 1888). Jean Byrne, “‘Authorized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois’: The
Role of Paramparā and Lineage in Ashtanga Vinyasa
13. See Sarah Strauss, Positioning Yoga: Balancing
Yoga” in Gurus of Modern Yoga.
Acts across Cultures (Oxford: Berg, 2005).
26. Allison Fish, “The Commodification and
14. See “Yoga, Bodybuilding, and Wrestling: Meta-
Exchange of Knowledge in the Case of Transnational
physical Fitness” by Joseph Alter in this volume.
Commercial Yoga,” International Journal of Cultural
15. Ann Gleig and Charles Flores, “Remembering Sri Property 13, pp. 189–206. For an insider account
Aurobindo and the Mother: The Forgotten Lineage of of Bikram Yoga, see Benjamin Lorr, Hell-Bent:
Integral Yoga,” in Gurus of Modern Yoga. Obsession, Pain, and the Search for Something Like
Transcendence in Competitive Yoga (New York: St.
16. See H. W. Dresser, A History of the New Thought
Martin’s Press, 2012).
Movement (London: Harrap, n.d.); Carl T. Jackson,
“The New Thought Movement and the Nineteenth 27. Anne Cushman, “Guess Who’s Coming to Yoga?”
Century Discovery of Oriental Philosophy,” Journal of Yoga Journal 118 (September/October 1994), pp.
Popular Culture 9 (1975), pp. 523–48. 47–48.
17. Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy (New 28. M. Carter, “New Poses for Macho Men,” The Times
York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1945); Joseph Body & Soul Supplement, May 22, 2004; available at
Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (New http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk.
York, London: Pantheon/Allen & Unwin, 1949);
29. K. Arnold, “We’re Listening,” Yoga Journal 174
Huston Smith, The Religions of Man (New York:
(May/June 2003), p. 10.
Harper, 1958).
30. “Yoga Journal Releases 2008 ‘Yoga in America’
Market Study”; http://www.yogajournal.com/adver-
tise/press_releases/10; accessed January 2009.

THE PATH TO YOGA
Part One
The Path of Yoga
Manifestations of Shiva The Hindu traditions known as Shaiva are held in his lower left hand, (now missing).
based on the teachings of the deity Shiva; With an elongated torso and a dignified
1A their texts are known as Tantras and air, the granite Bhairava epitomizes the
Shiva as Bhairava Agamas. Shaivas understand the revela- restrained aesthetic of eleventh-century
India, Tamil Nadu, 11th century tions of yogic knowledge by Bhairava and Chola dynasty sculptors.
Granite, 108 × 47.9 × 28.4 cm
Sadashiva, two manifestations of Shiva, In contrast, a Bhairava from thir-
The Trustees of the British Museum,
Brooke Sewell Permanent Fund, 1967.1016.1 as particularly refined and effective. 4
teenth-century Karnataka displays the
Bhairava (Sanskrit: horrific) is one of elaborate ornamentation favored by
1B
the most widely worshiped Hindu gods.5 patrons during the Hoysala dynasty (cat.
Shiva Bhairava
His many identities, which have long 1b). Its sculptor exploited the softness
India, Karnataka, Mysore, 13th century
Chloritic schist, 116.6 × 49.23 cm coexisted in lived practices and popular of freshly quarried schist to create
The Cleveland Museum of Art, perceptions, range from fierce Tantric extraordinary details—such as the snake
John L. Severance Fund, 1964.3691
deity to powerful protector of devotees, slithering up the shaft and in and out
1C temples, villages, and cities. For yogis, of the deep orifices of the skull atop
Bhairava the Bhairava who transgresses social the khatvanga staff—without losing the
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, ca. 1800 norms and bestows superhuman powers plump volumes and sinuous stance of
Opaque watercolor on paper, 27.9 × 17.6 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.45.1954 is both deity and archetype. In the large the god’s body.
corpus of texts known as the Bhairava Bhairava has numerous manifesta-
1D
Tantras, he reveals the teachings of tions, and his attributes are shared by the
The Five-Faced Shiva
yoga and prescribes initiation rituals in guardian deities (kshetrapalas) who pro-
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, ca. 1730–40
Opaque watercolor on paper, 26.6 × 18.2 cm which adepts become immortals with tect orthodox Shaiva or goddess temples.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, unlimited powers. Yogis expressed their Therefore Bhairava images often resist
Given by Col. T. G. Gayer-Anderson and Maj. R. G.
Gayer-Anderson, Pasha, IS.239-19522
identification with Bhairava by imitating precise identification.7 Whether Bhairava
his appearance and his transgressive or kshetrapala, the quality and size of
1E habits; like the god, they haunted both the Chola and Hoysala sculptures
Sadashiva
cremation grounds, which provided the strongly suggest that they were made
India, Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur, ca. 1670
Attributed by B. N. Goswamy to Devidasa
ashes they smeared on their bodies and for temples commissioned by rulers.
Opaque watercolor, gold, and applied beetle-wing the skull cups that they carried. Carrion- Royally patronized temples across India
on paper, 19.1 × 18.4 cm
eating dogs were often their compan- were sites of orthodox (i.e., brahmanic)
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection3
ions.6 Two medieval temple sculptures ritual and personal devotionalism. The
and an eighteenth-century devotional Bhairava sculptures thus exemplify the
painting each display some of Bhairava’s incorporation of fierce Tantric deities
characteristic attributes (cats. 1a, 1b, 1c). within the gentler and more inclusive
His third eye, waisted drum, trident, and arena of medieval Indian temple worship.
crescent moon signify his association A devotional verse by the Tamil saint
with Shiva; his fangs, flaming aureoles, Appar captures Bhairava’s layered iden-
and skull ornaments and bowls convey tity as a terrifying and grace-bestowing
terrifying power. Like his Tantric follow- deity:
ers, he wears matted locks, and his body
is smeared with ashes. Holding the trident
In the superb tenth-century temple its prongs flashing like the rays of the sun
sculpture from Tamil Nadu (cat. 1a), with resounding drum in hand
Bhairava appears as a naked ascetic with he came in the guise of Kala-Bhairava
the four arms of a god; his canine com- [black Bhairava]
panion appears in the place reserved for he ripped apart the elephant’s skin—seeing
the gentle bull Nandi in contemporan- Uma shrink in fear
eous sculptures of Shiva. A gentle smile his beautiful mouth widened into laughter
tempers the dangerous power implied … thus did he shower his grace
1a Shiva as by Bhairava’s fangs, his flaming halo of the beauteous lord of Tirucherai
Bhairava wildly radiating locks, and the skull bowl goal of the Vedas.8
106 | THE PATH OF YOGA

MANIFESTATIONS OF SHIVA
1b Shiva Bhairava
108 | THE PATH OF

YOGA
ENTRY NAME GOES HERE | 109
For Tantric yogis, Bhairava was both
transcendent guru and the god they
became through initiation and practice.
These living Bhairavas were a pervasive
presence within the religious landscape
of medieval India, engendering respect
and disgust for their deliberately pollut-
ing ways. For contemporary audiences
who may not have encountered Tantric
yogis (though they are still flourishing on
the subcontinent), the smear of red ritual
paste on the third eye of the Hoysala
Bhairava and the whitish surface of the
schist, which lends his body the appear-
ance of being ash-covered, intensify
the god’s uncannily human and horrify-
ing affect.
During the eighteenth century,
powerful paintings of Shiva’s manifes-
tations as Bhairava and Sadashiva were
produced in the Rajput kingdoms of the
Punjab hills of northwest India. Those
from the Mandi court have bluntly
outlined forms, matte surfaces, deep
and smoky colors, and an often hyper-
articulated stippling technique. The
distinctively earthy style, which emerged
under Raja Sidh Sen (reigned 1719–27),
a Tantric initiate widely credited with
magical powers, persists in this slightly
oversize devotional image of Bhairava
painted circa 1800 (cat. 1c). With Shiva’s
third eye and crescent moon upon his
forehead, and adorned in severed limbs,
the four-armed Bhairava holds a sword
over his left shoulder and a skull cup
filled with blood; his right hands display
1c Bhairava
the gestures of “have no fear” and
1d The Five-Faced Shiva “generosity.”9 His apron of arms suggests
Mandi’s location in a broader Himalayan
religious arena in which bone aprons
were typical garb for Buddhist and Hindu
Tantric deities.10 Spattered with reddish
pigment, the painting may have once
been placed on an altar and worshiped
with ritual paste.
Sadashiva, one of Shiva’s most
transcendent forms, figures in several
yoga traditions. Within the Agama texts
of orthodox Shaivism (Shaiva Siddhanta),

MANIFESTATIONS OF SHIVA
MANIFESTATION
he is the supreme deity and a higher One of Sadashiva’s most important
level of the cosmos in which there are acts was the transmission of teachings
no distinctions among person, body, and from subtle realms into language that
world.11 His five heads represent five could be accessed by humans.15 Because
streams of knowledge, ranging from the Tantras were typically structured
the highest Siddhanta teachings to the as conversations between a deity and
least venerated Vaishnava Tantras.12 his consort, this marvelous painting
This refined yet idiosyncratic image from Nurpur (cat. 1e), a Rajput kingdom
of Sadashiva from Mandi (cat. 1d) was in the Punjab Hills, evokes Sadashiva’s
painted shortly after the death of Raja role as the revealer of yogic knowledge.
Sidh Sen in 1727. The artist began the Sadashiva sits with the goddess on
work by loosely setting forms with a pink-petaled lotus floating against
translucent washes of color (visible in a wine-colored ground. His large, ash-
the lower left area because of loss of white body dominates the composition,
the painting’s topmost layer). He then the center of attention for the viewer’s
applied stippled daubs of paint to create attention as well as that of the goddess,
fuzzy volumes that eccentrically play whose gaze is fervid and alert. Although
off the crisply silhouetted forms. The the purpose of the painting is unknown,
painting’s imagery is equally distinc- it may have been made as a focus for
tive: it combines standard iconography meditation. DD
with local idioms and what are per-
haps the artist’s personal emphases.
Characteristically, Sadashiva has five
heads (the fifth invisible at the back),
a third eye, an ascetic’s garb, and the
attributes (here, clockwise from the top
right) of mace, conch shell, discus or
noose, lotus, shield, snake, sword, skull
cup, drum, and trident. Regional traits
include Sadashiva’s hirsute corpulence,
which is based on Sidh Sen’s body type
as recorded in his portraits, the horn
whistle necklace of a Nath yogi, and
a lower garment fashioned from a
precious snow-leopard skin.13 Other
elements emphatically invoke canonical
Shaiva myths. By including two elephant
skins (one draped over the altar and the
other over the god’s shoulder), the artist
reminds the viewer of Shiva’s slaying of
the elephant demon Gajasura. The long
tuft of black hair that dangles from the
skull cup is the topknot of a brahmin. Its
presence here recalls Shiva/Bhairava’s
decapitation of Brahma’s fifth head.14 To
atone, the god wandered with the head
stuck to his hand for twelve years, a pen-
ance that yogis of the Tantric Kapalika
sect emulated by carrying skull cups as
1e Sadashiva their begging bowls.
NS OF SHIVA
Portraying the Guru
2A
The Guru Vidyashiva
India, Bengal, 11th–12th century
Stone, 129.5 × 66 × 15.2 cm
Pritzker Collection1
2B
Matsyendranath
India, Karnataka, Bijapur, ca. 1650
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper,
16.5 × 20.3 cm
Collection of Kenneth X. and Joyce Robbins
2C
Gosain Kirpa Girji Receives Sheeshvalji
and His Son
India, Rajasthan, Marwar or Jodhpur,
mid-18th century
34.9 × 24.8 cm
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection2
2a The Guru
Vidyashiva

Portrayals of venerable yogis have a
long history in southern Asia. Images of
perfected sages, or masters of medita-
tion, not only were present from a very
early moment, they formed the basis for
much of India’s ancient figural imagery.
From the Buddha at Bodhgaya to Satya
Sai Baba today, the icon of the guru has
served as a reminder of a teacher and
recipient of devotion. In Hinduism, it is
often hard to discern the line between
visual representations of a yogi as a
generic auspicious figure and a portrait
of a specific human teacher. Beginning
around the fifth or sixth century, prom-
inent teachers, such as the Shaiva sage
Lakulisha, were deified after death and
incorporated into pantheons of major
Hindu deities. At the same time, generic
images of gurus engaged in the act of
religious instruction became increasingly
common on temple walls. The two or
three centuries following the turn of the
first millennium introduced new kinds of
images identifiable as portraits of historic
human teachers.3 Often identified by
name and sampradaya (religious order),
they were nonetheless deified and
understood to have acted as manifesta-
tions of Shiva on Earth while still alive.
A particularly well-preserved
example can be seen in an eleventh- or
twelfth-century sculpted figure of a
Shaiva ascetic teacher, identified as the
guru Vidyashiva in an inscription along
its base, originally from Bengal (cat. 2a).4 flight upward culminates in a magnificent 2b Matsyendranath
Framed wonderfully through architec- face of glory (kirtimukha), positioned

ture, the guru sits in his own beauti- centrally above the guru’s head.
fully rendered pavilion, surrounded by At first glance, the bearded sage
worshipful disciples holding their hands could be mistaken for a generic Shaiva
in anjali mudra. The frontal format and ascetic with tall, matted hair (jatamu-
scale of the relief suggests that it was kuta). However, the inscription on the
intended to be a primary icon inserted base indicates that the image is a por-
into a wall niche or shrine. Like contem- trait5 of a specific sage, Vidyashiva, who
porary images of deities, the guru sits lived perhaps a few generations earlier
on a lotus throne in meditation, his legs and whose disciples came to be favored
crossed in the lotus position (padma- by the Pala rulers of northeastern
sana). The intermediary spaces are India (circa 750–1174 CE) in subsequent
filled with vyalas (mythical lions), and generations.6 Although once human,
attendant demigods (vidyadharas) whose Vidyashiva is marked as divine through
PORTRAYING THE GURU | 115

the presence of a third eye at the center and a servant holding a peacock-feather 2c Gosain Kirpa
Girji Receives
of his forehead. fan and a cloth. While the three ochre
Sheeshvalji and
In contrast to the public nature of lines along his forehead mark him His Son
sculpted portraits, visible on the exterior as a Shaiva, his name more specifi-
of a temple wall, were smaller painted cally indicates his membership within
images of gurus commissioned by the Dasnami sampradaya.7 Mediating
patrons for more private viewing. Many between the courtly and the ascetic is
such paintings survive from after the a gilded hookah, likely a gift, which
seventeenth century. An image of a sage is situated meaningfully just below the
wearing a patchwork dhoti is likely from visiting patrons. Despite his engagement
the Deccani sultanate of Bijapur, circa with worldly things, Gosainji Kirpal Girji
1650 (cat. 2b). In it, we encounter the remains a renunciant, his body smeared
guru as a solitary figure, depicted in strict with ashes and clad only in a loincloth
profile, seated in a cross-legged posture, that enables the viewer to clearly see his
and endowed with a protruding belly, large belly, long interpreted as indicating
long beard, and matted locks, carefully the retention of yogic breath.8
tied back in an elaborate ochre turban. The presence of devotees, who
Lying before him is a crutch and a water make the act of guru-worship visible, can
pot. The Persian inscription on the recto be compared to the sculpted figure of
identifies the guru as Matsyendranath Vidyashiva, whose frontality invites the
(or Matsyendra), the circa eighth- audience to participate in a direct visual
century exponent of the Western stream exchange. The meeting between guru
of Kaula Shaivism. Whether or not the and shishya (disciple) depicted in cat.
use of Persian is indicative of a Muslim 2c may reveal a pattern of devotion that
patron is unknown, particularly since Vidyashiva himself may have received,
the inscription may not necessarily be both in person during his lifetime and
contemporary with the painting. At the after death through the worshiper’s
same time, the image clearly allies itself encounter with his image on a temple
with Mughal conventions of portrai- wall. In both, the portrait represents a
ture through its solid teal background, specific historical Shaiva guru, who was
which first emerged during Akbar’s either still alive at the time of the image’s
reign (1556–1605), and the halo, which commission or removed by at most a few
became standard in imperial portraiture generations, yet still linked to a living
under Jahangir (reigned 1605–27). lineage of sages. By contrast, the Bijapur
A portrait of the guru Gosainji Kirpal painting of Matsyendranath, a long-past
Girji (cat. 2c) exhibits the flattened sur- and highly mythologized figure, follows
faces and olive and pink palette that are the form of a traditional portrait made
characteristic of paintings produced circa for a royally sponsored album, an object
1720 in the region of Nagaur (northern that could be appreciated for its paint-
Marwar). Seated cross-legged on a tiger erly finesse rather than as a focus
skin in a wooded enclave near a pond for devotion. TS
overflowing with lotuses, the guru is a
pensive figure, with a powerful hooked
nose and deep-set eyes that intensify
his gaze as he formally receives two
followers—the patron, a Rajput noble-
man named Sheeshvalji, and his son.
Behind the guru are his companions:
a dog wearing an elaborate red collar,
a disciple seated on an antelope skin,

Yoginis Like yoga or indeed any aspect of royally patronized temples mark the
India’s Hindu traditions, the identities of entry of the Tantric hordes into both
3A–C yoginis (female embodiments of yogic visual culture and more conventional
Three Yoginis
power) reveal continuous and multiple forms of Hindu worship.10
India, Tamil Nadu, Kanchipuram or Kaveripakkam,
ca. 900–975
transformations over time and across These life-size granite goddesses
Mafic igneous stone,1 height approx. 116 cm. sectarian, religious, lay, and geographic once graced a yogini temple near
boundaries. Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu (cats.
3A Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Gift of Arthur M. Sackler, S1987.905 Hindu and Buddhist Tantras of 3a–c).11 Each has four arms connoting
the seventh to twelfth century blur the divine status.12 Combining auspicious
3B Detroit Institute of Arts,
Founders Society Purchase, L.A. Young Fund, 57.88
distinction between human and divine, and dangerous iconography, the gently
identifying yoginis as both powerful smiling yoginis are full-breasted, slim-
3C Minneapolis Institute of Arts,
goddesses and the mortal women who waisted, and lithe. Yet they also have
The Christina N. and Swan J. Turnblad
Memorial Fund, 60.21 ritually became those deities. These
2
unbound hair (a marker of female wrath),
yoginis offered Tantric adepts the “fruits fangs, and skull cups for drinking liquor
3D
of yoga,” and the ability to “subjugate the or blood. Of the three, the fiercest bran-
Yogini
three-fold (i.e., entire) universe.”3 Hindu dishes a club and shield, her brows are
India, Uttar Pradesh, Kannauj,
first half of the 11th century Kaulas were influential in defining them curved in anger, and cobras coil around
Sandstone, 86.4 × 43.8 × 24.8 cm as potentially dangerous hordes of flying her torso and upper arms; the headless
San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with the John
and Karen McFarlin Fund and Asian Art Challenge
goddesses who could, when ritually pla- corpse carved on the pedestal invokes
Fund, 90.92 cated, bestow upon mortals the powers the charnel grounds of Tantric ritual (cat.
to fly and transcend time and death. 4
3b). Long-beaked birds, vehicles that sig-
3E
Saha Classed as Tantric because their primary nal flight, are lightly incised on the bases
Folio 242r from The Stars of the Sciences goal was power (rather than spiritual lib- of the two crowned yoginis (cats. 3a, 3c).
(Nujum al-‘Ulum) eration), Kaulas gave access to their rad- Snake and crocodiles ornament the ears
India, Karnataka, Bijapur, dated 1570–71
ical teachings only to initiated disciples. 5
of the goddess wielding the harvesting
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper,
25.8 × 16 cm (folio), 8.6 × 9.7 cm (painting) These adepts invited the fierce yoginis implements of winnower and broom;
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, to enter circles—more specifically, yogini the yogini with tattoos on her face and
Dublin, In 02 f.242a
chakras and more broadly, yantras (“tool” shoulders carries a jar and wand that may
3F in Sanskrit)—that they mentally or physi- indicate her healing ability.13 Carved from
Yogini with Mynah cally constructed, then propitiated them a hard igneous rock and dated by style
India, Karnataka, Bijapur, ca. 1603–4 with liquor or animal flesh and blood. 6
to the last quarter of the tenth century,
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper;
39.2 × 27.6 cm (folio with borders), For Kaulas, the detachment necessary to they exhibit the elongated and relatively
19.3 × 11.6 cm (painting without borders) cross boundaries and integrate polarities, unadorned idiom of Chola dynasty stone
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
such as the social distinction between sculptures (see cat. 1a).
Dublin, In 11A.31
pure and impure, was a critical step in A tenth-century yogini from Uttar
attaining a higher state of being. Pradesh in north India has weapons and
By the late ninth century, Hatha bared teeth as well as the voluptuous
yogis, orthodox Hindus, and monarchs body and neatly coiled hair of a benign
began appropriating and domesti- goddess (cat. 3d).14 Seated with legs
cating Tantric yoginis. Kings seeking audaciously akimbo, she inserts two fin-
worldly control were among their most gers into the corners of her open mouth
prominent devotees.7 Across the Indian to make a piercing noise. In the context
subcontinent, they constructed large of a royal temple, her sword, shield, and
stone yogini temples that were often war-cry whistle would have resonated as
prominently situated upon hills or close martial and protective emblems. Flight
to orthodox temples.8 Open to the sky, was foremost among the powers sought
many were constructed on round plans by Tantric practitioners, and thus her
akin to yogini chakras, with forty-two to owl vehicle identifies her as the arche-
108 sculptures of yogini goddesses set typal yogini—a sky traveler (khechari).15
3a Yogini into niches on their interior walls. The
9
Although her specific identity is unknown,

YOGINIS | 119
3b Yogini

3c Yogini
YOGINIS | 121
3d Yogini

YOGINIS
3e Saha she is likely one of the yoginis whose al-‘ulum), dated 1570–71), the sultan
names roughly translate as “she who described 140 yoginis, an astounding
makes a loud noise.” The sculptor’s
16
number that exceeds all known Hindu
ability to balance—without fussiness—the lists.19 Exemplifying the cultural hetero-
yogini’s smooth limbs with the very pre- geneity of Bijapur and the sultan’s desire
cisely realized cuticles of her fingernails, to edify his diverse courtiers, the text
individually carved litle teeth, and crisply collectively identifies them as yoginis
delineated owl feathers is masterful. He and individually retains their Indic names,
superbly exploited the softness and warm mudras (gestures), attributes, and yantras
golden color of sandstone to convey the (geometric diagrams), but integrates
organic quality of plump flesh; pearl-stud- them into the already-established Islamic
ded ornaments curve around her body to occult category of ruhaniya (earth spirits).
further emphasize its rounded volumes. The Stars of the Sciences was argu-
A rigorous yet rhythmic geometry—seen ably Bijapur’s most ambitious illustrated
for example in the radiating movement manuscript, and all 140 ruhaniya were
outward from her bowlike eyebrows to depicted both anthropomorphically and
the circle of tightly curled hair and thick geometrically as yantras.20 Because Hindu
tubular halo—lends dynamism to the astrological and yogini manuscripts were
whole. Notable too are the sculpture’s probably diagramatic or unillustrated,
volumes and shadows: the fully three-di- the illustrations may constitute the first
mensional realization of the pearl-edged detailed set of paintings represent-
sash below her elbows allows us to sense ing yoginis.21 Following the sultan’s
the suppleness of her spine, while the cal- text, a court artist depicted the fourth
culated undercutting of her mouth makes ruhaniya, Saha, as a standing crowned
it appear menacingly deep. woman carrying a water jug and stringed
Although Hindu kings ceased to instrument (cat. 3e). Centered against
construct yogini temples after the twelfth a patterned ground of fluidly drawn
century, Indian rulers of all religions foliage clusters, Saha is also copiously
sought the favor of yoginis so they would draped in gold and pearl ornaments. The
intercede in military affairs throughout adjacent yantra is highlighted on a red
the medieval period. For Indo-Islamic field with curling gold clouds. Its central
sultans seeking practical ways to con- square is inscribed “this chakra is named
solidate power between the fourteenth Saha,” and the gold cartouches name
and seventeenth centuries, propitiating the cardinal directions. The manuscript’s
yoginis, along with astrology and other uniquely comprehensive yogini group
divinatory sciences, were common tac- and its iconographically replete images
tics. From at least the fourteenth century
17
reveal a transformation in yogini identity
onwards, yoginis were known within accomplished through the integration of
Islamic intellectual circles as immortal Tantric, Islamic, and local beliefs about
beings who could mediate events on divination, the cosmos, and astrology.
Earth (see “Muslim Interpreters of Yoga” Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II (reigned
by Carl W. Ernst). In the sixteenth and 1579–1627), the nephew and successor
seventeenth centuries, for example, yogi- of Ali ‘Adil Shah II, not only inherited his
nis were accessed by the Muslim rulers of uncle’s splendid Stars of the Sciences but
Bijapur, a sultanate in the Deccan Plateau also commissioned paintings of yoginis
of central India (cats. 3e, 3f). Securing for inclusion within albums.22 Because
military victories was the stated goal of the sultan and his courtiers knew of
yogini propitiation for Sultan Ali ‘Adil semidivine ruhaniya, they may have
Shah II (reigned 1557–79). In chapter 6
18
understood the painted yoginis as agents
of his Stars of the Sciences (Nujum of otherworldly powers.23 Yogini with

Mynah (cat. 3f) epitomizes the supernal
intensity and finesse of Bijapur painting
achieved at the court of Ibrahim ‘Adil
Shah II. Through formal means, its other-
worldly affect suggests a being who pro-
vided supernatural assistance in worldly
affairs. Its artist, “the Dublin painter,”
created the visionary image through
daring manipulations of space, theat-
rical backlighting, and an improbable
palette that plays modulated passages of
salmon pink, smoky lavender, and dusky
whites off brilliant orange, raspberry, and
forest greens. Impossibly elongated,
the yogini has the ash-covered skin and
the dreadlock (jata) topknot of female
ascetics associated with the deity Shiva
and is laden with jewels like the immortal
yoginis described in Persian transla-
tions of Tantric texts or illustrated on
the pages of the Stars of the Sciences.24
Surrounded by surreally surging hillocks
and hugely blooming flowers, she stands
quite still, almost spellbound, though
her gold sashes furl and the delicate
tendrils of hair around her tilted head
quiver. Her cool bluish complexion
heightens the effect of her heavy-lidded
gaze, slight smile, and intimate commu-
nion with the mynah. Later Deccani and
North Indian paintings of yoginis, such as
cat. 18f, romanticize and even eroticize
yoginis; early twentieth-century images
(cats. 23b, 23c) reveal how yogini powers
emerged on the global stage in exotic
magic acts. DD

3f Yogini with
Mynah

Nath Siddhas
4A–C
Three folios from the Nath Charit
Bulaki
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1823 (Samvat 1880)
Opaque watercolor, gold, and tin alloy on paper,
47 × 123 cm
Merhangarh Museum Trust
4A Three Aspects of the Absolute

Folio 1 from the Nath Charit
RJS 23991
4B The Transmission of Teachings

RJS 2400
4C The Transmission of Teachings

RJS 2401
These hypnotic images open the Stories reference deities, but over the centuries
of the Naths (Nath Charit), a compen- as the order organized, the Naths grad-
dium of legends about the divinized ually became almost wholly oriented
masters of yoga known as siddhas toward the Hindu god Shiva.
(great perfected beings) within the Nath Stories of the Naths was composed
tradition. The Naths are closely asso- and illustrated in 1823 for Maharaja
ciated with classical hatha yoga, which Man Singh of Jodhpur (reigned 1803–
internalized the complex (and often 43), an ardent devotee of the siddha
transgressive) rituals of Tantra into the Jalandharnath and an unstinting patron
body of the practitioner. Hatha yoga
2
of the Nath sectarian order.4 Its cosmo-
developed between the thirteenth and logical cycle demonstrates a historical
fifteenth centuries by synthesizing two development in Nath identity and beliefs.
earlier yogic traditions: one that focused To firmly situate siddhas as transcen-
on physical techniques for retaining dent beings, the text adapts a Shaiva
semen and another based on visualiza- metaphysics: it re-identifies the limitless
tion techniques for raising energy (kund- Absolute (brahman) as a divine Nath and
alini) through the subtle body (see cats. his (i.e., the universe’s) first emanations
11a–c). Early Nath works on yoga rarely
3
into matter and consciousness as siddhas.

Vertical rules divide the monumen- hat of Nath yogis; the most subtle and 4a Three Aspects of
the Absolute, folio 1
tally sized folios, each almost four feet respected beings, like “Bliss-form Nath”
in width, into segments representing and Jalandharnath seen in the center
the siddhas as successive emanations of and right panels respectively of folio 1
being from a “self-effulgent [Nath] with- (cat. 4a), also have halos and ashen-blue
out beginning, limit, form or blemish.” To5
bodies.7 Silvery waters flowing from
meet the conceptual challenge of evok- Jalandharnath’s body constitute the next,
ing the immaterial, Bulaki, a master artist more material, ground of creation, the
in Man Singh’s atelier, began the creation cosmic ocean in (or perhaps on) which
sequence with an undifferentiated field of the Naths on folios 3 and 4 (cats. 4b,
shimmering gold pigment (cat. 4a, left). 4c) companionably converse. Virtually
The radical abstraction is an innovation identical, they are depicted as teachers
of the Jodhpur workshop; although the connected in a hierarchical chain of
formless Absolute is a conception central authoritative revelation.8 In Indian philo-
to many Hindu traditions, it had rarely sophical systems, the greatest spiritual
entered the realm of the visual. 6
authorities are those who have directly
Each saffron-clad siddha wears perceived ultimate reality (pratyaksha),
the horn necklace and triangular black which is visually indicated here by the left
NATH SIDDHAS | 129

4b (above) The to right sequence of progressively more become a standard Nath conception of
Transmission of
material (and hence lesser) emanations.9 siddhas and demonstrate the role of the
Teachings, folio 3
Several Naths touch their forefingers to visual in shaping historical transforma-
4c (below) The their thumbs in a gesture of imparting tions. DD
Transmission of
Teachings, folio 4 knowledge (vitarka mudra); on the far
right of folio 4, the deity Shiva joins two
of his four hands in worshipful respect.
Bulaki exploited the mesmerizing
affect of repetitive forms and gleaming
surfaces to convey the transcendent
divinity of the siddhas. Enigmatically
hovering and effortlessly emerging, rep-
licating, and regrouping on the highest
cosmic plane, they galvanize what would

Jain Yoga: Nonviolence
for Karmic Purification
5A
Seated Jina Ajita 1 5a Seated Jina Ajita
India, Tamil Nadu, 9th–10th century

Bronze, 18.5 × 14.5 × 9.3 cm
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Gift of Arthur M. Sackler,
S1987.162
5B
Jina
India, Rajasthan, 10th–11th century
Bronze with silver inlay, 61.5 × 49.5 × 36.8 cm
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and
Greta Millikin Purchase Fund, 2001.883
5C
Standing Jina
India, Tamil Nadu, 11th century
Bronze, 73.7 × 69.2 × 17.5 cm
Private Collection, LT164
5D
Jina
India, Rajasthan, probably vicinity of Mount Abu,
1160 (Samvat 1217)
Marble, 59.69 × 48.26 × 21.59
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Adolph D. and
Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2000.985
5E
Siddha Pratima Yantra
Western India, dated 1333 (Samvat 1390)
Bronze, 21.9 × 13.1 × 8.9 cm
Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.336
5F
Jain Ascetic Walking
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1600
Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper, The Jain tradition arose more than 2,700 tionship between soul and karma. Karma
14.7 × 9.8 cm years ago on India’s Gangetic Plain. in Jainism has physical qualities: it is
The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.244
Its earliest surviving text, the Acharanga material, sticky, and colorful. The most
Sutra (circa 300 BCE),7 specifies that difficult karmas densely coat the soul,
the path to spiritual liberation requires and hence prevent the soul from mani-
the careful practice of nonviolence. festing good qualities. Souls are found
Jainism acknowledges twenty-four great everywhere: in clumps of dirt, in gusts
teachers known as tirthankaras (forders of wind, in the flames of a bonfire, in
of the karmic stream) or Jinas (victors). the lives of plants, in the bacteria on our
These great liberated souls successfully skin, and, of course, in all living beings,
conquered the difficulties inherent in the including insects and humans. Each act
cycle of rebirth and suffering (samsara), of violence toward any one of these souls
expelled all fettering karmas, and taught causes an influx of karma.8 All souls are
for many years before ascending to the born repeatedly until they are reborn as
eternal abode of perfect energy, con- humans who can, through daily medita-
sciousness, and bliss. tion and twice-monthly fasting, release
The cornerstone of Jain thought karmas, lending brightness and lightness
and practice can be found in the rela- to their visages. The Jains seek to
JAIN YOGA | 131

gradually shed all karmas, allowing In the sixth century, the Jain scholar
ascent of the soul to a state of eternal, Haribhadra Virahanka began to use yoga
solitary blessedness and awareness, in its more general sense of “spiritual
known as moksha or kevala. practice.”10 For nearly 1,400 years, Jains
Jainism has employed the word have composed many texts that discuss
yoga for more than two millennia and their religious practice in terms of yoga,
has been in constant dialogue with yoga such as the Yogabindu of Haribhadra
as a spiritual discipline.9 In the early Jain Viranhaka, the Yogadrstisamuccaya of
tradition, from the time of the Acharanga Haribhadra Yakiniputra (eighth century),
Sutra until the sixth century CE, yoga and the Yogashastra of Hemacandra,
referred to the process by which material which provided one of the earliest
karmas stick to and hence obscure the descriptions of asana and pranayama
innate luminosity of the soul. According (eleventh century).11
to Jain physiology, karma sets the From their earliest representa-
body off balance, forming asymmetri- tion (circa 300 BCE),12 Jinas have been
cal deposits in the connective tissues. depicted in meditation, because it is a
Through the steady practice of medita- state in which no violence can be com-
5b Jina
tion, one is able to expel these karmas mitted. Seated Jinas always appear in the
5c Standing Jina and bring the body back into alignment. elegant and perfect accomplishment of
padmasana, the most famous of all yoga
postures (known as lotus) with each foot
folded onto the opposite thigh. A small
ninth-century bronze from Tamil Nadu,
probably from a home shrine, represents
Ajita, the second Jina, meditating within
this posture of perfect stillness (cat. 5a).
By reflecting upon this representation of
deep repose, aspiring Jains are inspired
to bring similar serenity into their own
lives. Many Jains assume this or a similar
position for at least forty-eight minutes
per day, emulating the liberated ones
and perhaps chanting praise about their
accomplishments.
By disciplining oneself into this
pose, in which one is of like measure on
each side, karmas will be excreted. Thus
sculpted Jinas are always completely
symmetrical and harmoniously propor-
tioned. Their bodies are constructed of
idealized forms that further convey the
commonality within meditative con-
sciousness. The only way to distinguish
the twenty-four great teachers from one
another is through insignia sometimes
found at the base of their thrones or
through inscriptions.13
Inlaid with silver, a gleaming bronze
Jina with an extraordinarily gentle smile
radiates not only peace but also the

JAIN YOGA | 133
vibrant energy associated with sustained body. In the lower realms of the cosmic 5d Jina
meditation practice (cat. 5b). The raised legs and feet, one can find the various
emblem on his chest, known as an urna, hells. In the middle realm of the torso,
symbolizes love and compassion. His one enters the realm of Jambudvipa, the
eyes are wide open, indicating the undy- continent that houses the elemental,
ing consciousness associated with the microscopic, plant, and animal life forms.
realized and purified soul. The realm above the shoulders contains
In western India, where marble is various heavens. And above the head are
plentiful, Jain temples are often totally realms of perfect freedom. Standing still,
constructed of the luminous white stone, arms slightly away from the torso and
evoking the all-important emphasis the legs, Jains meditate on the ascent
on purity. A radiant marble Jina (cat. of the soul beyond the confines of the
5d) bears the vestiges of years of daily body. During this process, many fettering
worship with red and amber powders that karmas disperse, cleansing the soul.
are used in the eight-part ritual of Jain Evoking the true nature of a liber-
worship.14 Because clothing of any type ated siddha, a small bronze shrine (cat.
entails violence, both in its production and 5e), slightly worn from repeated acts of
its usage, the Jina is completely naked. ritual touching, conveys the presence of
He sits on an elaborately decorated consciousness in a fascinating a uniquely
pillow that not only signifies the honor in Jain manner. Rather than showing the
which he was held, but also emphasizes physicality of the body, this depiction of
through contrast how the body of a Jina, the adept or siddha represents his body
stripped of ornamentation and garments, as a negative space. The sheet of copper
articulates the power of nonpossession that frames the empty space of the body
(aparigraha), the ability to flourish even symbolizes the karmic materiality that
after surrendering all attachments.15 gives shape and form to the body, while
Perhaps the earliest extant Jain the empty space of the silhouette in
sculpture is the 2,300-year-old torso Kayotsagara signals immersion in the
from Lohanipur of a naked figure ineffable space of pure consciousness.
standing in the Kayotsagara pose, which The cutout of the inverted crescent adds
involves manifesting the body upward a lovely flourish, perhaps indicating that
and is critical for the expulsion of kar- the realm of consciousness, normally
16
mas. Even today, Jains are as likely to depicted with the horns of the move
meditate in the standing Kayotsagara turned upward, has gracefully upended
pose as in the seated lotus pose. itself, descending into the full awareness
Epitomizing the perfection achieved by of the enlightened siddha. The whisks
bronze casters in Tamil Nadu during the on either side give homage to the great
Chola dynasty, the perfectly smooth and accomplishment of surmounting the
unadorned body of the Jina standing in difficulties of karma, providing the com-
Kayotsagara (cat. 5c) evokes both the fort of coolness. The abstract openings
solitary, quiet nature of meditation and below the siddha suggest that moments
the radiant, accomplished state of total of insight and freedom can occur, inspir-
freedom (kevala). The elaborate aureole, ing the aspirant with sparks of beauty.
evoking the realm of nature and karma, In its totality, this bronze shrine invites
is distanced from his body, while it sym- the meditator to allow the spaciousness
metrically radiates his energy outward. of freedom to interlace with the world
In this stance, the Jina and the practicing of materiality.
Jain herself embody the very form of the All Jains, lay or monastic, strive
universe. According to Jain cosmology, to cleanse their souls of the fettering
the world takes the shape of the human karmas through adherence to five vows:
JAIN YOGA | 135

5e Siddha Pratima
Yantra

5f Jain Ascetic
Walking
nonviolence, truthfulness, not stealing, most of their lives walking because any Raichandbai. The Jain religious leader
sexual propriety, and nonpossession. other form of locomotion might harm Acharya Tulsi also served as an advisor
18
A sensitively observed image of a Jain animals or insects. In contrast, the to Gandhi. Tulsi’s successor, Acharya
monk wandering on foot (cat. 5f), which monk’s upper body is only impercep- Mahapragya, developed a new form of
was painted around 1600, documents tibly outlined. His diaphanous shawl Jain yoga meditation, Preksha Dhyana,
several of the ways that these goals were and wispy locks seem to meld into the that is taught worldwide.
embodied and invites further specula- misty landscape in a gentle manner that The Jains have played a central role
tion. Carrying his only possessions—a suggests the Jain monastic’s vow to exist in the history and development of yoga.
container in which to receive food freely in the world with as little disturbance of The study of Jainism continues to shed
given, a walking stick, and most likely it as possible. Walking is an important light on the intricacies of yoga karma the-
a book—he is garbed in white, which part of the Jain spiritual path and of Jain ory and the many ways in which yoga can
symbolizes the purest form of karma.17 yoga itself, and this image conveys the be practiced. By examining these images
His hair has been plucked short in order movement, strength, and determination of wandering monks and Jina figures
to reduce possible harm to the bacteria of Jain monks and nuns.19 in seated and standing meditation posi-
and insect life that can develop within In the modern era, the Jain and yoga tions, we are reminded of the insights
it. The firmly drawn contours of his legs vows of nonviolence and truthfulness and inspirations to be gained from this
and the sense of feet firmly planted found their most renowned expression tradition, which is both ancient and very
on the dark grassy foreground seem to in the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi. much alive. CKC
convey the strength and determination Though a Hindu, Gandhi drew deep inspi-
of Jain monks (and nuns) who spend ration from his Jain friend and teacher
JAIN YOGA | 137

Yoga and Tapas: The Identifying physical evidence for the Shatapatha Brahmana (700–500 BCE)
Buddhists and Ajivikas early practice of yoga poses certain diffi- tied these concepts to self-purification
culties. The distinctive postures (asanas) while making it explicit that the “practice
that are well known in contemporary of tapas … is when one abstains
6A
Head of the Fasting Buddha practice are, with rare exceptions, absent from food.”5
Pakistan or Afghanistan (Gandhara),
from the early sculptural corpus. This
3
Such descriptions call to mind a
ca. 3rd–5th century absence is not surprising, given that the well-known, though rare, emaciated form
Schist, 13.3 × 8.6 × 8.3 cm
oldest textual sources on yoga emphasize of the Buddha.6 Such images have been
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samuel Eilenberg
Collection, Gift of Samuel Eilenberg, 1987, inner processes of the mind rather than produced sporadically throughout the
1987.142.73 external actions.4 Refined mental states history of Buddhism, showing up among
6B are understandably difficult to convey the widespread Tantric Buddhist
Fasting Buddha through the visual arts. traditions of the Himalayas as well as in
India, Kashmir, 8th century Despite these challenges, one East and Southeast Asian contexts.
Ivory, 12.4 × 9.5 cm fruitful avenue for exploring the topic of However, it was in Gandhara, which now
The Cleveland Museum of Art,
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund, 1986.701 yoga in early art might be found in encompasses parts of northern Pakistan
the concept of tapas, or inner heat. As and eastern Afghanistan, that the earliest
6C
described in both yoga manuals and the examples were produced. The Head of
Base for a Seated Buddha with
Figures of Ascetics late Vedic literary tradition, tapas is the the Fasting Buddha (cat. 6a) is typical
Pakistan or Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara,
byproduct of intense physical and mental of these early works.
ca. 150–200 CE austerities that manifests as a reserve of Most scholars have connected these
Gray schist, 38 × 36.2 cm
potent, purifying, spiritual energy, and as skeletal images with a six-year period
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of
Dr. Norman Zaworski, 1976.152 literal heat. One of the most frequently of fasting that took place prior to Prince
encountered techniques for producing Siddhartha Gautama’s attainment of
6D
tapas, and the purification it engenders, Buddhahood.7 After abandoning his
Tile with Impressed Figures of Emaciated
Ascetics and Couples Behind Balconies involves undertaking periods of fasting. privileged life at court, Gautama adopted
India, Jammu and Kashmir, Harwan, ca. 5th century As early as the Rig Veda (1700–1000 the life of an ascetic and endured years
Terracotta, 40.6 × 33.6 x 4.1 cm BCE), the concepts of heat and hunger of intense self-mortification alongside
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cynthia
Hazen Polsky, 1987, 1987.424.262
were already associated, and the a group of like-minded hermits. During
this time he surpassed his teachers
in rigor and self-discipline, taking the
intense traditional practices to self-
punishing extremes. The Maha Saccaka
Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya provides
a visceral description, stating that:
because I ate so little, my protruding back-

bone became like a string of balls …
My gaunt ribs became like the crazy rafters

on a tumbled down shed.8
The passage culminates with the

hauntingly poetic image of Gautama
reaching for his stomach and feeling his
spine beneath the sagging skin.
A diminutive ivory created for per-
sonal worship in eighth-century Kashmir
(cat. 6b), portrays this period of self-
6a Head of the mortification and its eventual conclusion.
Fasting Buddha
In three superbly carved vignettes, the
6b Fasting Buddha sculptor represents Gautama’s early

experimentation with austerities (center), about them comes exclusively through 6c Base for a
Seated Buddha
his despair at their futility (left), and the words of their rivals and should,
with Figures of
his decision to accept a food offering therefore, be read with some caution. For Ascetics
that restores his robust body and sets instance, the Jains and Buddhists both
6d Tile with
him on the final path towards omni- characterize the Ajivikas as strict fatalists Impressed Figures
science (right). as well as practitioners of exception- of Emaciated
Ascetics and
After attaining his enlightenment, ally intense austerities. Contemporary
Couples Behind
the Buddha made the decision to share scholarship has pointed out the possible Balconies
his teachings, and among the first to contradiction inherent in accepting both
convert were the hermits alongside these claims, since self-mortification
whom he had practiced asceticism. This makes little sense if it can have no
moment of conversion appears to be impact on one’s predetermined destiny.12
the subject of a late second-century Although the Ajivikas eventually
pedestal fragment from Gandhara (cat. died out, Buddhism continued to thrive
6c).9 Two gaunt ascetics with matted hair and develop into new forms, including
look upward to the Buddha and hold Tantra. Tantric practitioners redefined the
their hands to their mouths, most likely role of yoga and tapas within Buddhism,
indicating their decision to accept suste- but still identified meditative processes
nance. Shaped by both his time as prince as central to transcendence. Today, these
and an ascetic, the Buddha’s Middle Way late traditions survive mostly outside of
was unique in seeking to balance the India. RDC
ideal of nonattachment with legitimate
bodily needs such as food, medicine, and
clothing. By depicting the hermits break-
ing their fasts, the artist presents a visual
indication of their resolution to adopt
the Buddha’s moderate path.
Similarly emaciated renunciants
appear on a fifth-century terracotta panel
from Harwan (cat. 6d). Their bony forms
make a striking contrast to the hardy,
bejeweled householders depicted in
the upper register. This panel was part
of a series that covered the lower walls
of an enigmatic temple in Kashmir. The
unusual nature of these decorations has
led scholars to suggest that they may
be linked to an important ascetic group
known as the Ajivikas.10
The Ajivikas emerged as an influ-
ential school of thought prior to the
third century BCE. Their importance is
attested by a handful of royal inscriptions
dating to the Mauryan dynasty (third
century BCE) including inscriptions at
Nagarjuni, near Barabar, which name
them as the recipients of at least three
of the rock-cut caves sponsored by King
Dasharatha.11 Unfortunately, no texts writ-
ten by the Ajivikas remain. What we know
YOGA AND TAPAS | 141

Austerities From as early as the fifth century BCE, in austerities (cat. 7b) was produced in
shramana renouncers meditated and Mandi, a small kingdom in the Himalyan
7A
Vishvamitra Practices His Austerities mortified their bodies to produce a puri- foothills, during the reign of Raja Siddh
Folio 61a from the Freer Ramayana
fying heat (tapas) that engendered spir- Sen (1684–1727), a Tantric practitioner
Mushfiq itual knowledge and power. Later, the
3
who identified himself with Shiva.7 The
India, sub-imperial Mughal, 1597–1605
Yoga Sutras (second to fourth century yogi’s nakedness, as well as his ash and
26.5 × 15.6 cm CE) listed austerities (tapas) among the red-sindur body markings (the tripundara
Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, observances (niyama) that perfect the tilak of three horizontal lines), indicate
F1907.271.611
body, expand consciousness, and yield that he is a Shaiva Sannyasi. With his
7B supernatural powers (siddhis). legs crossed, back exceedingly arched,
Two Ascetics The Hindu epics and Puranas (sec- and fingers extended in a ritual gesture
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, 1725–50 ond century BCE to tenth century CE) (mudra), the Sannyasi is immobilized,
Opaque watercolor on paper;
15.5 × 22.5 cm (page), 13 × 18 cm (painting) tell about great sages like Vishvamitra his body molded into a form that both
Museum Rietberg Zürich, Gift of Barbara and undertaking austerities and celibacy enables and expresses his transaction
Eberhard Fischer
to force the gods to grant them boons. with higher worlds.8
7C Vishvamitra’s status was raised to that A roughly contemporaneous paint-
Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailash of a divine sage. So boundless was the
4
ing from Mewar (present-day Rajasthan)
India, Rajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, late 18th century potency generated by austerities that the features a similar depiction of a Sannyasi
gods went to inordinate lengths to derail (cat. 7c) His back arched over a large
28.7 × 20.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia accomplished seers from their pen- bolster, he is attended by a young dis-
Felton Bequest, 1980, AS242-19802 ances. For example, in the Hindu epic ciple (chela) bearing a peacock-feather
the Ramayana, the deity Indra persuades whisk (center right). The bolsters and
Rambha, a celestial beauty, to seduce the presence of chelas (who took care
Vishvamitra in order to dissipate the of their gurus’ every need) suggest that
power he had accumulated over millen- the senior ascetics are akash-munis
nia. In a sixteenth-century illustration (sky-sages) whose austerity is prolonged
from a Persian translation of the Sanskrit staring at the sky. The two images sug-
epic, Vishvamitra sits, his legs bound gest that the austerity, which emerged
by a yogapatta (yoga strap), enduring no later than the eighth century, was
the heat from a circle of flames (cat. 7a). a fairly widespread Sannyasi practice
As the sage recites mantras, Rambha some thousand years later.9 A veritable
approaches from the painting’s lower compendium of austerities, this painting
left corner. Vishvamitra easily rejects
5
depicts a band of Sannyasis enduring the
the divinely orchestrated temptations of rigors of immobilization and inversion.
the lush springtime day and the celestial To localize the sacred, it layers the lakeside
seductress, but in anger (his innate weak- palaces of Mewar’s capital city Udaipur
ness) furiously curses Rambha. Because onto the Himalayan abode of Shiva.
losing one’s equanimity, like losing Though rough in its realization,
one’s seed, destroys the fruits of tapas, the painting is an important document
Vishvamitra is compelled to undergo that records one way in which asanas
another thousand years of “unparalleled increased in number over time: it depicts
and virtually impossible austerities” to ancient austerities that, by the sixteenth
become the greatest of sages. 6
century, were categorized as asanas
Many, but by no means all, yogic within yogic treatises. In the yellow vale
regimes adopted austerities as methods at the painting’s center, an ascetic hangs
for breaking bonds with society, perfect- upside down from a tree in tapkar asana
ing the body, and acquiring omniscience (the heat-producer’s posture), which
or supernatural powers (siddhis). was first described in the Pali canon
A roughly painted image of an ash- as the bat penance.10 The fire beneath
smeared and talon-nailed yogi engaging the inverted ascetic’s head is either the

7a Vishvamitra
Practices His
Austerities
AUSTERITIES | 143
7b Two Ascetics
7c Shiva and
Parvati on Mount
Kailash
artist’s literalization of heat production beheadings, linked by their witness

or a textually unattested variant on Nandi, provide a mythic dimension to
the posture. The akash-muni Sannyasi the ascetic’s offering. DD
(described above) is echoed to his left
by the renunciant seated on a tiger skin,
who appears to be a patal-muni immo-
bilized in a perpetually downward gaze.
This logic of doubling may explain the
self-decapitation, an unattested yogic
austerity, of a second inverted ascetic
embedded within a sequence of interre-
lated events in the upper register.11 The
sequence, which repeats key characters
to signal successive events, begins on
the left with the origin story of Ganesh’s
elephant head. While the goddess
Parvati bathed (here, in a yellow court-
yard), Shiva mistakenly beheaded their
son Ganesh, who is represented, crum-
pled and bleeding, in front of the palace
and then again in its gateway, restored to
life with an elephant head. To the left of
the palace are Shiva and Parvati, riding
the bull Nandi, and the yogi suspended
above a linga-yoni (the aniconic form of
the divine couple) adorned with flower
offerings. A moment later, and even
further to the left, his head lies among
the flowers. This doubling, the paired

Meditation Meditation as a means to transcend the Energy flows fluidly through a
suffering of existence seems to have brilliantly realized bronze Narasimha
8A emerged in northern India around the (cat. 8a), which was created in Tamil
Yoga Narasimha, Vishnu in His
fifth century BCE. In the Yoga Sutras of Nadu during the Chola dynasty. From the
Man-Lion Avatar
Patanjali (second to fourth century CE), stable base of crossed legs held tautly
India, Tamil Nadu, ca. 1250
Bronze, 55.2 cm it is key to stilling the fluctuations of the by a yogapatta, the god’s tapered waist
The Cleveland Museum of Art, mind, which obscure pure consciousness rises smoothly toward broad shoulders.
Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski, 1973.1871
and higher awareness.4 Patanjali identifies The leonine ruff encircling Narasimha’s
8B three phases of meditation: the concerted neck and the mane curling down his
Hanuman as Yogi fixing of the mind (dharana); effortlessly shoulders seamlessly connect the
India, Kerala, Cochin, early 19th century centered concentration (dhyana); and powerful conical mass of his crowned
Teak wood and color, 37.6 × 37 × 9.5 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.2564E-18832 the transformative realization that the head to the long diagonal of his frontal
seer and the seen are one (samadhi). 5
arms relaxed in meditation. Narasimha’s
8C
With variations, such as focusing the two rear hands bear the flaming chakra
The Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped
by the Sage Chyavana mind on a deity as revealed by Krishna disc and conch (now missing) of Vishnu;
From a Tantric Devi series in the Bhagavad Gita, meditation became the large prongs on the base were made
India, Pahari Hills, ca. 1660–70 a pillar of most later yoga traditions. to support a separately cast aureole
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 21.3 × 23.1 cm
South Asian artists often repre- (mandorla).
Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.83
sented great sages, enlightened beings, Hanuman, the beloved monkey gen-
and deities in the act of meditation to eral of the Hindu epic the Ramayana, is
convey their spiritual attainment. The most widely worshiped as an exemplary
most ubiquitous signifiers of medita- devotee of Rama. The simian god is also
tion, visible in sculptures and paintings recognized as a great yogi (mahayogi)
throughout this catalogue, are the sym- with extraordinary powers of healing.9
metrical, motionless postures of sitting These identities are not incompatible.
in padmasana or standing with upright We find, for example, that the maha-
spine and arms extended downward. yogi Hanuman is a divine exemplar for
Here, two sculpted images reveal how the the Vaishnava renouncers known as
iconography of the yogapatta (yoga strap) Ramanandis, whose path combines
was employed to convey the specifically hatha yoga with ardent devotion (bhakti)
yogic personae of Hindu gods with multi- to Vishnu and his incarnation Rama (see
ple identities.6 The practice of meditating cats. 19a–b). Indeed, for Ramanandis,
on a deity receives explicit attention in Hanuman is equally an incarnation of
the discussion of The Goddess Bhadrakali Shiva and Rama’s paramount devotee.10
Worshipped by the Sage Chyavana. A vigorously carved teak relief (cat.
In one of his salvific interventions to 8b) represents Hanuman meditating
restore order on Earth, Vishnu man- with a yogapatta around his knees and
ifested as the half-lion and half-man his arms and eyes raised adoringly. Its
Narasimha to protect the young devotee sculptor effectively contrasted the god’s
Prahlada from his murderous demon- sturdy limbs with the laser-sharp folds
father. The Bhagavata Purana, a canon- of swirling garments so that Hanuman’s
ical sacred text, relates that Narasimha body appears to thrust forcefully forward
then taught Prahlada bhakti yoga, the and upward. Conveying Hanuman’s
path of worshipful devotion.7 From nature as both powerful yogi and ardent
the ninth century onwards, South Indian devotee, the panel once adorned the
sculptures often depict Narasimha ceiling of a temple hall in Kerala.11
seated with a yogapatta.8 The icono- With pulsating intensity, The
8a Yoga graphic type conveys that the divine Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped by the
Narasimha, Vishnu
in His Man-Lion
man-lion is meditating; it may also sig- Sage Chyavana (cat. 8c) depicts the
Avatar nify that he is teaching bhakti yoga. gentle form that the fierce goddess

8b Hanuman as
Yogi
assumed in response to the meditation her presence, is inscribed on the paint-

of the sage.12 On its left, the bearded ing’s verso in Takri script.14 In its totality,
Chyavana holds a strand of prayer beads the folio thus makes the goddess visible
that suggests he is reciting mantras in three ways: to the practitioner who
(sacred syllables) as he gazes fixedly recites the verse while meditating upon
at the shimmering golden-skinned god- her form; to the sage Chyavana (within
dess. Bhadrakali, her lotus-eye tinged the painting); and to those who view the
in red, wears a crown adorned with image today. DD
emeralds cut from the iridescent wings
of beetles and holds the attributes of
the god Vishnu—lotus, conch shell,
mace, and discus—in her four hennaed
hands. She sits on a bloated corpse that
invokes her cremation ground haunt
(see cat. 16).
Created for a Tantric practitioner
(sadhaka) in northwest India during the
seventeenth century, the painting is one
from a series representing manifesta-
tions of the great goddess (Devi).13 A
dhyana verse, a description of Bhadrakali
that guides ritual visualization to invoke

8c The Goddess
Bhadrakali
Worshipped by the
Sage Chyavana
MEDITATION | 149
Asana 9H Yoga today is often identified with the
Kumbhaka (Persian, kunbhak) practice of a broad range of bodily pos-
8 × 7.8 cm (painting)
9 tures called asanas. This identification
In 16.25a
Ten folios from the Bahr al-hayat has been traced to the twentieth century,
(Ocean of Life) 9I when new technologies of reproduction
India, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, 1600–1604 Sthamba (Persian, thambasana) circulated both yoga systems and asana
Opaque watercolor on paper, 22.7 × 13.9 cm (folio)
13.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) imagery across the globe.2 However, the
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin1
In 16.26b
earliest known treatise to systemati-
9A
9J cally illustrate yoga postures,3 the Bahr
Virasana (Persian, sahajasana)
Untitled (Persian, sunasana) al-hayat (Ocean of Life), dates to the turn
13.3 × 7.8 cm (painting)
11.5 × 7.7 cm (painting) of the seventeenth century. This essay
In 16.10a
In 16.27b
examines the specific conditions for the
9B
Garbhasana (Persian, gharbasana)
Note: The italicized words represent how production of this unprecedented trea-
the posture was rendered in the Persian text
tise and considers its twenty-one asanas,
10.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) of the Chester Beatty Library Bahr al-hayat.
In 16.18a which are almost all seated postures for
meditation on various unconditioned
9C
Nauli Kriya (Persian, niyuli) forms of the absolute, within a broader
Attributed to Govardhan
historical trajectory of the development
9.5 × 8 cm (painting) of asanas.
In 16.19a
The Sanskrit word asana (“aa-suh-
9D nuh”) is a noun meaning “seat” or “the
Headstand (Persian, akucchan) act of sitting down” derived from the
9.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) verbal root ās, which means “to sit” or
In 16.20a
“to remain as one is.” Until the end of the
9E first millennium CE, when used in the
Untitled (Persian, nashbad) context of yoga, asana referred to simple
13.5 × 7.6 cm (painting) seated postures to be adopted for med-
In 16.21b
itation. This is true for all formulations
9F of yoga, including those of the classical
Untitled (Persian, sitali) tradition rooted in Patanjali’s Yoga
12.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) Sutras (circa 325–425 CE)4 and those
In 16.22a
of the Tantric tradition, whose earliest
9G extant asana teachings date to the sixth
Khechari Mudra (Persian, khechari) century.5
10.6 × 8.5 cm (painting) It is in the hatha method of yoga,
In 16.24a
which was codified in texts from the
eleventh century onward, that the more
complex, non-seated asanas that have
become synonymous with yoga practice
gain prominence. Two thirteenth-century
texts, the earliest to teach asana as part
of hatha techniques, proclaim that there
are eighty-four lakh (8,400,000) asanas,
but describe only two, both of which are
seated postures.6 The fifteenth-century
Light on Hatha (Hathapradipika),7 the
best known Sanskrit text on hatha yoga
and the first to be devoted solely to the
subject, describes fifteen asanas, of
9g Khechari Mudra which seven are non-seated positions

for meditation. Some of its verses teach
non-seated asanas found in earlier works.
The peacock posture, mayurasana,8
has the oldest heritage. Its description
in the Light on Hatha is taken from a
thirteenth- or fourteenth-century yoga
manual composed in a Vaishnava milieu,
i.e., among followers of the Hindu god
Vishnu,9 but can be traced back through
other Vaishnava texts to one from
approximately the ninth century.10
The Light on Hatha’s description of
the cock posture, kukkutasana,11 also can
be traced to earlier Vaishnava works.12
The practices of hatha yoga are often
said to have originated among Tantric
Shaivas, i.e., followers of Shiva, but these
early references to non-seated asanas in
Vaishnava works suggest different origins
for at least some hatha yogic techniques;
the absence of non-seated asanas in
Shaiva works prior to the Light on Hatha
further increases the likelihood of them
having originated outside of Tantric
milieus. In a circa thirteenth-century
collection of teachings ascribed to the
Kaula Tantric guru Matsyendra,13 one of
the first gurus of the Nath order of yogis,
both the peacock and cock are included
among the asanas of yoga, but they are
seated positions quite different from the
non-seated postures of the same name
found in the Vaishnava tradition.
One of the asanas taught in the
Light on Hatha is the corpse pose,
shavasana, classed in an earlier work
as one of the secret techniques of laya
yoga, the visualization-based “yoga
of dissolution” taught by Shiva.14 This
is an early example of a phenomenon
that becomes more and more common,
namely the classification as asanas of
physical practices that did not originate
as such. Thus some of the techniques
called mudras taught in the earliest
texts of hatha yoga, such as mahamudra
(the great seal) and viparitakarani (the
inverter), become asanas in later works,
with the latter, in which the body is
inverted, becoming either sarvangasana,
ASANA | 151
9b Garbhasana

9c Nauli Kriya
ASANA | 153
9a Virasana 9d Headstand

9e Untitled 9f Untitled
ASANA | 155
9h Kumbhaka 9j Untitled

the shoulder stand, or shirasasana, the (Hatharatnavali) is the earliest text to through a copy already in the imperial
headstand. Similarly, the ancient ascetic name eighty-four asanas, the number library. A more significant question is
technique of suspending oneself upside that came to represent their totality, or why Salim chose to have the treatise
down from a tree, the “bat-penance” to be written in Sanskrit, the classical recopied, illustrated, and bound. Born in
dismissed by the Buddha,15 resurfaces language of Hindu text learning.25 1569, Salim was raised in the ecumenical,
as “the ascetic’s asana” (tapkar asana) in A contemporaneous or perhaps slightly intellectual milieu fostered by his father,
an eighteenth-century Braj Bhasha yoga earlier text, the Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605), for whom
manual.16 (The tapkar asana is illustrated Yoga (Yogachintamani), describes thirty- the Yoga Sutras, the Yoga Vasishta, and
in cats. 7c and 20c.) As part of this same five asanas in its published edition. A other Hindu texts had been translated
process, gymnastic exercises from a vari- manuscript of the same text dated 1660 or summarized. Salim’s establishment
ety of traditions, both Indian and foreign, lists 110 asanas and describes fifty-five. of a satellite court at Allahabad between
have been included under the asana It is unlikely that any of these texts were 1600 and 1605 perhaps intensified
rubric over the course of the twentieth illustrated. The Persian Bahr al-hayat, the prince’s interest in yogic traditions.
century.17 which not only describes but also depicts Allahabad was the Mughal name given
The purpose of the earliest seated twenty-one yogis performing seated as to Prayag, an ancient city located at the
asanas was to provide a steady and com- well as more complex asanas, is one of sacred confluence of the Ganges and
fortable position for meditation.18 In the several texts on yogic subjects com- Yamuna Rivers. For yogis, it was (and
Light on Hatha and later texts, asana’s missioned by Prince Salim, the future remains) a gathering place of consum-
primary purpose is to make the body Mughal Emperor Jahangir (reigned mate importance.
supple and strong.19 This is in keeping 1605–27). Multiple cross-cultural Indeed, the illustrations attest direct
with the generally positive attitude encounters shaped the production of contact between local yogis and the
toward the body evinced by such works, the illustrated manuscript. The text itself artists of Salim’s atelier. Lightly colored
but the practice of difficult physical pos- was composed around 1550 in Gujarat by in translucent washes, they retain the
tures has also long been associated with the prominent Sufi Shaykh Muhammad directness of drawings made from living
ascetic cultivators of tapas—power from Ghawth Gwaliyari (died 1563). His pur- models. And although Mughal painters
austerity. In India’s greatest epic, the pose was to teach his disciples hatha often copied motifs and figures from
Mahabharata (200 BCE–300 CE), the practices compatible with Sufi goals of other Mughal or European artworks,
same ascetics who practice yoga often spiritual transformation.26 Ghawth based many of the Bahr al-hayat folios rep-
also cultivate tapas, with the techniques his Persian treatise on an earlier Arabic resent intricate postures that have no
of the latter taking the form of various translation of passages from a variety of precedent in earlier images.
self-mortifications, including the holding Sanskrit texts, clarifying its ambiguities In folio 19a, Govardhan, the artist
of difficult postures, such as inversions,20 and increasing the number of asanas responsible for the manuscript’s most
for long periods. These physical tech- from six to twenty-one.27 The Sufi must accomplished images, depicted a seated
niques are ascribed to yoga-practicing have consulted with living yogis, perhaps yogi performing the Nauli kriya (or
ascetics in a wide variety of subsequent Naths, because none of the asanas in process) of isolating and revolving the
texts, in particular the Puranas, and they the Bahr al-hayat are taught in any earlier stomach muscles like someone swiftly
also occur regularly in foreign descrip- Hindu text, and their descriptions are “weaving a garment” (cat. 9c). Before
tions of the practices of Indian ascetics, much more detailed than those found in accompanying Salim to Allahabad,
from that of Alexander’s companion the Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Yoga manu- Govardhan had developed in Akbar’s
Onesicritus21 to medieval travelers’ script.28 Indeed, such detailed teachings imperial workshop a markedly natural-
22 23
tales to early modern reports. It is on asana are not found in any Hindu istic style through the study of European
likely to be from such older ascetic texts, whose terse descriptions invariably prints—a training that resurfaces in the
traditions that non-seated asanas first require the elucidation of a teacher. adept’s frontal face, pensive expression,
became part of yoga practice.24 By 1600, some fifty years after its and softly tousled hair and beard, which
With asana becoming the reposi- composition, Ghawth’s treatise could were almost certainly based on a Christ
tory of all yogic techniques that involve have come to Prince Salim’s attention figure. A small passage of shading, the
physical postures, the compilers of through a number of avenues: its prom- roughly vertical oblong darkening on the
texts on yoga started to describe them inence among Sufis, the prestige of its left side of the yogi’s belly, suggests that
in large numbers. The seventeenth- author, or—because Ghawth was a confi- Govardhan attempted to convey abdom-
century Sanskrit String of Jewels of Hatha dant of the first two Mughal emperors29— inal motion. Although subtle, it does not
ASANA | 157
9i Sthamba

appear in any of the artist’s other images simpler than many contemporaneous the most influential of all, B. K. S.
of bare-chested yogis. Allahabad manuscripts. For example, Iyengar’s Light on Yoga describes more
A folio representing garbhasana, the lavishly illustrated philosophical nar- than 200 postures. Most are intended to
in which the body is folded into a rative the Yoga Vasishta (cat. 13) features bring physical benefits, although links
fetal (Sanskrit, garbha) posture, more richly colored and full-page paintings are maintained to the esoteric aims of
emphatically reveals direct observation with multiple figures in complex land- the practices from which some of these
(cat. 9b). Remarkable in its lucidity, the scapes. Based on Mughal manuscript asanas developed. In this respect they
complex posture meticulously corre- hierarchies firmly established by 1600, are more in the tradition of the difficult
sponds with the Persian text, which art historians might surmise that the postures of tapas-practicing yogis than
stipulates placing “the left foot on the relative expediency of the Bahr’s produc- those of the Bahr al-hayat and Tantric
right foot, holding the buttocks on both tion is evidence of Salim’s preference for and classical formulations of yoga,
feet, holding the head evenly between a text that explicates Vedanta philosophy whose asanas provide a foundation for
33
the two knees, placing both elbows over that of a practical treatise. It may contemplative practices. JM and DD
under the ribs, putting the hands over be more productive, however, to consider
the ears, [and] bringing the navel toward the manuscript’s utilitarian design as evi-
the spine.”30 The artist, moreover, acutely dence of its classification within the sci-
observed and darkened the contours of entific genre.34 Each illustrated folio con-
the yogi’s left knee, imparting volume to tains a concise and faithfully descriptive
the leg, and clearly articulating its loca- image bordered, at top and bottom, by
tion in front of the more thinly outlined a portion of Ghawth’s didactic text. The
left hand and partially obscured torso. adjacency of text and image suggests
Additional evidence for direct that the purpose of the commission—its
encounter lies in those illustrations that translation of somatic practices from the
deviate significantly from the text. A folio realm of the esoteric and sectarian into
(cat. 9g) depicts a yogi with his hands on the arena of the visual and courtly—was
his thighs in what appears to be virasana, to elucidate and edify.
but Ghawth describes a meditation in Two later copies of the illustrated
which the shins are crossed and the Bahr al-hayat manuscript were produced.
hands are clasped.31 It appears that But although long lists of complex asanas
the yogi model substituted a practice were common in texts on yoga from the
32
he knew for one that was unfamiliar. seventeenth century onward, the next sig-
Similarly, Ghawth generically identified nificant development in visualizing them
his informants as yogis or meditators. was not until the early nineteenth century.
But Salim’s painters depicted eleven of This period saw the painting of eighty-four
the twenty-one yogis with attributes of siddhas or adepts in different asanas on
the Nath sectarian order. Their horn whis- the walls of the Mahamandir temple in
tles, cloth fillets, and canine companions Jodhpur and the creation of illustrated
demonstrate both the Mughal fascina- manuscripts of the Jogapradipika (a Braj
tion with the appearance of the real and Bhasha reinterpretation of the Light on
a marked Nath presence in Allahabad. Hatha that teaches eighty-four asanas)
The illustrated Bahr al-hayat thus and Sritattvanidhi (a Sanskrit work from
bears the traces of two encounters with Mysore that teaches 122 asanas).
yogis, the first in Gujarat circa 1550 and Over the course of the twentieth
the second in Allahabad, 1602–4. Both century, as yoga came increasingly to
were complex acts of translation across be identified with asana, the notion of
sectarian and courtly as well as textual, a group of eighty-four or more com-
oral, and visual traditions. In this regard, plex asanas became widely accepted.
we might note that Salim’s Bahr al-hayat, Twentieth-century yoga manuals accord-
with its plainly composed half-page ingly teach—and include illustrations
illustrations on unpolished paper, is far of—large numbers of asanas. Perhaps
ASANA | 159
The Cosmic Body In many yoga systems, the equivalence tion of scale—both Krishna’s vastness
of the Self and the Absolute (brah- and his supremacy over all other Hindu
10A man) constitutes ultimate reality. If we gods and sages. Four of Krishna’s heads,
Krishna Vishvarupa
understand the work of representation as shaded the same lavender-blue as his
India, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur, ca. 1740
the attempt to make something visible, body, are vertically stacked at the center
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 1 the representation of yogic insight is of his body; his lowest mouth is “spiky
a paradoxical challenge. Beyond the with fangs.” The heads probably relate
10B
Vishnu Vishvarupa comprehension of ordinary individuals, to the god’s successive manifestations
India, Rajasthan, Jaipur, ca. 1800–1820
ultimate reality can be perceived only by to his devotee Arjuna, the warrior prince
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 38.5 × 28 cm advanced adepts. Four paintings from who appears at the painting’s lower
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by
Northwest and Central India reveal how right, his hands raised in the gesture of
Mrs. Gerald Clark, IS.33-20062
artists rose to this challenge when they worship.11 As the hair on Arjuna’s arms
10C represented masters of yoga embodying bristles in terror, Krishna abandons his
Forms of Vishnu
the universe. human form and becomes the cosmic
Folio from the Jnaneshvari
The earliest conception of the creator, universal sovereign, and Kala,
India, Maharashtra, Nagpur, 1763 (Samvat 1856)
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, cosmos as body appears in the Rig Veda who is time and death. To perceive and
37.7 × 25.4 cm (folio) (1500–1000 BCE) and becomes linked withstand the wondrous revelation,
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Adolph D.
and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 91.9.1-6283 with yogic practice in subsequent Hindu Krishna grants Arjuna the “divine sight”
traditions. Between the third century
5
of an accomplished yogi. With its deli-
10D
BCE and the fifth century CE, the great cate line, luscious sherbet colors, and
Equivalence of Self and Universe
deities Shiva and Krishna come to be especially Krishna’s gentle expressions
Folio 6 from the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati
Bulaki known as Masters of Yoga when they as he meets the gaze of his devotees,
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1824 (Samvat 1881) manifest themselves as the universe; the the painting transcends literal illustration
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 122 × 46 cm
Mahabharata also equates the bodies of of the Gita’s eleventh chapter to convey
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 23784
“empowered yogis” with the magnificent the broader context of bhakti devotion in
cosmos.6 Tantric and hatha yoga later which Krishna’s compassion is accessible
systematize paths for advanced adepts to all.12
to embody this expansive equivalence. Among the Gita’s multiple, met-
The Bhagavad Gita (200 BCE–300 aphorical, and poetic descriptions of
CE) presents a spectrum of yogic doc- vishvarupa are the sun and moon eyes
trines and practices within a framework and fire-blazing mouth seen in a small
of personal devotion (bhakti) to Krishna.7 but powerful image from Jaipur, a Rajput
As the Lord of Yoga (yogeshvara), Krishna kingdom in present day Rajasthan (cat.
uses his yogic powers “for the welfare of 10b). With four arms holding discus,
all beings.” The Gita’s eleventh chapter
8
conch, mace, and lotus, and the multi-
describes this aspect of Krishna as he headed serpent Shesha as a footrest,
reveals his infinite cosmic form (vish- the painting represents the Hindu deity
varupa) encompassing all time and “the Vishnu as the cosmos.13 Deities cluster in
whole world, moving and unmoving,” his upper torso, the phenomenal worlds
filling “all the horizons” and “brush- are target-like circles at his waist, and
ing the sky.” An eighteenth-century
9
seven demonic netherworlds are located
artist from the Punjab Hills kingdom of along his legs.
Bilaspur sought to evoke the limitless An exuberantly realized folio from
and proliferating universe by extending Nagpur (Maharasthra) visualizes Vishnu’s
Krishna’s sixty multicolored heads and cosmic multiplicity through the interplay
forty-four pinwheeling arms to the very of discretely bounded images, words,
borders of the painting (cat. 10a). Within
10
and texts (cat. 10c). In the upper register,
the golden dhoti that wraps around his under cusped arches that schematically
waist, a miniaturized mountain land- invoke a palace, its painter anthropomor-
scape conveys—through the juxtaposi- phically represented the knowledge

10a Krishna
Vishvarupa
THE COSMIC BODY | 161

10b Vishnu
Vishvarupa
10c Forms of
Vishnu

contained within the Samaveda as a into subtle matter and become an even 10d Equivalence of
Self and Universe
divine musician and the Vedic deity Indra greater being than a god. With the sun and detail
as an enthroned king. In the niches at and moon (sometimes identified with the
right, the words man (mind; Sanskrit: ha and tha of hatha yoga) as his cheeks,
manas) and chetana (consciousness) the siddha stands with his eyes crossed in
are written in gold Devanagari script to meditation. Reflecting its patronage by a
convey the Gita’s litany of who and what maharaja, the folio is lavishly gilded, and
Krishna is in the universe. The divine each of the universe’s fourteen worlds
ascetic Shiva, attended by the goddess is depicted as a white palace city.14 The
Parvati and the bull Nandi, meditates on artist masters the paradox of represent-
Mount Kailash in the more fully realized ing yogic insight by situating the viewer
Himalayan landscape at bottom. of the painting as an imperfect witness
The folio belongs to an eighteenth- of the transcendent cosmos. The palace
century luxury manuscript of the walls, which create the painting’s only
Jnaneshvari, a vernacular commentary areas of tangible depth, are simulta-
on the Bhagavad Gita that demonstrates neously negated by the flatly rendered
one of the continuous transformations of figures, the painting’s gleaming surface,
yoga in history. Composed in the regional and the high relief of the yogi’s pearls.15
language of Marathi in the thirteenth The image oscillates between surface
century by the poet-saint Jnanadeva, the and depth, between materiality and illu-
commentary is framed as Lord Vishnu’s sion. What the yogi perfectly knows,
exposition of Shiva’s esoteric knowl- the viewer only fleetingly apprehends
edge. It elucidates and glosses the Gita’s in the painting’s flicker and glare. DD
Sanskrit verses (here, in gold script) with
vernacular explications (here, in black)
that include Shiva among Krishna’s
manifestations as well as hatha yoga
teachings, such as techniques for raising
Kundalini energy through the subtle
body. Made for a Maratha nobleman or
merchant, the illustrated Jnaneshvari
is characterized by a decorative vigor
and representational heterogeneity
that reflects the spirit of the synthetic
commentary, which made hatha yoga
accessible to broader (i.e., non-initiated
and Marathi-speaking) audiences.
Almost four feet in height, a
monumental folio from the Siddha
Siddhanta Paddhati, an illustrated hatha
yoga treatise, depicts an advanced
adept (siddha) blissfully experiencing
his equivalence with the universe (cat.
10d). At the core of hatha yoga is the
understanding that everything—from the
limitless Absolute to the lowest forms
of inert matter—is essentially one, yet
is manifested differently. This essential
sameness allows the yogic practitioner
to progressively convert his gross body

The Subtle Body The physiology of yoga is centered on Reflecting Nath goals, each chakra is
the subtle body (sukshma sharira), the presented as a focus for meditation that
11A interface between the individual body yields a specific attainment—such as uni-
The Knots of the Subtle Body composed of gross matter and the form- versal admiration, release from the cycle
India, Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur, ca. 1690–1700 less Absolute (brahman). By manipulat-
4
of rebirth, or supernatural abilities.10 The
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 20 × 14 cm
ing the subtle body through meditation, canonical text was first illustrated in 1824
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L. Whittemore
Fund, 1966.271 physical practices, or a combination of at the Jodhpur court during the reign of
the two, the yogic practitioner sought to Maharaja Man Singh (reigned 1803–43), a
11B
The Chakras of the Subtle Body refine his consciousness and become devotee of the siddha Jalandharnath and
Folio 4 from the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati

one with the Absolute.5 a patron of the Naths. On its fourth folio
Bulaki A diagram of the subtle body from (cat. 11b), the nine chakras are arrayed on
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, dated 1824 (Samvat 1881)
Nurpur (Himachal Pradesh) represents the body of an adept with his eyes crossed
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 122 × 46 cm
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 23762 the kingdom’s ruler, Raja Mandhata in inward meditation. Monumental in size,
(reigned 1661/1667–1700), engaged in finely painted with glowing colors, the
11C
yogic practice (cat. 11a). With a lotus-
6
chakras shaded to increase their glowing
Scroll with Chakras
tipped crown and the mustache of a quality, the folio exemplifies Man Singh’s
India, Kashmir, 18th century
Opaque watercolor, gold, silver, and ink on paper, warrior, the king sits with his legs crossed conspicuous piety. There is no known
376.7 × 17 cm in what may be siddhasana, in which visual precedent for this highly abstracted
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.8-19873
the lower heel is pressed against the set of chakras, although the evidence of
perineum. In hatha yoga, siddhasana was other contemporaneous Jodhpur man-
used to raise the breath to pierce three uscripts strongly suggests that learned
subtle loci known as knots (granthi): Nath yogis guided the court artists who
the Brahma granthi located at the base represented, for the first time, esoteric
of the spine, the Vishnu granthi at the concepts such as absolute emptiness
heart, and the Rudra granthi between (shunya). Here, shunya, the profound void
the eyebrows.7 Here, they are depicted that is the sixth chakra (located near the
with the conventional iconography of the palate) is depicted as a black circle on
Hindu gods with whom they are identi- the yogi’s chin.11 Other chakras are more
fied—four-headed Brahma, blue-skinned figuratively realized: the goddess who sits
Vishnu, and Rudra (Shiva), who appears just atop the serpent-belt securing the
as a two-armed yogi with ash-pale skin yogi’s lower garment corresponds to the
and a jata-topknot adorned with the text’s description of the third chakra as
crescent moon. An unconventional ruler
8
Kundalini Shakti seated within five coils.
portrait and a rare depiction of the three During the eighteenth and nine-
granthi, the Nurpur painting not only teenth centuries, illustrated chakra charts
suggests that Mandhata was a commit- were also produced in the form of long
ted practitioner, it also points to the key scrolls. In these, the horizontal span of
role that kings played in creating the the paper, rather than a human body,
visual archive of yoga. serves as the ground on which chakras are
Most hatha yoga systems map the aligned along a gently winding sushumna
energy centers, or chakras (rather than channel. Over twelve feet long, a grand
granthis) of the subtle body. Chakras scroll from Kashmir depicts twelve
are invariably located in a vertical hier- chakras and seven underworlds disposed
archy along the body’s central channel along a narrow golden channel (cat. 11c).12
(sushumna nadi), but are somewhat The first (and lowest) chakra is conven-
differently conceptualized in various yoga tionally represented with its four sacred
treatises, and can number anywhere from syllables on the four red petals of a lotus;
six to fourteen. For example, the Siddha at its center Ganapati (Ganesha) sits with
Siddhanta Paddhati (SSP), a foundational his two wives.13 The third chakra located
Nath treatise, describes nine chakras. 9
at the navel reveals how the forms and

deities of chakras varied across systems.14
In the SSP, it is the energy center of the
goddess Kundalini; in the Kashmiri scroll,
it is identified as the divine couple Vishnu
and Lakshmi, who are depicted within
a ten-petaled golden lotus that also
extends along the golden channel to
a coil, an embryo in a womb, and a
yogic adept.
If they vary in details, both the SSP’s
fourth folio and the scroll demonstrate
the inherent continuity between the
subtle and macrocosmic bodies. The SSP
stipulates knowledge of the subtle body
as a prerequisite for realizing the self
as cosmos. In the Jodhpur manuscript,
visual similitude links the somatic con-
ceptions, illustrated respectively on folios
4 and 6 (cats. 11b, 10d): the two are the
only vertical pages in the manuscript, and
both similarly adorned and scaled bodies
were created from a single master draw-
ing (no longer extant). The Kashmiri scroll
suggests the continuity along its vertical
axis and the sushumna that connects the
chakras to seven underworlds. Located
directly beneath the Ganapati chakra,
each ovoid world contains two white
pavilions in a mountain landscape that is
supported by an animal or an enthroned
goddess seated within a pink lotus. The
scroll concludes with a diagrammatically
mapped universe represented as an ethi-
cized hierarchy from its highest heaven to
its lowest underworld; the name of each
world is written in Sharada script within a
red circle.
11a The Knots of Today, seven is widely accepted as
the Subtle Body the standard number of chakras, and their
symbols are fixed.15 Differing in number
and iconography, these images reveal
that a multiplicity of subtle body systems
flourished in medieval and early modern
India. DD
THE SUBTLE BODY | 167

11b The Chakras
of the Subtle Body
and detail
THE SUBTLE BODY | 169

11c Scroll with
Chakras
Full scroll (far

left) and details
The Militant In the din of blaring conch shells and arguing about the choice location—rep-
Ascetic Body clashing weapons, rampaging yogis resented as a diamond-shaped tank on

engage in a raucous battle that bursts the left folio—that would enable them to
12 dramatically across two paintings. They immerse themselves at the most favor-
Battle at Thaneshwar open a window onto armed asceticism, a able moment and receive the lion’s share
Bifolio from the Akbarnama phenomenon of the early modern yogic of alms from devotees. (Beneath the
India, Mughal dynasty, 1590–95
landscape, and the historical evolution of banyan tree at the upper left, lay pilgrims
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Victoria and Albert Museum, London sectarian identities. proffering largesse with outstretched
Mughal and European accounts of arms allude to the material benefits of a
12A
Left folio the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries prime bathing spot.)
Composed by Basawan; painted by Basawan relate that bands of armed yogis pro- Abu’l Fazl relates that Akbar was
and Tara the Elder
vided protection for their orders, battled unable to resolve the conflict between
32.9 × 18.7 cm
IS.2:61-18961 over bathing priorities, and served as the two opposing gurus, Kisi Puri and
mercenaries. By the eighteenth century, Anand Giri.5 The emperor “flung out the
12B
Right folio larger yogic armies with more disci- jewels of advice and counsel … but it
Composed by Basawan; painted by Asi plined and specialized troops were hired was like casting pearls on the ground”
38.1 × 22.4 cm
by Mughal emperors, Hindu rajas, the (Akbarnama, pages 28–31), so he
IS.2:62-18962
Marathas, and the British East India allowed the Puri and Giri bands to fight
Company. As the military economy it out.
changed yet again with the consolidation Akbar’s master artist Basawan
of British power in the nineteenth cen- created a composition that invokes the
tury, organized ascetic armies disap- emperor’s agency and incorporates
peared. Although twentieth-century ethnographic and historical information.
scholars consistently identify militant To portray Akbar as charismatic, Basawan
ascetics as devotees of Shiva, these composed the upper register to convey
paintings add to a growing body of the ruler’s movement across imperial
evidence that at least some armed yogic territory. Akbar, with his characteristic
orders in Mughal India were Vaishnava.3 droopy mustache and small turban,
This impressively detailed bifo- appears on horseback between two topo-
lio was composed for an illustrated graphic markers, the distant city at right
Akbarnama, the history of the reign and a cluster of red tents, the imperial
of the third Mughal emperor, Akbar encampment, on the left.6
(reigned 1556–1605). One of Akbar’s The battlefield below is a tangle
most ambitious commissions, the of yogis wielding swords, spears, bows,
imperial history was innovative in its sharp iron discs known as chakras, axes,
emphasis on contemporary events. Its clubs with iron rings, and daggers.7
author, Abu’l Fazl, either saw the events Among them are the Mughal soldiers
himself or compiled and cross-checked Akbar sent to turn the tide of the battle
eyewitness accounts, while shaping by beheading the leader of the larger
the whole into a panegyric. The scene group, Anand Giri. Basawan marks this
represents a battle that Akbar, returning culminating moment by splaying out
from a hunting expedition, observed Anand Giri’s body in the lower center of
in 1567 at Thaneshwar, a Hindu holy the right folio. The difference between
site on the banks of the Saraswati River the limp, horizontal figure of Anand
about 160 kilometers north of Delhi. It Giri—almost choked by jostling adver-
was the day of a solar eclipse, a particu- saries—and the relatively isolated and
larly auspicious time for devout Hindus upright emperor situates Akbar as the
to bathe in sacred rivers.4 When Akbar prime mover of the event. He is not
arrived at the site, two bands of armed simply observing the battle, he is also
ascetics, one small and one large, were majestically influencing its outcome.

12 Battle at
Thaneshwar
The ash-smeared complexions; subgroups of the Dasnamis—devotees

dreadlocks, worn loose or gathered up of Shiva and hatha yoga practitioners
in large buns; and animal-skin wraps with an acknowledged history of militant
or saffron garments of the Hindu yogis asceticism. Recent scholarship by James
appear in many other Akbari paintings Mallinson has recovered the Vaishnava
(e.g., cat. 14c). More unusually, Basawan, pasts of some groups that now firmly
or the two junior artists who colored the self-identify as Shaiva.9 Among these are
paintings, depicted many of the yogis the Giris and Puris of the Dasnami order.
with forehead markings (tilaks) that In the Akbarnama folios, the
specify sectarian identity. The yellow san- Vaishnava V-shaped tilaks worn by the
dalwood-paste tilaks are V-shaped, which battling Giris and Puris require not only
identify the combatants as devotees of a reconsideration of militant asceticism
Vishnu. (Shaiva tilaks are usually three in the Mughal period, but also modes of
horizontal lines.) Only one of the armed marking the yogic body. The combatants’
ascetics—a Nath in a black, patchwork tilaks are an early instance of sectarian
robe carrying a ringed club over his forehead marks, which became increas-
shoulder—can be securely identified by ingly prevalent over the following centu-
his clothing as Shaiva (bottom right, cat. ries as smaller ascetic groups coalesced Following pages:
12a). Could Akbar’s artists have gotten
8
into today’s larger Vaishnava and Shaiva
12a Battle at
the tilaks wrong? Vaishnava ascetics orders. Today, those marks are nearly
Thaneshwar, left
are now regarded as peaceful renunci- ubiquitous. DD folio (detail)
ants. Moreover, the Akbarnama account
12b Battle at
of Thaneshwar names the two yogic Thaneshwar, right
sects as Giris and Puris. Today, both are folio (detail)
THE MILITANT ASCETIC BODY | 173

ENTRY NAME GOES HERE
Illusion and Reality in The Yoga Vasishta (Teachings of the Sage Muslim, had commanded that the
the Yoga Vasishta Vasishta) is an important and highly Sanskrit treatise be translated into
popular philosophical work composed in Persian, the court language, because
13 Kashmir between the tenth and thir- he recognized it as “one of the famous
The Sage Bhringisha and Shiva teenth centuries. Eventually, it eclipsed books of the Brahmins of India” and
Folio 304b from the Yoga Vasishta the Yoga Sutras as the most widely found it compatible with Sufi mysticism.4
Attributed to Keshav Das
copied manuscript in all of India on the The luxurious manuscript includes
India, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, 1602
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper, topic of yoga. The Yoga Vasishta’s great forty-one delicately colored paintings by
27 × 18.5 cm (folio); 15.9 × 9.9 cm (painting) attraction surely lies in the fact that some of the finest artists who accom-
Dublin, In 05, f.304b1 it presents its highly abstruse philo- panied Salim to his court at Allahabad
sophical positions through engrossing between the years 1600 and 1605.
stories involving kings, mysterious yogis, In the penultimate book of The
powerful women, and a host of other Teachings of the Sage Vasishta, Shiva—
colorful characters.2 The lesson of these the god that the Trika school identified
stories is grounded in the Yoga Vasishta’s with the absolute brahman—reveals to
unique philosophy, which combines Bhringisha, an accomplished renouncer,
Advaita Vedanta, Buddhist idealism, and the means for attaining embodied liber-
the metaphysics of the Kashmiri Tantric ation. When this happens, “one dwells
school known as Trika. Advaita Vedanta, in a state released from ‘oneness’ or
which had become the leading philo- ‘twoness’ … neither in nirvana nor not in
sophical doctrine by the time of the Yoga nirvana, [shining] brightly, outwardly free,
Vasishta, is characterized by its nondu- inwardly free, free like the piece of sky in
alist metaphysics, according to which a jar.”5 The painter Keshav Das repre-
there is only one self in the universe, sented Shiva’s appearance to Bhringisha
the absolute Self known as brahman. as an encounter between a Tantric yogi
However, due to cosmic illusion (maya) and a gaunt and aged renouncer6 (cat.
or ignorance (avidya), humans believe 13). A master of the naturalistic style
that they are possessed of unique favored by the Mughals, Keshav Das cre-
individual selves that, independent of ated a vertical landscape of convincing
brahman, enliven their bodies. depth by diminishing the size of distant
The Yoga Vasishta’s central concern objects and bathing the furthest vistas
is to explain how, through ignorance, indi- in a hazy mist. By placing darker forms
vidual minds (or egos) actually project directly behind the heads of Shiva and
or create the illusory phenomenal world Bhringisha, he made the pair palpably
they mistake for reality. The waking reality three-dimensional and emphasized the
that the mind experiences is likened to intensity of their mutual gaze. The softly
dreams, which appear real when one’s craggy peaks bending toward each other
mind projects them, or the flights of in the middle distance further under-
fancy of the creative imagination. Yet all
3
score their communion. If Bhringisha’s
are fundamentally illusory. The “yoga” of sunken belly and attenuated limbs recall
the Yoga Vasishta is the practice by which the earliest images of ascetics (see cats.
the philosopher-practitioner decon- 6c, 6d), the bony volumes of the sage’s
structs these illusions and recovers the skull, the convincing weight of his elbow
universal reality of the one absolute Self. on his thigh, and the fleshy soles of
This yoga is taught through stories, such his upturned feet speak to the Mughal
as the one illustrated here. interest in the appearance of the real.
The Yoga Vasishta was first illus- In his representation of Shiva, Keshav Das
trated in 1602 at the court of the Mughal tellingly accentuates the characteristics—
Prince Salim (the future Emperor bluish, ash-smeared body; topknot of
Jahangir, reigned 1605–27). Salim, a dreadlocks (jatamukuta); and tiger-skin

wrap—that the god shares with mortal
yogis. He also minimizes the god’s
divine qualities: Shiva has two arms;
his lightly drawn third eye looks like a
sectarian forehead mark; and the snakes
that writhe around his shoulders and
the garland of skulls hanging from his
neck seem to be plausibly real, if exotic,
ornaments. DD
ILLUSION AND REALIT Y IN THE YOGA VASISHTHA | 177

178 | LANDSCAPES OF YOGA
Part Two
Landscapes of Yoga
Ashram and Math To correctly perceive reality, the yoga Kailash to honor Shiva as Yogeshvara
practitioner must first settle the body. (the lord of yogis) and his wife Parvati
14A The Bhagavad Gita describes how con- under a brilliantly starry sky. The ash-
Shiva Blesses Yogis on Kailash
centrating the mind begins “on a clean white Shiva, whose entourage includes
By an artist in the first generation after Manaku
and Nainsukh of Guler
spot [where the yogi] builds for himself celestial beauties and animal-headed
India, Punjab Hills, 1780–1800 a firm seat, neither too high nor too low, musicians rendered with visionary clarity,
covered with cloth, deer-skin or kusha affectionately gazes toward the sages
Museum Rietberg Zürich, Gift Horst Metzger
Collection, RVI 21271 grass.”6 Though yogis might establish for whom he is the yogic archetype. The
their seats anywhere, the inherent power three ascetics who eagerly lean for-
14B
of certain places was understood to ward with flower-garland and leaf-cup
Female Guru and Disciple
increase the fruits of practice. Among the offerings organically connect the ashram
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; most perennially potent were mountain in the lower valley with the clearing in
37.5 × 25 cm (page), 12 x 7.8 cm (painting) peaks, the confluence of rivers, remote which the gods appear, emphasizing that
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RVI 9872
caves, isolated huts (kuti), verdant it too is suffused with the sacred.
14C hermitages (ashrams), and cremation Nestled between a gold sky and
Three Women Present a Young Girl grounds. silvery river, the verdant ashram in
to Aged Ascetics
Before the mid-sixteenth century, a Mughal painting (cat. 14b) invokes
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1670–80
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper;
South Asian sculptors and painters the lush riverside locations that were
39.5 × 27.5 cm (folio with borders), only schematically represented spatial extolled in literature and inscriptions as
21.9 × 14.8 cm (painting without borders)
contexts, focusing their attention on particularly suited to expanding con-
Dublin, In 73.3 the human or divine body. But in the sciousness.9 In the clearing, an aged
Mughal atelier under Emperor Akbar female guru sits on an antelope skin
14D
(reigned 1556–1605), painters began to that befits her senior status and quietly
Babur and His Retinue Visiting Gor Khatri
represent believable, at times specific, converses with a disciple wearing jata
Folio 22b from the Baburnama (Book of Babur)
India, Mughal dynasty, 1590s places as the stages for human activi- wrapped neatly atop her head.
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper, 32 × 21 cm ties.7 As the new interest spread to other Ashrams were and are often seg-
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland,
W.5963
courts, artists increasingly depicted yogis rated by gender, and Mughal paintings
within detailed and symbolically charged of women’s ashrams are unusual.10 In
14E settings. These pictorial imaginings of contrast, male ascetics were a popu-
Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar
Visiting Savina Khera Math place are typically tranquil and verdant. lar subject for imperial painters, who
India, Rajasthan, Mewar, ca. 1725

More unusual are images of the large, often represented Mughal princes
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 60.3 × 73 cm bustling monastic communities in which and princesses visiting Hindu yogis in
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles Bain Hoyt
many yogis spent some time or lived; the sylvan settings. Many were lightly tinted
Fund, 1999, 1999.944
icy landscapes of Himalayan pilgrimage; drawings that enabled artists to display
14F and the bone-strewn charnel grounds their facility in rendering anatomy, as in
Maharana Sangram Singh II Visiting
of Tantric practice (see cats. 15a–d, cat. the delicately shaded and sepia-toned
Gosain Nilakanthji after a Tiger Hunt
16). Here, we consider how court painters bodies of three ascetics on the right of
India, Rajasthan, Mewar, ca. 1725
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 65 × 48.5 cm envisioned the communal spaces of her- a seventeenth-century composition (cat.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, mitage (ashram) and monastery (math) 14c). The youngest, a disciple, charm-
Felton Bequest, 1980, AS92-19805
in the early modern period (sixteenth to ingly peers out from a doorway of what
nineteenth century). seems to be small monastic complex.
Ashrams are the archetypal refuges By the sixteenth century, pilgrimage
for study and contemplation. Their and trade networks provided monaster-
sacred campfires (dhuni), straw-roofed ies with wealth, political power, and trans-
huts, and fecund natural settings entered regional visibility. Akbar’s fascination with
the visual record as early as the first yogis underlies a pictorial interpretation
century CE. A magical painting (cat.
8
of his grandfather Babur’s 1519 visit
14a) from a small Hindu court in the to Gurkhattri (cat. 14d), a math outside
Himalayan foothills depicts yogis leaving Peshawar (Pakistan), as described in
their ashram and ascending Mount the latter’s memoirs.11 The painting,

14a Shiva Blesses Yogis on Kailash
produced in the imperial workshops of expansion of Babur’s penned narrative. ascetic order was starting to formalize.
the late sixteenth century, is a gloss on The emperor was inqusitive, respectful Most of the yogis have no sectarian
Babur’s disappointing visit, when he of Hindu knowledge, and acutely aware markings, but one (on the left, with
encountered no yogis and saw only “a of the challenges of creating broad outstreched hands and a red loincloth)
small, dark chamber like a monk’s cell” support in a diverse empire. Throughout wears the deer-horn whistle of a Nath
with heaps of hair that devotees had his reign, he sought out accomplished around his neck.14
offered for religious merit.12 Deviating sages for personal audiences, provided Two impressively large early
from Babur’s account, Akbar’s painters material support to yogis, and had eighteenth-century paintings from
depicted Gurkhattri teeming with yogis. Sanskrit texts translated into Persian (the Mewar, a Hindu kingdom (in present-day
In an open courtyard, ash-blue and language of the court) and beautifully Rajasthan), document the visits of
scantily clad yogis companionably await illustrated. With a meeting between
13
its king, Maharana Sangram Singh II
their dinner, as the math’s corpulent the dynasty’s founder and a holy man at (reigned 1716–34) to the monastery of his
abbot converses with Babur, his royal its center, the image seems to project guru, a Shaiva sannyasi (ascetic). Known
guest, on a raised platform. Babur’s ret- Akbar’s engagements with Hindu tradi- as Savina Khera Math, the monastery
inue gesture excitedly as they approach tions, practices, and communities rather was constructed in the first decade of the
the ascetic community. than Babur’s actual visit. The painting eighteenth century, when the Mewar ruler
Politics and intellectual curiosity at probably reflects the significance of the Rana Amar Singh II (reigned 1700–10)
Akbar’s court infuse the painting’s artistic math in Akbar’s time, when the Nath endowed its first two abbots (gosains)
ASHRAM AND MATH | 181

14b Female Guru
and Disciple

with lands that yielded an annual income.
Amar Singh’s descendants continued
their support and visited Savina Khera
on ritually set days for guru worship.15 In
turn, the gosains came with their yogis to
court for all important religious rituals;
paintings also document their atten-
dance at royal entertainments and court
assemblies.16 The relationship was mutu-
ally legitimating: religious devotion was
essential to proper Hindu kingship, and
royal patronage played a signficant role
in the perpetuation of yogic lineages.
Both paintings ingeniously deploy
multiple perspectives in a cartographic
mode. In cat. 14e, the court artist
deployed a planimetric view to articulate
the relative locations of each structure
in the bustling math. Atop this ground
plan, outer walls, buildings, pavilions,
and figures are rendered in elevation
view. Beneath the tree at the painting’s
center, the maharana, adorned with a
gold halo, sits in audience with the yogi
Bhikarinath.17 By the pavilion adorned
with sacred tulsi leaves and red flags,
the maharana appears again, having the
white-haired gosain Nilakanth weighed
against gold that he will present as a gift
to the order. Demonstrating both yogic
detachment and the compatibility of
different spheres of Hindu religiosity, the
sannyasis go about their daily activities,
unperturbed by the visiting king, the
Brahmin priests in the forecourt perform-
ing a Vedic ritual, or the weighing cere-
mony in the pavilion. Their bodies gray
from the application of ash, some rest procession to chart its southward move- 14c Three Women
Present a Young
amicably in the shade; others, including ment against the scrubby terrain. The
Girl to Aged
an urdhvabahu (one whose austerity stout ruler can be quickly identified by Ascetics
is permanently upraised arms) mill about, his ceremonial feather standard, a bold
two meditate with prayer beads in their black circle with a bright white center. He
hands, and one worships a lingam (an appears first approaching the math on
icon of Shiva) in a small domed shrine. horseback and then again, on foot and
Sangram Singh appears again in with his hands raised (both gestures of
a boldly abstract yet cartographically respect), as he receives the blessing
precise painting of the semi-arid hunting of the white-haired gosain. DD with AL
grounds between the capital city Udaipur
and Savina Khera math (cat. 14f). The
artist vertically aligned the maharana’s

14d Babur and His
Retinue Visiting Gor
Khatri

14e Maharana
Sangram Singh
of Mewar Visiting
Savina Khera
Math (detail,
following pages)

MANIFESTATIONS OF SHIVA | 187
14f Maharana
Sangram Singh II
Visiting Gosain
Nilakanthji after a
Tiger Hunt

Pilgrimage Like the lotus that is never sullied by its resolve. The “five who had set them-
surroundings, so is the pilgrim, he who selves on the Great Path” finally reach
15 treads the Great Path: no sins remain their goal with their physical bodies
Four folios from a Kedara Kalpa
attached to him, no evil pursues him. intact, not as spirits that have already
Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu
India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815
attained moksha—a state of eternal, sol-
Opaque watercolor on paper, approx. 36 × 49 cm These words are spoken by Shiva to itary blessedness and awareness—and
his divine consort Parvati as they sit on gain the blessed sight of Shiva seated
15A
Himalayan Pilgrimage of the Five Siddhas Mount Kailash and occur in the Kedara majestically on Kailasha with his consort.
Folio from the Kedara Kalpa Kalpa—that elusive and only recently Early in the text, Shiva relates that
Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu identified Sanskrit text that extols the vir- the Kedara pilgrimage should begin
tues of the Kedara pilgrimage. Different with purifying rituals. The painter makes
Opaque watercolor on paper, 36.2 × 48.9 cm (folio),
29.8 × 42.5 cm (image) versions of this undated but late medie- us witness the five sadhaka-yogendras,
Cynthia Hazen Polsky, New York, 8070 IP val text can be found, but they all consist flesh barely stretched over bony frames,
15B of forty-four chapters, and speak of the who bathe in the icy Mandakani stream
Ascetics before the Shrine of the Goddess greatness of the Kedara–Kailasha region after tonsure; bow low before the linga
Folio from the Kedara Kalpa and the unmatched merit of undertaking (emblem) of Shiva at Bhadreshwar,
Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu a pilgrimage to the icy abode of Shiva. 1
mentioned in the thirteenth chapter of
Opaque watercolor on paper, 36.5 × 49.2 cm (folio) Two major series of paintings illustrating the text; immerse themselves again in a
The Walters Art Museum, Gift of John and Berthe the Kedara Kalpa text are known; both different stream; and then proceed out of
Ford, 2001, W. 859
are from painters’ workshops active at the frame of the painting at top left (cat.
15C Kangra in the Pahari region, with one 15a). The remarkably cool palette makes
Worship of Shiva somewhat older than the other and palpable the icy cold of the region,
Folio from the Kedara Kalpa rendered by more skilled hands. But the but the renunciants bear it as naturally
works are now dispersed, and neither as do the local Gaddi shepherds, one
Opaque watercolor on paper; 36.2 × 48.9 cm (folio), series is complete. playing flute and another with a child
30 × 42.2 cm (image) The paintings reproduced here in the basket slung on his back. Bright
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5733
belong to the earlier series, whose grassy patches, little birds flitting about
15D dispersal is more complete; there is at a lushly blossoming tree, and a panting
Five Sages in Barren Icy Heights least a sizeable group from the lesser sheepdog, keeping eye on his flock of
Folio from the Kedara Kalpa
series, consisting of eleven paintings, mountain goats, convey the relatively low
India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815 in the National Museum of India. The altitude at which the pilgrimage begins.
Opaque watercolor on paper; 36.2 × 48.3 cm (folio), scenes and episodes depicted in both In the fourteenth chapter, Shiva
35.7 × 48.1 cm (image)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Arthur and
series bear strong similarities: five yogen- prescribes an elaborate ritual, identi-
Margaret Glasgow Fund, 85.1548 dras—“eminent among yogis”—appear fying specific mantras to be recited for
in folio after folio, almost always more securing the blessings of the god-
than once within the same painting, as dess Gauri (another name for Parvati),
they traverse snow-clad mountains, for whom a pilgrimage site near to
worship at shrines, and bathe in sacred Kedarnath is named (cat. 15b). As the
rivers. Temptations are strewn in their
2
painter envisions the scene, the ascetics
path, for rulers of celestial domains offer look surprisingly old, with matted hair
them vast treasures, if only they would and long beards; yet they briskly cleanse
desist from proceeding further. But with themselves in a glacial stream before
single-minded purpose, the sadhakas— offering obeisance to the enshrined
men with unwavering resolve—decline goddess. Then, under a flowering tree,
each enticement and keep moving on. they meditate all night with prayer beads
Along the way, they turn old and young in hand. Behind them looms a great
again, shave their bony heads, grow mountain range, with deer and leopards
long beards, or change from one scanty almost hidden within its criss-crossing,
animal-skin garment to another. What pastel-colored peaks. In the foreground,
does not change is the firmness of their darkly sinister crags rise from the stream

15a Himalayan
Pilgrimage of the
Five Siddhas
PILGRIMAGE | 191
15b Ascetics before as if hinting at the dangers that lie in the homage to Shiva’s linga, the air is unmis-
the Shrine of the
pilgrims’ path. takably that of celebration. Exquisitely
Goddess
Among the wondrous sights that garbed celestial maidens pour sacred
greet the sadhaka-yogendras in the water over the emblem and dance to the
barren, icy region are celestial cities. music of sitars, trumpets, drums, and
The five are dazzled when they come clarinets. Other women, much like those
upon a kingdom with gem-studded walls in a Himalayan village, draw water from a
of gold, possibly the one described in well, carry pitchers on their heads, or peer
the twentieth chapter of the text (cat. down curiously from balconies.
15c). Warmly welcomed by rulers of In a superbly rendered icy field, the
different domains along the path—King mouth of a great cave yawns, and bluish
Shankhapal at one place, Queen Champa rocks rise from the waters below like
or Champika at another, and so on, all curious walruses (cat. 15d). Although
symbolizing hindrances on the way—they dressed in the barest of clothing, the
are invited to remain with offers of untold five sadhaka-yogendras look younger
wealth, comely maidens, elephants, and and seem supremely comfortable in the
palanquins. As the gaunt ascetics pay arctic air. Where a cave appears, they

take it to be nothing less than sacred of Kangra,2 an ancient kingdom located 15c Worship of
Shiva
and circumambulate it, the painter deftly in the Himalayan foothills, but quite
obscuring the two at its other end. At far—more than 186 miles—from the
higher altitude they come upon a cres- Kedara pilgrimage circuit. The subject
cent moon—although the text speaks clearly touched off something within
only of a moon-shaped range—but take the painters. The manner in which they
this emblem of Shiva as if it were the added visually to the text—depicting
most natural of phenomena, making the pilgrims feeling or lifting the moon,
as if to lift it or feel its texture with their introducing shepherds and village
bare hands. Wonderstruck when they first women, and giving each landscape its
entered the glacial plateau at the bottom own exquisite light and palette—speaks
right, they ultimately move off with firm of the exhilaration they must have
steps along the bed of a very thin stream. experienced in taking a fresh text where
The journey to still higher ranges contin- no other painters from their region had
ues; the Great Path is never abandoned. gone. BNG
The Kedara Kalpa can be attributed
by style to the family workshop of Purkhu
PILGRIMAGE | 193
15d Five Sages in
Barren Icy Heights
PILGRIMAGE | 195
The Cremation Ground This powerful image, attributed to the a burning corpse, newly revealed under
Mughal master Payag, depicts the high magnification.
16 fearsome goddess Bhairavi seated on a The charnel setting suggests that
The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva headless corpse in a cremation ground the artist was aware of European scenes
Attributed to Payag (act. 1595–1655) with decomposing bodies.2 Her coun- of heavenly ascension, judgment, and
terpart Shiva appears beside her in the crucifixion with a comparable scattering
18.5 × 26.5 cm guise of an ash-covered devotee, whose of body parts across the ground, partic-
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, breath of flame likely indicates the ularly in the arrangement of the angled
Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2011, 2011.4091
uttering of a sacred mantra. Images of
3
severed head and long bones and the
fierce goddesses must have been known falling figures in the margin.9 European
to the seventeenth-century Mughal influence is also evident in the handling
world.4 Bhairavi’s iconography, however, of the figure of Shiva.10 The subtle red-
remains rare, even in the eighteenth dening of the corners of Shiva’s eyes—as
century when fierce goddesses become seen in the inlaid eyes of temple icons—
well established in Pahari and Rajput appears in other Mughal paintings of
painting. In this case, helpful identifica- Hindu gods.11
tion is provided in a Devanagari inscrip- Smoke plumes extend from the
tion above, added later at Mewar, where main painting into the impressionistically
the painting was known to have been.5 executed margin scenes, which include
In addition, the deity’s red body (ren- carrion-eating jackals and the goddess’s
dered with a notably lavish application of lion mount. Two figures, one with tall
cinnabar with touches of Indian yellow) ears and bushy tail, the other with horns,
distinguishes her from Kali or other appear to be the same vanquished
Mahavidyas6 with whom she is some- demons seen in a folio of an early
times associated. It has been suggested Mughal Devi Mahatmya.12
that Jagat Singh of Mewar (reigned The Shah Jahani sword held by the
1628–52) was particularly devoted to Devi and the grooved spear or dagger
the worship of Bhairavi and may have tips that emerge from her head else-
received this painting as a gift from where emanate divine light, as in one of
Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (reigned Payag’s portraits of his patron, and serve
1628–58). There is at least one other as a reminder of the imperial Mughal
parallel tradition at the Rajput court of context of this image.13 NH
Kishangarh, which says that a portrait of
the spiritual leader Sri Vallabhacarya by
the Mughal artist Hunhar was given to
the Kishangarh ruling family as a gift in
the Shah Jahan period.7
The funereal landscape seems to
have been based on multiple sources,
including Payag’s own imagination and
understanding of the profundity of the
subject matter. Here the varying stages
of decay—from heads to skulls and from
flesh to bone—introduce a sense of
temporality,8 while the headless corpse
whose toes dig into the ground suggests
yogic ideas about the coexistence of life
and death. Among the seven funeral
pyres (attributes of Agni), one on the
right contains the concealed figure of

16 The Goddess
Bhairavi Devi
with Shiva (detail,
following pages)
THE CREMATION GROUND | 197

200 | YOGA IN THE INDIAN IMAGINATION
Part Three
Yoga in the Indian Imagination
16th–19th Century
Yogis in the Literary 17G Literature played a critical role in embed-
The Prince in Danger
Imagination From the Mrigavati
ding diverse perceptions of yogis within
the popular imagination. From at least
Attributed to Haribans
as early as the Hindu epic Mahabharata
17A India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4
Rama Enters the Forest of the Sages Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; (200 BCE–400 CE), tales of wise and
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 15.2 × 9.5 cm (painting)
From the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1532–1623)
dangerous yogis instructed, amused,
India, Jodhpur, ca. 1775 Dublin, In 37.28r6 and horrified listeners and readers as
they were retold across time, place,
62.7 × 134.5 cm 17H
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 25241 languages, and narrative genres. These
The Feast of the Yogis
eight folios from illustrated manuscripts
17B From the Mrigavati
India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4 created for Hindu and Muslim rulers in
Rama in the Forest of the Sages
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; the sixteenth to eighteenth century rep-
From the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1532–1623) 28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 14.2 × 9.7 cm (painting)
India, Jodhpur, ca. 1775 The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, resent historical and localized intersec-
Opaque watercolor on paper, 62.7 × 134.5 cm Dublin, In 44r7 tions of text and image. Each, therefore,
invites us to consider what yogis meant
17C to both artists and those audiences at
Misbah the Grocer Brings the Spy court who viewed the paintings while
Parran to His House
reading or listening to the stories.
Folio from a Hamzanama (The Adventures
of Hamza)
Prince Rama’s victories over evil
Attributed to Dasavanta and Mithra and restoration of harmony on Earth are
the crux of both the great Sanskrit epic
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on cotton,
67.5 × 70.8 × 54.9 cm (folio) the Ramayana (second to fourth century
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, CE) and its retelling in Hindi verse,
1924, 24.48.12
the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (late
17D sixteenth century). Tulsidas’ Ramayana8
The Tale of Devadatta soon became the most influential and
From the Kathasaritasagara popular telling of the epic in northern
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 13.8 × 13.6 cm India.9 By the second half of the eigh-
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Nasli and Alice teenth century, Hindu kings sponsoring
Heeramaneck Collection, 68.8.553
recitations and reenactments of the
17E Hindi Ramayana were its most prom-
The Prince Begins His Journey inent patrons. In this milieu, Maharaja
From the Mrigavati Vijai Singh of Jodhpur (reigned 1772–93)
commissioned an ambitious illustrated
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 18.2 × 9.2 cm (painting) manuscript of Tulsidas’ Ramayana with
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, ninety-one folios of unprecedented size.
Dublin, In 37.23v 4
Two fancifully verdant landscapes
17F (cats. 17a–b) depict the blue-skinned
The Raj Kunwar on a Small Raft Rama and his brother Lakshmana
From the Mrigavati
(armed with bows but dressed as renun-
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; ciants in leaf-skirts) multiple times to
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 15.3 × 9.5 cm (painting) convey successive events. The divine
Dublin, In 37.27r5
heroes leave the kingdom of Ayodhya
with its palaces and hunts (on the left
of cat. 17a) to enter uncultivated for-
ests where holy men and animals live
together peaceably amid lush groves and
winding silver rivers. In contrast to the
Ramayana’s generalized descriptions
of forest-dwelling sages, Vijai Singh’s

artists represented the holy men as that Prince Rama must protect to restore
eighteenth-century yogis from distinct order on Earth. Other literary genres spin
sectarian traditions. Several are Shaiva tales around more worldly interactions
Naths, including the ash-blue wanderer between yogis and kings. Since at least
accompanied by a dog in the upper the second century, undercover spies
register of cat. 17a, and the yogis wearing disguised as holy men, and ascetics
vertically stitched, long-sleeved white who freelanced as spies, gathered
robes (one of whom bears a trident) in intelligence, fomented dissension, and
cat. 17b. Presumably because Vijai Singh assassinated enemies for Indic rulers.10
was an ardent devotee of Vishnu (of The practice continued under Mughal
whom Rama is an incarnation), Vaishnava Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605),
sannyasis vastly outnumber the Nath fol- whose generals were advised to employ 17a Rama Enters
the Forest of the
lowers of Shiva in both folios. For exam- “mendicants of tangled hair and naked of
Sages (detail,
ple, naked or scantily clad sannyasis foot” as covert agents.11 A fictional yogi- following pages)
dominate the large group of yogis who, in spy, a trickster named Parran, appears on
cat. 17b, petition Rama’s aid by showing a folio from the Hamzanama, a Persian
him the decapitated heads and bleached adventure story illustrated for Akbar (cat.
bones of sages slain by demons. Other 17c).12 Parran sits (at left) within a sand-
sannyasis perform austerities and asanas stone lodge in which swords, daggers,
both spectacular (such as swinging shields, and animal hides—the tools and
vehemently back and forth through a fire garb of militant ascetics—are promi-
in cat. 17b) and sedate (in the hermitage nently displayed.13 Like a Hindu yogi, he
nestled in the peach-colored hillocks wears dreadlocks (wound tightly around
at the center of cat. 17a). For a more his head), a tiger-skin wrap, and a saffron
detailed discussion of these practices, dhoti. In contrast, the gnarly antelope
see cats. 8a–c, Austerities. horn slung over his shoulder is the type
In the Jodhpur Ramcharitmanas, the worn by Sufi dervishes.14 Parran’s dis-
forest-dwelling yogis represent an ideal guise thus combines codes
YOGIS IN THE LITERARY IMAGINATION | 203

of Hindu and Muslim asceticism, pointing Akbar’s manuscript (cat. 17d), Jalapada
to the slippage between Sufi and yogic sits commandingly atop an outcrop at the
identities in both daily life and the literary composition’s upper right.18 His unwilling
imagination on the subcontinent. 15
disciple, Devadatta, crosses the rocky
Sinister yogis with unbounded landscape carrying the bloody embryo of
desire for ever-greater powers (siddhis) a demurely veiled demon-princess, who
were a favorite trope in both folktales sits in the landscape’s lower corner with
and the refined tradition of Sanskrit blood pooling beside her slit-open belly.
poetry (kavya). Such stories drew upon Jalapada consumes the embryo—
and fed the fascination and fear engen- a literary embellishment of the Tantric
dered by Tantra’s more extreme prac- practice of conjoining male and female
17b Rama in the tices.16 Roguish Tantric yogis identified substances to gain supernormal pow-
Forest of the Sages as wizards (vidyadhara), for example, ers—becomes a wizard, and flies off. In
figure in Somadeva’s voluminous a pattern typical of the Kathasaritsagara
Kathasaritsagara (Oceans of Rivers stories, Jalapada is punished for his
of Stories). The great Sanskrit story dastardly ways: his Brahmin disciple ulti-
cycle was composed in Kashmir in the mately becomes a wizard-king, marries
eleventh century to lift the sorrows the demon-princess, and dispatches the
of a queen. Some five hundred years “wicked Kapalika back to earth.”
later, Akbar, a great fan of adventure A far more benign yogic arche-
tales (such as the Hamzanama), had it type, the yogi-prince, pervades Hindu
translated into Persian and read to him folk stories, Nath hagiographies, and
through the night. the romances composed by Sufi poets
Reflecting the anxieties that Tantric between the fourteenth and nineteenth
practices engendered among broad century.19 The Mrigavati (Magic Doe-
publics, one story in the Kathasaritsagara Woman), a classic of early Hindi liter-
tells of a Kapalika yogi named Jalapada ature, was penned by the Sufi shaykh
who tricks a Brahmin’s son into helping Qutban Suhravardi in 1503. Its hero,
him become a wizard.17 In a folio from Rajkunwar, is a Hindu prince who seeks

his beloved Princess Mrigavati in the
guise of a Nath yogi:
He donned the sandals, the girdle,

and patched cloak.
His locks became matted. He assumed
the discus,
the yogi’s earrings, the necklace for telling
his prayers,
the staff, the begging bowl, and the
lion-skin.
He wore the clothes of a yogi, the basil
beads,
took up the [T-shaped] armrest and the
trident,
and rubbed his body all over with ashes.
He blew the horn whistle [singi] and went
on the path,
reciting the divinely beautiful one’s name
as his support.
He took the ascetic’s viol in his hand,
and applied his mind to the practices of
solitude.20
The Mrigavati was illustrated for

the Mughal Prince Salim (Akbar’s son,
the future Emperor Jahangir) in 1603–4. Naths with straggly beards and a black- 17c (opposite) 17d The Tale of
Misbah the Grocer Devadatta
Three folios depict the lovelorn prince- garbed Sufi gather for a meal. Within
Brings the Spy
turned-yogi embarking on his quest, this landscape of “competitive appropri- Parran to His
crossing a vast ocean and evading a ation and assimilation,” Sufi audiences House
monstrous sea serpent (cats. 17e–g). who heard Qutban’s verses would have
Because several painters worked on understood the Mrigavati’s yogi protago-
the manuscript, the hero’s appearance nist and the text’s yogic references (e.g.,
changes from folio to folio, but his yogic to the subtle body, mantra, and Tantra)
disguise consistently includes the ash- as elements within an allegorical quest
blue complexion, jata topknot, and cloak for spiritual perfection.21 In contrast, the
of a Hindu yogi, and he is always young painted folios of Salim’s manuscript
and handsome. foreground youthful beauty, romantic
The genre of the Sufi romance passion, and heroic deeds. DD
emerged in North India, where Hindu
yogis and Sufis mingled at hostels and
lodges, vied for the respect of lay com-
munities, and shared some practices and
terminology. Cat. 17h depicts a lodge for
wandering holy men, which the prince
established to learn the whereabouts of
his beloved (see also fig. 3 in “Muslim
Interpreters of Yoga”). Inside its walls,

17e The Prince
Begins His Journey

17f The Raj
Kunwar on a Small
Raft

17g The Prince in
Danger

17h The Feast of
the Yogis

Transcendence and 18G Yogis were a cherished theme of paint-
Bhupali Ragini
Desire in Ragamala From the Impey Ragamala
ing, in which they were an intriguing foil
to the art’s materialism. In illustrated
Paintings India, Bengal, ca. 1760
ragamala paintings, each of which
35.2 × 26.3 cm (folio with borders), depicts a scene associated with a musical
18A 23.3 × 16.1 cm (painting without borders)
mode, images of holy men infuse music
Kedar Ragini The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
Dublin, In 65.44 and painting, love and pleasure with
From the Chunar Ragamala
divinity, lifting aesthetic delectation into
India, Uttar Pradesh, Chunar, 1591 18H
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 22.5 × 15 cm a more serious register. With its strange
Saindhavi Ragini, wife of Bhairon
Freer Gallery of Art, Michael Goedhuis Ltd., F1985.21 contrasts, Bhairava Raga perfectly
From the Impey Ragamala
18B India, Bengal, ca. 1760–73 exemplifies the frisson that the aesthetic
Bhairava Raga Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; and the ascetic can arouse together (cat.
34.9 × 25.9 cm (folio with borders),
From the Chunar Ragamala 23.2 × 15.8 cm (painting without borders) 18b). The Hindu god Shiva, smeared in
India, Uttar Pradesh, Chunar, 1591 The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, ash, sits with a yogapatta clasped around
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 25.5 × 15.7 cm Dublin, In 65.75
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.40-19812 his bent legs, vina in hand, a garland of
18I severed heads around his neck. He is
18C Gaur Malhara Ragini the ascetic god, king of the cremation
Megha Malar Ragini
India, Rajasthan, Kotah, 18th century grounds, of abstinence and renunciants.
India, Rajasthan, Bundi, ca. 1600 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 14 × 18.3 cm
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 30.2 × 24 cm Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5523
Yet as he reaches a hand out to clasp
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5698 the fingers of the woman before him, he
18D apparently succumbs to her amorous
Sarang Raga enticements and her world of sinuously
From the Sirohi Ragamala necked wine bottles, richly patterned
India, Rajasthan, Sirohi, ca. 1680–90 textiles, cooling fountains, and restless
Freer Gallery of Art, Purchase, F1992.18 peacocks, one of whom struts on the roof
above, searching for his mate. Or does
18E
Shiva draw her to himself and his world
Kedar Ragini
of death and extremes? At the heart of
Ruknuddin (active ca. 1650–97)
India, Rajasthan, Bikaner, ca. 1690–95 the painting, Shiva and his music tease
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper; mortals with a seemingly impossible col-
14.9 × 11.9 (image), 25.6 × 18.7 cm (page)
laboration between material desire and
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr.
and Mrs. Peter Findlay, 1978, 1978.540.2 its transcendence that wells up again and
again in India’s raga and ragini paintings.
18F
A Yogini in Meditation Ragamala paintings illustrate poetic
From the Impey Ragamala

verses associated with musical modes.
India, Bengal, ca. 1760 Traditionally in India, musicians do not
perform written compositions. Instead, a
22 × 14.3 cm (painting without borders) musician’s every performance is a unique
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, improvisation on a “framework” of musi-
Dublin, In 65.23
cal patterns called a raga or ragini. A raga
or ragini is defined by the mood it con-
veys as well as by a wide variety of musi-
cal specifications that include the notes
assigned to it, which notes are dominant,
whether certain notes are sharp or flat,
how its notes rise and fall, and character-
istic melodic motifs. By the fourteenth
century, ragas and raginis were being
organized into families. A common sys-
tem recognized six raga husbands, each

18b Bhairava Raga
TRANSCENDENCE AND DESIRE IN RAGAMALA PAINTINGS | 215

18e Kedar Ragini
18a Kedar Ragini;

opposite,

18d Sarang Raga

18c Magha Malar Ragini 18i Gaur Malhara Ragini
“married” to five ragini wives for a total Music was an intrinsic feature of The theme of erotic love frequently
of thirty-six ragas and raginis. Families religious devotion in India, as is clear intersected with the theme of transcen-
of musical modes sometimes included from the yogis and yoginis who play dence in ragamala illustrations featuring
sons or ragaputras as well. A complete or listen to music there. Bhakti—the yogis and yoginis. Megha Malar Ragini is
set of ragas and raginis was called a intense personal devotion to God, which described in some ragamala texts as the
ragamala (or garland of ragas). Each requires no intermediaries and takes god of love and in others as an ascetic.
raga, ragini, or ragaputra was associated the form of powerful human emotions, Cat. 18c recapitulates the curious colli-
with a verse or verses describing it as a particularly of erotic love—is often sion of longing and renunciation that is
hero, heroine, ascetic, or deity, and with expressed musically. (Saints like Mira so intriguing in Bhairava Raga (cat. 18b).
an image that depicted it. The compo- Bai, for example, are typically pictured A buzzing surge of verdant fecundity,
sitions and iconographies of ragamala with an instrument in hand, singing sparked by lightning and fed by a torrid
images quickly became fairly fixed and their verses of loving praise to God. In rain, drives the weaver birds to mate,
easily recognizable. The composition of addition, the god Krishna was often the the lotuses to swell and bloom, and the
Bhairava Raga with his beloved in cat. hero of ragamala verses and pictures, fishes to agitate; even the pavilion seems
18b, for example, appeared repeatedly in where he was portrayed with a beloved to twist anxiously and the artist’s line
subsequent illustrations. Nevertheless, or playing his flute and dancing with to ache for resolution. It is desire that
all elements of the ragamala were sub- his devotees, flavoring the music with drives the lone ascetic to austerities in
ject to change and many variations exist.6 divine ecstasy.) this image: separation from the beloved
YOGA AND TAPAS | 219

18f A Yogini in Meditation 18g Bhupali Ragini
is a kind of penance that promises a woman in the splendor of beauty, Ragini (cats. 18a, 18e) is one of the most
redemption. Saindhavi Ragini (cat. 18h), lovely, with a face like the moon, a full peaceful of the musical modes. Typically
in a common ragamala verse, longs for bosom, her body anointed with saffron, it is accompanied by a scene of a sage
her lover as well and is maddened by his pained by the separation, remembers singing to the music of a vina before a
absence; the verses imply that it is the her beloved.”7 Quiescence is implied by prince or another holy man. Night has
god Shiva she adores. Though graced the balance of elements symmetrically fallen, the moon shines in a deep blue
by the delicate beauty of a princess, arrayed on either side of the heroine and night sky, and the auditor’s eyes grow
she wears the garb of a yogini; she rests by the gentle grays of the starry night. heavy or close. “In penance, adorned,
her arm on a stand to support her as A crescent moon, as if extracted from gray [with ashes], dark, a young man
she fingers her mala (rosary) in prayer the gleaming white of her dress, recalls beauteous in every limb, [this is] Kedar.”9
and listens attentively to an old sage’s the verses associated with this ragini. Kedar comes last in most ragamala
music, no doubt hoping to find peace in In another poet’s words, it is “as if she series, and its somber colors, spare
a spiritual oneness with the god who has were the moon, carved and flaked.”8 The ornament, and mood of release from
deserted her. crescent also recalls Shiva, for whom it attachment and struggle bring the musi-
Meanwhile, in cat. 18g, Bhupali is emblematic, implying that the yogini’s cal cycle to a fitting close, as if one were
Ragini’s longing in separation makes her anguished separation is also a devotional being invited to slide from music into
a model for the young prince and the longing for God. a dreamless beyond.
sage who listen to her song: “Bhupali, Yet, other images of saints take In the late sixteenth century, numer-
belonging to the quiescent mood, us beyond the agonies of desire. Kedar ous illustrated ragamalas were made

18h Saindhavi
Ragini, wife of
Bhairon

in the Deccan and at the courts of the God.14 It is not surprising, therefore, to
Hindu rulers called Rajputs, who ruled in find that ’Abd al-Rahim had his raga-
Central India, Rajasthan, and the Pahari mala paintings interspersed with Sufi
Hills. The Mughals also took an interest verses, among other texts and images, in
in the subject. Abu’l Fazl, the minister what has come to be known as his Laud
and chronicler of Mughal Emperor Akbar Ragamala Album. By the mid- to late
(reigned 1556–1605), noted that ragas seventeenth century, the Mughals were
and raginis were supposed to originate also understanding ragamalas to have
with the Hindu god “Mahadeva [Shiva] health benefits and began to commission
and [his wife] Parvati”: Shiva is, of course, their own illustrated renditions more
the quintessential ascetic. Although
10
frequently.15 No doubt the Kedar Ragini,
neither Akbar nor his successor Jahangir for example, was understood to bring
(reigned 1605–27), both of whom calm to the fiery heat of the warrior’s
appreciated this music, is known to have disposition. Even today, one encounters
commissioned illustrated ragamalas, in India the idea that ragas and raginis can
the commander of Akbar’s armies, rebalance the body and spirits.
’Abd al-Rahim, had a set of ragamala The iconography of the ragamala
paintings made from compositions he should be taken to have been somewhat
seems to have acquired from the rulers open ended. The lover can be a mortal
of Bikaner.11 Persian inscriptions on the or a god. The beloved is a girl filled with
British Museum’s roughly contempora- a sexual longing that could also be spiri-
neous Manley Ragamala suggest it too tual. In the Mughal mehfil (assembly)—
was owned by a Muslim connoisseur, where Hindus and Muslims sat side by
so that these paintings emerged in an side to enjoy dance, music, wine, poetic
atmosphere of Muslim and Hindu social verses, and paintings—no doubt debates
concord and exchange.12 transpired about the modes of achieving
What would the Hindu imagery of divine transcendence. The yogis and
the ragamala have meant to Mughal yoginis of ragamala paintings would have
viewers? Mughal gentlemen took a keen been exotic to all. They belonged to a
interest in Sufi ideas, and many Sufis, in world beyond the social pale, of men and
turn, studied Hinduism. In Indian Sufism, women who had left home and family
the stories of Krishna and Radha were to engage in extreme practices, acquire
plumbed for hidden spiritual meanings. 13
mysterious powers, and come to a close-
The Hindu woman who longs for her ness with God that no gentleman could
beloved, whether he be a man or god, hope to obtain. In a musical context,
could be viewed as the embodiment of they conveyed bhavas or emotions not
the lower or sensual self or, alternatively, encountered in daily life, tantalizing with
as a model of the soul passionately the possibility of a different path and a
yearning for God. Thus the yogini of the taste of the beyond. However, ragamala
ragamala, who physically wastes away as paintings show that that taste started
she concentrates her mind on her lord, in the world, with the visible, audible,
could be viewed from a Sufi point of view touchable, tasteable, and scentable, as
as a model of devotion. Meanwhile, the is so eloquently expressed by the young
Sufis took a keen interest in the yogic yogini in cat. 18f who rests against a
practices of India’s holy men, particu- swing, having vowed to remain standing,
larly their techniques of meditation and smelling a small, pink rose in the iconic
breath control. Though Sufi and yogic gesture of the refined connoisseur. MEA
aims differed, the Sufis respected yogic
techniques as potentially powerful means
for attaining a state of blissful union with

Mughal Albums Manuscripts and albums (muraqqa‘ ) and atmospheric landscapes, this bifolio
commissioned by the Mughals, the Indo- (cat. 19a–b) was created for Jahangir’s
19A–B Islamic dynasty that ruled much of the great Gulshan Album. A river winding
Bifolio from the Gulshan Album subcontinent from 1526 to 1857, reveal across both paintings and a border of
India, Mughal dynasty, first quarter of the that yogis were variously embedded brightly colored birds flitting among
17th century
within the intellectual, aesthetic, and golden flowers on dyed peach paper uni-
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 53.5 × 40 cm
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Orientabteilung, emotive arenas of the court. The albums fies the whole.3 Simultaneously, shifting
Libri pict. A 117, ff. 6b, 13a of Emperor Jahangir (reigned 1605–27) perspectives and juxtapositions of scale
19C and Shah Jahan (reigned 1627–57) (most strikingly, an immense mother cat)
Prince and Ascetics sympathetically deployed the figure of reveal that each painting was composed
Painting attributed to Govardhan, the yogi to project a vision of a diverse from separate vignettes. The left folio
borders attributed to Payag
and harmonious empire. features, clockwise from top left, a
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper; Mughal albums created for Jahangir Ramanandi yogi with a peacock fan and
37.5 × 25.2 cm (sheet), 20.3 × 14.3 cm (painting) and Shah Jahan typically feature pairs a dramatically billowing saffron wrap,
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and
Martha Holden Jennings Fund, 1971.791
of paintings, known as bifolios, which are a black-robed Nath with his brown dog,
linked by similar subject matter, size, a group of ash-covered yogis gathered
and borders and convey meaning without companionably in a banyan tree’s shade,
19a–b Bifolio from the Gulshan Album,
reference to texts.2 Dazzling in its and the mother cat with her kittens.4
detail 19a jewel-like colors, palpably present yogis, Diagonal pairings structure its facing
MUGHAL ALBUMS | 223

19a–b Bifolio from
the Gulshan Album

MEDITATION | 225
19c Prince and Ascetics
folio: on one axis, brown-robed itinerant ethnographic because it transcends exquisite folio is a paradigm of imperial
Naths detached from familial ties are the gathering of data to convey larger ideology, its individual elements would
represented; on the other, a mother cow social meanings and interrelationships. 6
have resonated on multiple levels. In
licking her calf invites consideration of Here, the aggregate of Vaishnava and Govardhan’s painting, for example, the
the bonds connecting a Nath guru with Shaiva yogis alongside scenes of mother intricately knotted roots of the sheltering
his young disciple and the mother and animals nurturing their young portrays tree not only create an aureole of light
child who await his blessing. Hindu ascetics as members of an amica- around the holy man’s bald pate, they
The artist who assembled the ble collective. also draw our attention to the minute
pages for Jahangir’s enjoyment play- Artists in the atelier of Jahangir’s portal of his cell. By 1630, even this
fully obscured some seams with thickly son, Shah Jahan, employed a different small motif was deeply implanted within
painted leaves or rocky outcrops while formal strategy to construct this exqui- Mughal consciousness as a signifier of
drawing attention to others: a brown site page (cat. 19c) as a space that unites yogic attainment. Jahangir, for example,
dog sniffs at a vertical seam, shallow diverse social types. Within a bucolic drew an explicit connection between
landscapes abut distant vistas, and visual landscape attributed to Govardhan—an austerities and spiritual accomplishment
pairings ricochet within each painting artist who excelled in sensitive depictions when informing his audience about
and across both folios. The sophisticated of holy men; see also fig. 6 in “Yoga: The the yogi Chitrup (Jadrup in Persian).7
formal organization locates the compo- Art of Transformation”—a musician sings He approvingly recorded the miniscule
sitions within a Persian album-making devotional verses to a youthful imperial dimensions of Chitrup’s rock-cut
tradition that consciously invited reflec- prince and an aged Hindu renunci- dwelling, and also commissioned
tion on the meanings of juxtapositions.5 ant with long dreadlocks. The folio’s several paintings that record his and his
Scholar Sunil Sharma has described the flower-strewn outer border features father Akbar’s visits to the holy man’s
Mughal’s identification of yogis and their perceptive studies of variously quirky abode8; (see fig. 1 in “Muslim Interpreters
social networks, practices, and beliefs and beatific yogis along with a courtier by of Yoga”). DD
in literary and visual genres as proto- another Mughal master, Payag. While the
MUGHAL ALBUMS | 227

228 | YOGA IN THE TRANSNATIONAL IMAGINATION
Part Four
Yoga in the Transnational Imagination
18th–20th Century
Company Paintings In the early nineteenth century, East “Company art,” artists offered a complex
India Company1 officials ventured to aesthetic that knowingly incorporated
20A India, accompanied by centuries of Indian regional painting traditions with
Lakshman Das
accumulated information directing their European ones, while offering choice
Folio from the Fraser Album
India, Delhi, ca. 1825
perceptions and a desire to document subjects tailored to their patrons’ inter-
Watercolor and ink on paper, 25.4 × 14.6 cm and classify the manners, customs, ests, such as the fluid category of the
costumes, and landscape of people yogi.3 Influenced by Persian, Hindi, and
20B and scenes they witnessed, or expected Western texts, Europeans associated
Kala Bhairava to see. Though some drew and wrote
2
yogis with the strange, marvelous, and
In an album of ninety-one paintings themselves, many patronized Indian changeable.4 In the artworks discussed
India, Thanjavur, ca. 1830
and European artists and purchased here, yogis equally slip between por-
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 22.6 × 17.6 cm
The Trustees of the British Museum, 1962,1231,0.13.70 art available in the bazaar or in local traiture, typology, and divinity, and also
publications. In such works, often termed reveal the relationship between
20C
Ascetics Performing Tapas
South India, ca. 1820
Opaque watercolor on paper,
23.5 × 29 cm (page)
The Trustees of the British Museum,
Bequeathed through Francis Henry Egerton,
2007,3005.4
20D
“An Abd’hoot”
Balthazar Solvyns (1760–1824)
Hand-colored etching on paper, 52 × 38 × 11 cm
In Balthazar Solvyns, A Collection of Two Hundred
and Fifty Colored Etchings: descriptive of the
manners, customs and dresses of the Hindoos
(Calcutta: [Mirror Press], 1799)
National Library of Medicine, WZ 260 S692c
Note: In the listings above, historical titles are

indicated by quotation marks.
20a Lakshman Das
20b Kala Bhairava

Indian and European artistic practice
and patronage.
A painting of the yogi Lakshman
Das (cat. 20a) portrays a historical
figure in a limber posture, fingering a
rosary with an inward, off-center gaze.
The artist, likely trained in Delhi in the
late-Mughal style, builds this ascetic’s
body through shadows of awkwardly
arranged bones and stipples of hair,
emphasizing his individualism through
observation. The inscription identifies
him as “Lutchmun Dos, a Brahmin, and
a religious mendicant of the Hindoo cast
called Byragee [Vairagi].”5 This painting
is associated with a particular patron.
When Company official William Fraser
was posted in Delhi, he commissioned
Indian artists to paint scenes from his
life in India as well as local figures, such
as ascetics, for his brother James Baillie
Fraser, who desired them as studies for
his own works.6 However, Lakshman Das
also appears in Tashrih al-aqwan or The
Description of Peoples (1825), a manu-
script by Colonel James Skinner, a friend
of the Fraser brothers. This was a compi-
lation of Sanskrit sources on castes and
mendicant orders that Skinner translated
into Persian and had illustrated by Indian
artists.7 Here, though Lakshman Das
remains a portrait of an individual the
Frasers and Skinner likely encountered,
or at least shared a painting of, he also
illustrates a general category of Hindu
ascetic—a Vaishnava Vairagi.8
The boundaries between the gods
who revealed yoga and the ascetics who
emulated them were porous long before
the colonial period; however, this ambi-
guity persisted into the eighteenth and
nineteenth century and can be tracked
through the style and iconography of
some Company paintings. In an album
from Thanjavur, Shiva as Kala Bhairava
strides red-skinned, dreadlocked,
adorned with golden ornaments and
a garland of skulls. He carries a trident 20c Ascetics Performing Tapas
across his strapping shoulders, which
taper to a slim waist, while his lean blue

COMPANY PAINTINGS | 233
20d “An Abd’Hoot”

dog stretches nimbly behind (cat. 20b).9 sixty-three paintings, likely produced stretches into an immense tome. It is
His circular face, with its unblinking for a wealthy European patron in Tamil unclear if Solvyns’s etchings are sym-
almond eyes, and ideal figure conform Nadu, that includes portraits of gold- pathetic to their subjects, or whether his
to the South Indian style of depicting embellished Hindu gods and scenes of encyclopedia was conceived to enable
deities during this period10; yet, like the Indian religious ceremonies and devo- the colonialist to exert social control,
human ascetics he mimics, he has only tees.18 Significantly, the folios are painted from the servants employed in his home
two arms, a dog, and a simple loincloth.11 in different styles. While the artists to anyone encountered in the environ-
Company officials were aware of such used dense bright colors to form iconic ment, such as this ascetic.23 HS
slippages between gods and men. As sculptural poses, similar to that seen
part of their education, they learned in the Kala Bhairava, they incorporated
Indian languages from Persian and Hindi European techniques and compositions
literary texts, and read works in trans- into their regional training to create the
lation, many of which contained tales images of nature and men. Here then,
about Kala Bhairava and the powerful the subdued European landscape pal-
chimeric yogis who were devoted to ette of blues, greens, and browns places
him.12 This painting of Bhairava adds to ascetics firmly within the natural world,
the god’s complex and layered identity perhaps relegating the classificatory
by drawing on both a South Indian visual grid, as much as the ascetics, to human
model and a European one, placing him, knowledge rather than divine.
and most of the ninety-one other deities In his hand-colored etching of an
in the album, against a blank “scien- “Abd’hoot” or avadhuta (cat. 20d), an
tific” background.13 It is possible that the ascetic who has left worldly activity,19 the
album was made for a specific patron, Belgian artist Balthazar Solvyns focuses
or, since there is a nearly identical copy on a single figure. Lithe, with his head
in the Victoria and Albert Museum, that and eyes tilted towards the sky, he wears
this type of album was in circulation as Vaishnava sect marks on his body and
a catalogue of the gods.14 carries a backscratcher and perhaps a
A painting of ten vignettes of Hindu gomukha (bag) to count rosary beads.
ascetics performing penance (tapas)15 The text is deceptively simple; the ascetic
(cat. 20c) shows them standing in the is one of a “sect of Faquirs, that some-
midst of fires (panchagni), maintaining times go intirely without cloaths,” though
fixed poses, and practicing levitation, here he wears a loincloth.20 In the Paris
breath control, meditation, and immer- edition, the avadhuta is depicted nude,
sion in a lotus-filled pond.16 Rather than and the text explains that his female
individuals, these ascetics are general- devotees seek his blessings for fertility;
ized types stiffly demonstrating a diverse the woman and child standing in the hut
array of austerities and postures within might allude to this aspect.21 Though
a classificatory grid. It seems to be a Solvyns likely drew an avadhuta from life,
straightforward, Company-style depic- the descriptive text and overall project
tion; set within a picturesque landscape, renders the figure a type rather than
such as a framing tree and low horizon, a portrait. He is one of “Ten Prints of
each yogi is centered on the page and Faquirs or Holy Mendicants” in Solvyns’s
recognizable by his signifying trait. compendium of “250 etchings descrip-
Paintings of ascetics are regularly found tive of the manners, customs & dresses,
in Company albums, publications, and of the Natives of Bengal: particularizing
collections, often cut into single folios every character in the different casts,
and sometimes placed alongside rele- with the peculiar attribute of each,”22
vant descriptive letters, indicating consis- which was published in Calcutta likely by
tent production and replication. These
17
subscription from Indian and European
ascetics are part of a loose portfolio of buyers. The classificatory grid thus
COMPANY PAINTINGS | 235

Colonial Photography 21I 21Q
Untitled Untitled
India, Orissa, ca. 1870 India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai),
21A
Albumen print, 14.6 × 9.9 cm ca. 1880
Untitled
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Albumen print, 14.3 × 9.9 cm
John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros., 1858 Ethnologisches Museum, VIII S-SOA NLS 1 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Albumen print, 14 × 10 cm Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.1522
National Anthropological Archives, 21J
Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04604500 Untitled 21R
Untitled
Westfield & Co.
21B
India, ca. 1870 India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai),
Untitled
Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm or Orissa, ca. 1880
John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros., 1858 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Albumen print, 14.8 × 9.7 cm
Albumen print, 13.7 × 9.5 cm Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 3315 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
National Anthropological Archives, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1473
Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04565100 21K
Untitled 21S
21C Group of Yogis
Westfield & Co.
Untitled
India, ca. 1870 Colin Murray for Bourne & Shepherd, ca. 1880s
John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros., 1858 Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm Albumen print, 22.2 × 29.2 cm
Albumen print, 13.5 × 10.2 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck,
National Anthropological Archives, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 3314 2011.02.02.0004
Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04566000
21L 21T
21D Untitled Untitled
Untitled
Westfield & Co. Edward Taurines (act. 1885–1902)
John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros., 1858 India, ca. 1870 India, Bombay, 1890
Albumen print, 14 × 10.2 cm Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm Albumen print, 23.5 × 19 cm
National Anthropological Archives, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04565500 Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 3316 Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.8007b
21E 21M
Kurrum Doss Untitled
in The People of India (1868–75), volume 4, folio 158 Westfield & Co.
ca. 1862 India, ca. 1870
34.3 × 25.4 cm Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm
Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Collection Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 3317
21F 21N
Bairagees, Hindoo Devotees, Delhi Untitled
in The People of India (1868–75), volume 3, folio 203 Westfield & Co.
Charles Shepherd for Shepherd & Robertson, 1862 India, Calcutta, ca. 1870
34.3 × 25.4 cm Albumen print, 14.1 × 9.5 cm
Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Collection Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C3313
21G 21O
Untitled Untitled
Charles Shepherd for Shepherd & Robertson, 1862 India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai),
Albumen print, 19.6 × 16 cm ca. 1870
Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1419 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1474
21H
Untitled 21P
India, ca. 1870
Untitled
Albumen print, 10.7 × 14.2 cm India, Tamil Nadu, ca. 1870
Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 447 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin,
Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C158

21a Untitled 21b Untitled
21c Untitled 21d Untitled
COLONIAL PHOTOGRAPHY | 237

21e (left) Kurram 21g (opposite) The British fascination with images of Following the Indian Rebellion of
Doss Untitled
Indian ascetics was well established in 1857, the British colonial administration
21f (right) colonial drawings and painting before increasingly documented various Indian
Bairagees, Hindoo photography was introduced in India. populations, producing The People of
Devotees, Delhi
Company paintings and early travelogues India, a photographically illustrated proto-
are rife with representations and descrip- ethnography, between 1868 and 1875.
tions of exotic yogis. A description of pho- Its eight volumes contain 480 photo-
tographic portraits by John Nicholas (cat. portraits accompanied by descriptive and
21a–d) in the 1858 Madras Photographic historical text, a product of two editors,
Society’s annual exhibition reveals that three separate authors, and no fewer
the preoccupation with the exotic yogi than fifteen different photographers.2
“other” carried over into photography: Evidence suggests that the inspira-
tion for the mammoth publishing project
Some portraits of religious mendicants originated in a photographic series
were also exhibited by Mr. Nicholas. These compiled in India and sent to Britain for
are curious in their way, and the selection display at the Great London Exhibition of
of subjects were excellent. One party had 1862.3 Contrary to the account provided
a wire passed through his cheeks. Two in the preface of the volumes, at no
others had large square iron frames point in its thirteen-year production did
riveted to their necks. The pictures were The People of India have either a clearly
well executed, and copies are for sale articulated objective or coherent process.
at Mr. Nicholas’ Studio.1
The resulting collection comprises nearly
one thousand photographic portraits

21h Untitled
of varying standards; most contributors resented in the publication. In volume 3,

were amateurs stationed in India as plate 158, Kurrum Doss (cat. 21e) is
military officers or agents of the colonial described as a landlord in the holy city
administration. Hardwar. His tilak (forehead mark) and
Though originally supported by the surname identified him to contemporary
British colonial government, the com- viewers as an Udasi, a Sikh ascetic. Doss
pletion of the later volumes became a is one of only a few named subjects in
private venture, personally funded by the the publication, and the entry betrays a
editors, Forbes Watson and John William tension between individual and type as
Kaye. Despite their massive efforts, The well as the limitations of colonial British
People of India was unenthusiastically understanding of yoga’s rich diversity.
received by the burgeoning anthropo- Such limitations are intimated in the text,
logical community (on the grounds of which attempts to reconcile the image of
inconsistent and arbitrary typologies) and Doss, a “comfortable looking individual
the purchasing public. The publication clad in a quilted chintz tunic” with the
as a whole fell into obscurity by the turn naked and emaciated yogi type known to
of the twentieth century.4 Today, however, the British. Noting that he doesn’t have
it is recognized as the first large-scale “long matted hair wound round his head,
attempt to employ photography in the his finger nails like claws,” the author is
context of an ethnographic publication. unable to fully identify Doss as a yogi
Epitomizing the British suspicion of and speculates that he is either enlight-
Indians after the 1857 Rebellion, it ened or false.
represents an early instance of the Though The People of India was a
linking of photographic technology to failure, many of the types represented
surveillance and categorization in in the volumes (and indeed some of the
order to justify racial supremacy and images) persisted and proliferated in
colonial domination.5 the arena of commercial photography.
Yogis and yoga-practicing ascetics Commercial studios in the mid-
are among the various “native types” rep- nineteenth century provided a range

of photographs to a public hungry for
views of foreign lands and people. To
thrive, a firm needed a stock of images
that would appeal to a purchasing public.
The itinerant nature of many South
Asian ascetics proved advantageous
for commercial photographic studios
that wanted to capitalize on the British
fascination with the exotic yogi. In the
early 1860s, commercial photographers
preferred the collodion glass-plate
negative because of its ability to register
great detail without requiring a pro-
longed exposure time. But the sensitivity
of collodion demanded that mobile
darkrooms and volatile chemicals had
to be transported along with the camera
and glass plates.6 The logistical difficul-
ties limited the viability of impromptu
or site-specific photography for much of
the nineteenth century; traveling yogis
filled the gap.
After the introduction of the carte-
de-visite format by Frenchman A. A.
Disderi in 1854, photography became
affordable to a broader public.7 Carte-
de-visites became so popular that in
England alone, 300 million to 400
million cartes were sold every year
between 1861 and 1867.8 The affordabil-
ity of the carte-de-visite and subsequent
copyrighting of carte-de-visite albums
facilitated the proliferation of “Native
Views” as collectable images in the
West. Quick to cash in on the phenom-
enon, photographic studios based in
India offered sets of portrait views of
Indian ascetics. A series of portraits by
the commercial firm Westfield & Co.
were most likely sold in this manner
(cats. 21j–21n). The commonplace 21i Untitled
marketing of carte-de-visite/cabi-
net-card series of Indian ascetics under
catchall titles makes it near impossible
to identify original titles for individual
photographs. Commercial catalogues
listed photos for sale by negative num-
ber or set name, and it is likely that cats.
21o, 21q, 21r, and 21t were never titled
beyond a generic term.9

21j (top left)
Untitled
21k (top right)

Untitled
21l (lower left)

Untitled
21m (lower right)

Untitled

21n Untitled

21o (opposite)
Untitled
21p Untitled
Over time, with advancements in a seemingly standard studio portrait,

photographic technology, photographers the tall, bald character second from the
were free to venture outside of the studio right may not be a yogi at all. He sports
without cumbersome equipment. At that white body markings—four horizontal
point, “site-specific” images of ascetic stripes—that bear no relationship to
practice, such as cat. 21p or “Hindu Fakir any Hindu tradition. The dubious marks
on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta” (see cat. 22c), throw the subjects’ identities and the
were captured with frequency and zeal. elaborate staging into question. Indeed,
As studios continued to produce a defining characteristic of commercially
“Native Views” throughout the latter half generated yogi-type photo-portraits in
of the nineteenth century, backdrops the nineteenth century is that they are
and props became more elaborate, and laden with attributes but entirely devoid
the identity of the represented individ- of context. JF
uals increasingly questionable. Instead
of practitioners photographed in the
studio, anonymous individuals donned
costumes and accouterments and posed
against painted backdrops and fabricated
outdoor scenes. In Group of Yogis (cat.
21s), a Bourne & Shepherd photograph,
circa 1880, a group of men with stan-
dard yogi attire and attributes are posed
against a painted jungle scene amid
potted plants and a grass mat. Though

21q (opposite)
Untitled
21r Untitled

21s Group of Yogis
21t Untitled

MEDITATION | 249
The Bed of Nails: The 22F
“Hindu Fakir on Bed of Spikes, Benares”
Exotic Across Borders Baptist Missionary Society
and Media India, early 20th century
Postcard, 8.6 × 13.5 cm
22A
“Diverses Pagodes et Penitences 22G
des Faquirs” (Various Temples and “Fakir Sitting on Nails”
Penances of the Fakirs) India, late 19th century
Painted clay, 11.4 × 20.3 cm
Bernard Picart (1673–1733)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by
1729
the Indian High Commission, IS.196-1949
Copper-plate engraving on paper, 48 × 52.4 cm
From Jean-Frédéric Bernard and Bernard Picart,
Note: In the listings above, historical titles are
Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses des Peuples
indicated by quotation marks.
Idolatres (Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the
Idolatrous Peoples), vol. 2 (Amsterdam:
J. F. Bernard, 1728)
Robert J. Del Bontà collection, E442
22B
Images of Yogis
John Chapman (act. 1792–1823)
September 1, 1809
Copper-plate engraving on paper, 26.7 x 21.6 cm
From Encyclopædia Londinensis or, Universal
Dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature … vol. 10
(London: J. Adler, 1811)
22C
“Hindu Fakir on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta”
James Ricalton (1844–1929)
ca. 1903
Stereoscopic photograph on paper, 8.9 × 17.8 cm
From James Ricalton, India through the Stereoscope:
A Journey through Hindustan (New York and London:
Underwood & Underwood, 1907)
Robert J. Del Bontà collection, SV49
22D
“Hindu Fakir: for thirteen years this old
man has been trying ‘to find peace’ on
this bed of spikes”
Young People’s Missionary Movement
New York, early 20th century
Postcard, 8.9 x 14 cm
22E
“Fakir on Bed of Nails”
D. Macropolo & Co.
India, Calcutta, early 20th century
Postcard, 8.9 × 14 cm

22a “Diverses
Pagodes et
Penitences des
Faquirs”
THE BED OF NAILS | 251

From the eighteenth to the twentieth postures and painful practices of ascetics 22b Images of
Yogis
century, the Indian ascetic lying supinely seen in Picart’s print continued over the
and unaffectedly on a bed of nails was next two centuries. Publications reveal
repeated in prints, paintings, photo- awe mixed with fear, condescension, and
graphs, and clay. Often one of a group distrust, especially related to the bed
of ascetics engaged in various physical of nails. Jonathan Duncan’s “Account
austerities or tapas, he became particu-
1
of Two Fakeers,” published in Asiatic
larly associated with the exotic, if not Researches 5 (1799), includes one of the
the charlatan. earliest printed portraits of a yogi on a
Travelers to India had encountered bed of nails. In 1792, Duncan, the British
itinerant holy men since antiquity; in the East India Company resident at Benares
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (Varanasi), interviewed two renowned
however, reports of “yogis” and “fakirs,” “fakeers,” Purana Poori (Puran Puri)
as they were fluidly termed,2 rapidly and Perkasanund (Prakashanand), and
increased in the accounts of European employed an Indian artist to draw them
merchants and missionaries. Aided by “from the life.”9 Duncan was enthralled by
print, they gained a wide audience. The Purana Poori’s description of his travels,
publisher Jean-Frédéric Bernard and the his choice of penance (raised arms or
engraver Bernard Picart compiled such urdhvabahu10), and his espionage for
reports in their volumes on compara- the Company. However, Duncan’s awe
tive religion, Cérémonies et coutumes turned to disbelief when it came to
religieuses de tous les peuples du monde Perkasanund, whom he interviewed
representées (Ceremonies and Religious “principally on account of the strange
Customs of the Various Nations of the penance … [of] fixing himself on his ser-
Known World, 1723–37). They provided
3
seja, or bed of spikes.”11 The ascetic on a
“copious Description[s]” of Indian ascet-
4
bed of thorns or arrows has a long history
ics in particular, as illustrated in one of in India,12 but it is likely that Perkasanund
Picart’s engravings (cat. 22a), based on popularized it in the colonial period per-
the French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste haps through the repetition of his printed
Tavernier’s earlier account and print.5 It image. It was unknown to Duncan, who
depicts a scene of temples, devotees, assumed it to be repentance for a crime.
and ascetics in “fantastic Postures,” such Perkasanund refuted the accusation by
as maintaining the “same attitude,” being citing its antiquity, claiming its origin
surrounded by fires, or leaning “upon a in ascetics who performed the ser-seja
cord” under a banyan tree. Throughout6
(sara-sayya) discipline, including the war-
the text, these and other austerities are rior Bhishma who lay on a bed of arrows
enumerated, including an ascetic who in the Mahabharata.13 Perkasanund’s use
“walk’d in Wooden Shoes stuck full of of the term arrow-bed, ser-seja, rather
Nails in the Inside,” an early European
7
than the more commonly used thorn-
textual reference to the penance that bed (kantaka-sayya), not only links him
became the bed of nails phenomenon. to Bhishma, it also indicates that the bed
The authors interpreted these “severe of nails might have been his particular
Penances” as a means of controlling the adaptation.
body to gain powers, such as the trans- Perkasanund’s illustrated story
migration of souls (metempsychosis); as circulated in multiple publications, each
a way to attract fame and therefore alms; increasingly skeptical about the bed of
and also, within a Christian framework, nails.14 For example, the Encyclopedia
as penance for sins. 8
Londinensis (1811) entry on “Fakeers, or
European fascination, if not Devotees” describes Perkasanund and
obsession, with documenting the novel his ilk as “wretched beings in the shape

22c “Hindu Fakir on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta”
22d “Hindu Fakir: for thirteen years this old man has been trying ‘to find peace’ on this bed of spikes”

22e “Fakir on Bed of Nails”
22f “Hindu Fakir on Bed of Spikes, Benares”

22g “Fakir Sitting of man” who “disgrace the police of any eighteenth century, the British created
on Nails”
country, by a life of total inutility, under an inhospitable atmosphere for ascet-
the name of pious austerity” (cat. 22b). 15
ics, fearing their military might, which
Portions of the text are excerpted from disrupted trade routes and diplomacy
Duncan’s article, but the Londinensis and led to skirmishes in Bengal, which
author elaborates on the bed of nails, became known as the Sanyasi and Fakir
portraying this type of “fakeer” as a free- Rebellion. Wandering ascetics also
loader living on the “generosity of the congregated in public, performing fan-
English government” and as a performer tastic feats for alms or simply begging.
who is “carried about to all of the great This change in status was related to the
festivals, sitting bare-breeched on a seat decreasing religious role that ascet-
of iron-spikes, from the punctures of ics played from the sixteenth century
which they frequently contrive to let the onward, concurrent with an increase
blood flow.”16 in bhakti (devotion to a personal god),
Western descriptors of Indian ascet- and also to specific eighteenth-century
ics as militants, mendicants, layabouts, British laws that identified ascetics within
and showmen are intimately related to Company territories as criminals and
their changing social circumstance.17 In beggars rather than religious figures.19
the early modern period, myriad types By the early twentieth century, the
of ascetics gained their livelihoods by ascetic lying on a bed of nails in a public
being mercenaries, rural priests, or par- space had become a stock figure in
ticipants in religious orders.18 In the late Western photographs, postcards, and

books. In 1907, photographer James Burma,”24 a trend related to cataloguing
Ricalton published India Through the Indian people by caste or trade to display
Stereoscope for the American firm in world exhibitions.25 Rather than
Underwood and Underwood, which emaciated, its body appears muscular
specialized in boxed sets of stereograph and toned, perhaps a nod to modern
views of familiar and exotic locales.20 In innovations that intertwined physical
Ricalton’s views of India, “Hindu Fakir fitness and yoga.26 Indeed, the small clay
on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta” (cat. 22c) figure holds its own: it is jaunty, comfort-
would have been viewed between “Horrid able, and hints at the dual dependence
Goat Sacrifices to Hindu Goddess Kali” of the fakir on Europeans for funds, and
and a caged tiger labeled “Famous Europeans on the fakir for exoticism. HS
‘Man-Eater.’” Within the text, Ricalton dis-
misses the emaciated ascetic as a beggar
practicing “a ‘stunt’ for alms,” drawing
attention to the “one big English penny
deposited” on a white cloth.21 However,
by including the photograph Ricalton
enacts his own voyeuristic stunt, offering
a view of the strange, awesome, and
ferocious for Americans to condescend
to and consume.22
Postcards united spectacle, eth-
nography, and even missionary activities.
At the turn of the century, missionary
movements sought to educate young
Americans for religious work. As part of
the process they published postcards,
such as cats. 22d–f. A postcard pub-
lished by the Young People’s Missionary
Movement (cat. 22d), for instance,
displays an ascetic fingering his rosary
while seated with one knee up on a bed
of nails. He is described as trying “to find
peace,” yet the empty bed of nails at his
side and the hovering crowd implies the
opposite. Is he “blameless and harm-
less,” even a potential convert? Or is he
“insincere” and “given to various modes
of deception,” as another Young People’s
publication, J. M. Thoburn’s The Christian
Conquest of India (1906), declared about
devotees in India, including a “fakir on
a bed of spikes.”23
The ascetic on a bed of nails reit-
erates as one of several hundred clay
figurines amassed by C. G. Sanders,
a fur merchant who lived in India (cat.
22g). Made by two Indian sculptors, the
figurine is within an entire schema “of
the many varied ethnic types of India and

Fakirs, Fakers and Magic Fakirs. The word evokes a bewilder- styles in temple complexes and street
ing range of associations in the Indian fairs.5 Meanwhile, outside of India, fakirs
23A colonial context—from Sufi ascetics to became objects of intense fascination
Thurston the famous magician, ash-smeared hatha yogis; from magi- for European and American occultists,
East Indian rope trick
cians and tricksters to circus performers; who celebrated the magical powers
Otis Lithograph Company
from Gandhi to the Kumbh Mela.1 An these figures could acquire through
United States, ca. 1927
Color lithograph, 104 x 35 cm exotic foreign word, it came to stand for yoga. Popular accounts of fakirs in the
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, practices that were themselves variously early twentieth-century Euro-American
POS-MAG-.T48 no.14 (C size)
perceived by European visitors to India print and cinematic media reflect some
23B as exotic and foreign, but also fascinating, of this ambivalence. While portrayals of
Koringa confusing, and frightening since the sev- yogis, real and imaginary, routinely relied
W. E. Barry Ltd. enteenth century.2 The very word “fakir,” on Orientalist stereotypes of India or the
United Kingdom, Bradford, ca. 1938
Print, 74.4 x 50.9 cm as it is used in India, rests on an etymo- mystical East as the source of supernatu-
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, S.128-1994 logical confusion, shifts in meaning over ral power, there were an equal number of
centuries pointing as much to changing attempts to debunk and expose specific
23C
“Mystery girl: why can’t she be killed?” colonial and transnational perceptions (or fakirs and yogis as inauthentic fakers,
Look Magazine, September 28, 1937 misperceptions) as to its continued hold charlatans, and frauds who were duping
Des Moines, Iowa, United States on popular imaginations. Derived from a gullible public. This essay briefly
34.1 × 26.6 cm
the Arabic word for poor (from the noun describes five fakir-yogis and performers
Private Collection
faqr, poverty), fakir originally referred who captured the world’s imagination
23D to Muslim Sufi wandering dervishes and in the early twentieth century, using
Hindoo Fakir
then gradually expanded to include a examples drawn from the rich world
Edison Manufacturing Company
United States, 1902
range of Hindu yogis who defied easy of lithographic posters and early films,
Film, transferred to DVD, 3 minutes categorization, even if they were increas- two based on real magicians, three on
General Collections, Library of Congress,
ingly (and mistakenly) glossed by colonial fictional composites.
NV-061-499
administrators under one umbrella: men- The older of the two posters,
23E dicant caste orders; militant warrior ascet- Thurston the famous magician, East
“The Yogi Who Lost His Will Power”
ics who disrupted East India Company Indian rope trick (cat. 23a), features
Song clip from the film You’re the One (1941)
trade routes; itinerant renouncers who Howard Thurston, a stage magician from
Johnny Mercer (lyrics); Mercer-Mchugh; Jerry
Cohonna with Orrin Tucker and his Orchestra wandered from shrine to shrine; and, Columbus, Ohio. As a child, he ran away
Clip from YouTube, loop at 3’14: most especially, magicians, contortionists, to join the circus and eventually became
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixwmfoZJHq8
LC Recorded Sound 578945
and yogis who engaged in spectacular one of the most successful performers of
Columbia 35866 self-mortification practices on the street his time. His traveling magic shows rou-
and in other public spaces.3 tinely drew on an undifferentiated India
Of all these groups, it is this last as the authoritative source of magical
category—the performing fakir-yogis in power. This vertical lithographic poster
public spaces—that attracted diamet- reflects and mimics his most popular
rically different responses inside and act—the great Indian rope trick—which
outside India in the late nineteenth and is announced in the typical hyperbole
early twentieth centuries. In India, yoga’s of the carnival busker: “World’s Most
scholarly revivalists dismissed contem- Famous Illusion. First Time-out-of-India.”
porary fakir-yogis and their magical prac- On the right, Thurston stands below
tices as the unworthy, degenerate heirs that legend and against a monument of
of a classical yoga tradition in need of indeterminate origin, the minarets being
urgent reform.4 By reverse logic, magic the only geographical clue that it is the
in the Indian context became intertwined “East.” Suavely dressed in coat and tails,
in the popular European imagination the magician cuts a crisp contour against
with fakir-yogis, many of whom had been the misty nightscape, and his raised arm
forced by colonial laws against militant signals that he has just caused the rope
asceticism to take on mendicant life- to magically arise from the snake basket

on the lower left, rather like a conductor 23a Thurston the
famous magician,
orchestrating a “native” performance.
East Indian rope
The young, bare-chested boy in turban trick
and dhoti who climbs the freestanding
rope is another visual nod to India and
the East. Meanwhile, the Indian conjurers
in attendance are represented with broad
painted strokes and dramatic shadows,
their yellow and gray tonalities rendering
them as unsubstantial as the swirling
smoke and distant mosque. Ironically,
just a few years after this poster was
printed, and when the popularity of the
trick was at its peak, the Indian rope trick
was roundly denounced in the Chicago
Tribune and other media as the world’s
greatest hoax of all time, even as some
analysts later identified the Tribune itself
as the perpetrator of the hoax in the
first place.6
Koringa, a female magician or
magicienne who performed in France,
England, and the United States during
the 1930s, invoked Indian referents
through both performance and persona.
Her photograph on a 1937 cover of Look,
an American magazine (cat. 23c), the
source for a 1938 English circus poster
(cat. 23b), reveals how she creatively
reimagined yogic attributes. Her unruly
halo of hair recalls the wild tresses of
medieval yogini goddesses (cats. 3a–c),
her chic bathing suit is styled on the
tiger-skin garment of a yogi, and the
off-center dot on her forehead hovers
between a bindi and a protective mark
against the evil eye.7 Touted alter-
nately as the world’s “only female fakir”
and “only female yogi,” Koringa’s acts
included hypnotism and defying death—
practices historically identified with yogic
siddhis’ supernatural powers—by wres-
tling crocodiles and being buried alive.8
Koringa’s stage identity represents
a performative transformation of yoga
in culture and in history. Her promo-
tional materials state that she was born
in Rajasthan, orphaned at the age of
three, and raised by fakirs who taught
her supernatural skills.9 In reality, she
FAKIRS, FAKERS, AND MAGIC | 259

was born Renée Bernard in Bordeaux in cal authority for real fakirs, the film and 23b Koringa
southern France. It is likely that Bernard sound clips described in this section
took the name Koringa and adopted touch on the authenticity and conversely,
an Indian identity because British and the loss of power, of fictional fakir-yogis.
French audiences had been ardent fans Almost from its inception, cinema devel-
of theatrical displays of Indian magic and oped a relationship with magic—first as
Oriental pomp since the second half of a curiosity included in magic acts, and
the nineteenth century.10 In spite of its later as a device for creating new kinds of
Orientalist overtones, Bernard’s yogini- illusions. Film pioneers in the European
fakir identity parallels the practices of context—like George Méliès,12 who would
Indian magicians. For centuries, Indian go on to become one of the most famous
magicians intentionally capitalized on the “trick film” specialists in the world, as well
supernatural powers that were reputedly as Dadasahib Phalke, director of India’s
held by ascetics. Descriptions from nine- first feature film Raja Harischandra
teenth-century and more recent ethnog- (1913)—were magicians.13 Indeed, Phalke,
raphies note that magicians wore Shaivite can even be seen performing magic tricks
sectarian ash marks and rudraksha beads; in a short film, Professor Kelpha’s Magic
claimed their powers came from ascetic (1916). Early subjects in this “cinema
practice or were learned in the cremation of attractions”14 ranged from views of
grounds frequented by Tantric practi- foreign lands to scenes from popular
tioners; and whispered incantations that Broadway shows to “trick films” that
sounded like sacred mantras, such as mixed magic routines with special effects.
11
yantru-mantru jadugili tantrum. Meanwhile, in part because of
23c “Mystery girl:
If the Thurston and Koringa posters increased cultural exchange due to why can’t she be
reference India as the source of magi- the British Raj, audiences in the West killed?”

were fascinated by “exotic” India. Words as fakir-yogis.19 If all films are docu-
like “yogi” and “fakir” were part of the mentaries in that they reflect the tastes
pop-culture lexicon, and the figure of the and prejudices of their times, Hindoo
fakir-yogi became an important presence Fakir fits the bill in a number of ways. It
in early filmic representations of India. delights in showing off the new illusions
Indeed, the first-ever American cinema could create through editing and
film about India was a 1902 trick film superimposition, and it documents pop-
produced by Thomas Edison’s Edison ular magician-performers of the time.
Manufacturing Company titled Hindoo By the late 1930s and early 1940s,
Fakir (cat. 23d), which united these two mainstream American cinema was
developments in early cinema: the mag- thoroughly familiar with the fakir-yogi as
ical trick film and ethnographic repre- a media trope. The 1941 film You’re the
sentation.15 The magician in Hindoo Fakir One, for example, features a song with
is very likely A. N. Dutt, who sometimes lyrics by the great Hollywood songwriter
performed using that name, and also Johnny Mercer, “The Yogi Who Lost His
toured the United States under the name Willpower,”20 which was remarkable in
Ram Bhuj. Hardly a fakir at all, he had at least two respects for the cultural
been born into a middle-class Indian work that it accomplished. First, the
family and was sent to Edinburgh to study song humorously brings together at one
medicine. But, without telling his family, stroke all the Orientalist stereotypes
he embarked on a show-business career that might ever have been associated
instead.16 Like other Indian magicians of with yogis, potentates, and adventure
the time, Dutt took illusions that can be tales from India—beds of nails, magic
traced back to Indian yogis and retooled carpets, crystal balls, turbans and dhotis,
them as magic acts on the European levitation, rope tricks, maharajas—and
and American stage.17 The basket trick weaves them into a single narrative.
performed in the film, for instance, is a Second, the song domesticates and
staple of Indian street magicians (jaduwal- humanizes the fakir-yogi by making him
lahs), who have performed it for centuries. fall in love but fail at it, by giving him the
Another trick, in which his assistant lies ability to predict the future but not his
on the points of several upturned swords, own emotional fate. While Mercer’s lyrics
has a visual echo in a medieval relief end on a painful note—“What became
carving on a temple at Srisailam, which of the yogi? No one knows”—the fakir-
depicts a yogi sitting on sword-points.18 yogi has the last theatrical word in the
The wonders of ancient India meet version popularized by Orrin Tucker and
the magic of the movies in a third trick his orchestra (cat. 23e). After peering
that depends entirely on special cine- one last time into his crystal ball, the
matic effects. In it, the “fakir” puts some fakir-yogi gets ready for his ultimate act
seeds into a pot, and thanks to the magic and his final goodbye. He throws off his
of superimposition, a giant flower grows cloak as a rope emerges from the floor
before our eyes, which in turn becomes and levitates its way upright. In the midst
his assistant, hovering on huge butterfly of a swirl of smoke, the yogi clambers
wings. This is actually a variation on up the rope, gives a final flourish, and …
another jaduwallah standard, in which disappears. Fakirs may well have lost
a mango tree appears to grow to full their willpower in early twentieth century
23d Scenes from Hindoo Fakir height in minutes, but here the illusion is America, the scene seems to suggest,
created entirely by cinematic technology. but they are not now nor ever in danger
Canny Indian magicians like Dutt made of losing their supernatural ones.
careers out of performing jaduwallah Whether fakirs or fakers, their magic
tricks while playing up their exotic origins outlives them. SR and TV

The Yogi Who Lost His Willpower
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer
There was a yogi who lost his willpower

He met a dancing girl and fell in love.
He couldn’t concentrate, or lie on broken glass
He could only sit and wait for her to pass
Unhappy yogi, he tried forgetting, but she was all that he was conscious of.
At night he stretched out on his bed of nails
He could only dream about her seven veils
His face grew flushed and florid every time he heard her name
And the ruby gleaming in her forehead set his oriental soul aflame.
This poor old yogi, he soon discovered

She was the Maharajah’s turtle dove.
And she was satisfied, she had an emerald ring, an elephant to ride—and everything.
He was a passing whim. That’s how the story goes.
And what became of the yogi, nobody knows …
23e Scenes from The Yogi Who Lost His

Willpower

264 | MODERN TRANSFORMATIONS
Part Five
Modern Transformations
Vivekananda and 24G In the late 1800s, India experienced a
Neely’s History of the Parliament of
Rational Spirituality Religions and the Religious Congresses
yoga revival focused on the teachings
and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda,
at the World’s Columbian Exposition
24A which culminated in a foundational
The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali Walter R. Houghton, ed.
Chicago, United States, 1893 moment for modern transnational yoga:
M. N. Dwivedi, trans. Book, 22.5 × 37 cm the publication of Raja Yoga in 1896 (cat.
Theosophical Publication Fund, Bombay, India, 1890 General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington,
Book, 21 × 37 cm DC, BL21.W8N4
24h).1 Scholars of modern yoga all agree
General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington, on the critical importance of this event.
DC, B132.Y6.P267 1890 Copy 1 24H Elizabeth DeMichelis suggests that mod-
Not illustrated
Raja Yoga
ern yoga did not begin or take tangible
24B Swami Vivekananda
Advaita Ashram, India, 1944 [1896] form until Vivekananda’s publication of
Swami Vivekananda and Narasimhacarya
Book, 18.5 × 27 cm (open) Raja Yoga. Mark Singleton argues that
United States, 1893 General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington,
Photographic print, copy of original practice-oriented Anglophone yoga
DC, B132.V3 V58
Vedanta Society of Northern California, V17 manuals emerge as a genre only after
24I this date.2 David Gordon White states that
24C Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda Vivekananda’s synthesis set the agenda
United States, 1893
United States, 1893 for the modern yoga movement.3 With its
Photographic print, copy of original
Photograph (original), approx. 15.2 × 10.2 cm Vedanta Society of Northern California, combination of classical yoga, Western
Vedanta Society of Northern California, V21 Harrison series, V27
Inscription (recto): “One infinite—pure & holy—
philosophy, and esotericism, Raja Yoga
beyond thought, beyond qualities, I bow down 24J did indeed lay the formative steps toward
to thee.”—Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda yoga’s globalized revival. Even so, it
24D United States, 1893 is important to bear in mind that the
Swami Vivekananda on the Platform Scan of a halftone print
publication, even if wildly successful, did
Vedanta Society of Northern California,
of the Parliament not occur in isolation but built on a prior
Harrison series, V20
United States, 1893
history of similar attempts at translation,
Photographic print, copy of original 24K
Vedanta Society of Northern California, V16 synthesis, and syncretism of a new ratio-
Swami Vivekananda
nal, scientific yoga for the modern age.
24E United States, 1893
Photographic negative Born Narendranath Dutta and
Swami Vivekananda, Hindoo Monk of India
Vedanta Society of Northern California, initiated by his teacher Ramakrishna
United States, 1893 Harrison series, V23
Poster (color lithograph), copy of original from Inscription (recto): “Samata sarvabhuteshu
Paramahamsa at a young age,
Goes Lithographing Company, Chicago etanmuktasya lakshanam. Equality in all beings Vivekananda (1863–1902) chose yoga
Vedanta Society of Northern California, this is the sign of the free—Vivekananda”
as the platform for spearheading larger
Inscription (recto): “To Hollister Sturges—All strength 24L goals of religious reform. His Raja Yoga
and success be yours is the constant prayer of your Swami Vivekananda was a remarkable and brilliant synthe-
friend, Vivekananda”
United States, 1893 sis of practical meditative breathing
24F Photographic negative
techniques and philosophy, which,
Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament
Harrison series, V24 importantly, excluded hatha yoga asanas
United States, 1893 Inscription (recto): “Thou art the only treasure in this even as it harked back to ancient texts
Photograph (original), approx. 15.2 × 10.2 cm world—Vivekananda”
Vedanta Society of Northern California, for inspiration, in particular Patanjali’s
Harrison series, V26 24M Yoga Sutras. In this classic golden-age
Inscription (recto): “Eka eva suhrid dharma Swami Vivekananda
nidhanepyanuyati yah. Virtue is the only friend that invocation of the distant past to repudi-
United States, 1893
follows us even beyond the grave. Everything else ate contemporary yogic practice and lay
ends with death.” Vivekananda Photographic negative
Vedanta Society of Northern California, the ground for the future, Vivekananda’s
Harrison series, V25 reformist arguments had much in com-
Inscription (recto): “Thou art the father the lord the
mother the husband and love—Swami Vivekananda”
mon with those of his fellow nationalist
reformers in pre-independence India. As
outlined in Raja Yoga, his thesis on the
revival of yoga had two distinctive but
interlinked parts: rational spirituality and
Hindu reform. Both of these tenets built

on a public rejection of the legitimacy of the neo-Vedantists,5 while ignoring (or 24b (left) Swami 24c (right) Swami
Vivekananda and Vivekananda
and power of miracles of contemporary giving a wide berth to) both Patanjali’s
Narasimhacarya
yogis on the one hand, and a valorization comparatively dualistic Samkhya-based
of the ancient texts, particularly the Yoga metaphysics as well as hatha yoga prac-
Sutras, on the other. tices themselves. In this reinterpretation,
Vivekananda began by showing that Raja yoga was the supreme contempla-
Hinduism had departed from its rational, tive path to self-realization, in which the
philosophical, and scientific roots as self was “the supreme self, the absolute
affirmed in the Vedas and Upanishads. brahman or god-self within.”6 Yoga was
But he also added other elements to this thus, before all else, nonsectarian, a
synthesis, which set the agenda for mod- “unifying sign of the Indian nation—and
ern yoga. In sharp contrast to scholars not only for national consumption but for
of the period who tended to foreground consumption by the entire world.”7
the magical and mystical within yoga, For all its novelty and innovation,
Vivekananda’s emphasis on the rational this idea of a universalist, rational, and
and the scientific sprang from his distinc- scientific text-based yoga as laid out
tive antimysticism—his call to reverse the in Raja Yoga did not come out of the
mystery and secrecy in yoga practices— ether, but relied on a long history and
the very things, he claimed, that had genealogy of previous works by others.
destroyed contemporary yoga.4 These Vivekananda’s gradual consolidation
lectures and writings linked yoga instead of this thesis built not only on earlier
with the monistic, rationalist spirituality scholarship on yoga philosophy (which
VIVEKANANDA AND RATIONAL SPIRITUALIT Y | 267

had reached Anglophone transnational natural enemy of the true Yogi.” What
audiences), but also on his own trium- comes across collectively from these
phant travels and talks in America Theosophical Society translations is
and the United Kingdom, where he had a redefinition of the yogi in which the
begun to reframe yoga as a form of grassroots practitioner of hatha methods
“spiritual empiricism.”8 There were two key has no part. The modern yogi, in other
moments of public dissemination as this words, must be rational and scientific,
emerging yoga synthesis built momen- whereas the hatha yogi was clearly not.
tum in the late 1800s, each of which The Sacred Books of the Hindus series
emphasized different aspects of the doc- was a response to scholar Max Muller’s
trine: the late nineteenth-century spate Sacred Books of the East series.
of Theosophical Society translations of Muller’s views on yoga could be sum-
ancient texts; and the 1893 Parliament of marized as a Reformationist vision of
Religions in Chicago, where Vivekananda Indian religious history. He was critical of
presented himself as the “Hindoo monk both Vivekananda’s debut at the World’s
of India” but framed yoga as a scientific Parliament as well as his inclusion of
and rational spiritual system for the world. practical, nonintellectual yoga tech-
At least since the 1870s, there had niques in Vedanta philosophy. But his
been a history of scholarly syncretism insistence on the philosophical sophisti-
and invention of yogic tradition through cation of Indian thought and his uncom-
texts and translations of classical works, promising rejection of hatha yogis as
much of this under the aegis or spon- exemplars of sin and darkness helped to
sorship of the Theosophical Society and lay the ground for Vivekananda’s spiritual
its publishing wings.9 In the context of synthesis decades later.
yoga scholarship, all of these were pub- By the time Vivekananda traveled
lished well before Vivekananda’s 1893 to Chicago to address the 1893 World’s
Parliament address, and thus anticipated, Parliament of Religions,10 the scene
in some cases by a decade, his Raja Yoga was set for a public presentation about
synthesis of scientific rationality. yoga that was tied closely to a message
One of the earliest English trans- on Hindu reform. Some of this shows
lations of the Yoga Sutras, for exam- in Vivekananda’s deliberate sartorial
ple, was by Manilal Dwivedi, shown presentation of himself as a “Hindoo
here in an early 1890 edition (cat. 24a). monk”—clad in red robes and saffron
Dwivedi’s volume laid the ground for a turban—at once playing into but also
Theosophical Publication series titled defying Orientalist stereotypes of
Sacred Books of the Hindus, including asceticism and regality.11 The photo-
the first translations and expositions of graphic record of Vivekananda’s address
seminal yogic texts (Gheranda Samhita, at Parliament is relatively sparse even
Siva Samhita), all of which Vivekananda though the number of reproductions
would have had access to decades from the few existing prints is quite
later. Sirisa C. Vasu was a pioneering voluminous. Of the existing photographs,
author in this series. His translation and the Vedanta Society has among the most
teachings on Siva Samhita (1893) should comprehensive collections chronicling
be seen as part of the earliest interna- Vivekananda’s visit to Chicago as well as
tional efforts to reconcile science with other locations in the United States. Two
religion in the yogic context, while his photographs from the Vedanta Society
Introduction to Yoga Philosophy (1893) of Northern California’s Rare Images
repeatedly condemns the hatha yogis, Archive are relatively unposed, casual
the contemporary contortionists, and the shots taken shortly before Vivekananda’s
beggars and street performers as “the now-famous address to the Parliament.

Swami Vivekananda and As suggested by the notes in the Rare 24d Swami
Vivekananda on
Narasimhacarya (cat. 24c) is one of the Images Archive, he remained seated
the platform of the
earliest photographs of Vivekananda in through the proceedings, meditative Parliament
America. While there is no accompanying and prayerful, letting his turn to speak
date, it features a turbaned Vivekananda go by time and again. It was not until
seated at a desk writing, with fellow Indian after the afternoon session, after four
delegate Narasimhacarya (who also other delegates had read their prepared
represented Hinduism at the Parliament) papers, that he was urged to begin by
looking over his shoulder, in a room the French pastor G. Bonet Maury, who is
marked “No. 1—keep out,” which was a seen seated next to him. And thus it was
room in the Congress’ Art Palace where that Vivekananda—wearing his signature
the speakers repaired between sessions. robe—bowed to the goddess Saraswati
The second, more evocative and rose to speak to the Congress
photograph is a group picture, Swami and, through it, the world. His address,
Vivekananda on the Platform of the delivered without notes, and beginning
Parliament (cat. 24d), taken on the “Brothers and sisters of America …” was
afternoon of the opening day, September rapturously received, making him an
11, 1893. Vivekananda is surrounded by overnight celebrity.
a group of delegates, who appear to be A more formal, posed set of studio
listening to other sessions. A long turban photographs known collectively as the
pleat over one shoulder, shoulders tense, “Harrison series,” also from the Vedanta
he appears pensive, even apprehensive. Society (V20–V27, cats. 24e, 24i–m),

24e Swami
Vivekanandal,
Hindoo Monk of
India

24f Swami
Vivekananda at the
Parliament

24g (left) Neely’s 24h (opposite) Raja takes its name from a photography shown here, Swami Vivekananda: The
History of the Yoga
studio in Chicago owned by Thomas Hindoo Monk of India (cat. 24e), based on
Parliament of
Religions and Harrison.12 Here we see Vivekananda’s the original Chicago pose photograph,
the Religious presentation—complete with saffron was printed by Goes Lithographing
Congresses at the
World’s Columbian
robes and elaborate turban—as “the Company in 1893. Vivekananda’s distinc-
Exposition Hindoo monk,” the title that was featured tive orange robe and turban are clearly
on posters for the duration of the fair visible because of the vivid reproductions
and by which he came to be known in possible through chromolithographic
Chicago and across the world. technology, while the typographic below
A cabinet card-sized original the image loudly announces him as
photograph, Swami Vivekananda (cat. “the Hindoo monk of India.” This poster,
24c) from the Harrison series shows whose original is currently in the Vedanta
Vivekananda in what photographers Society collection, is one of the most
referred to as the “Chicago pose”—arms iconic images of Vivekananda available.
folded across his chest, three-quarters It instantly captured some of the visual
of his turbaned face visible as he looks contradictions of his Chicago address—
sternly toward the left. The photograph a recognizably Indian swami signaling
was inscribed by the swami in Bengali both ethnic particularism and Hinduism’s
and English along its sides: “One infinite inherent universalism. But in so doing,
pure and holy—beyond thought beyond it circulated a powerful meta-picture that
qualities I bow down to thee.” The poster would continue to shape imaginations

about yoga, religion, even spirituality in delegate to the parliament. It is not for transnational yoga that would last for
the West for the next century. surprising that the same photograph, well over a century in America—at once
A second cabinet card photograph printed to show a full-length image of timeless and universal but also singular
from the Harrison series, Vivekananda at Vivekananda, is also featured in Walter and culturally specific; nonsectarian but
Parliament (cat. 24f), features the swami Houghton’s book on Neely (cat. 24g). also Hindu; scientific but filled with spirit.
striking a different, more determined The adjoining page describes in some SR
pose. His arms akimbo, he gazes off in detail the substance of the swami’s
the distance, seemingly ready to take address to the Parliament as well as
on the world. The photograph bears some of the subsequent responses.
the following inscription in Sanskrit Taken together, the Harrison series
and English: “Eka eva suhrid dharma suggests how the photographic record of
nidhanepyanuyati yah. Virtue is the only Vivekananda’s visit to Chicago has dom-
friend that follows us beyond the grave. inated visual memory of yoga’s transna-
Everything else ends with death.” It was tional journey. While the swami’s phil-
first published in Neely’s History of the osophical teachings on yoga changed
Parliament of Religions and Religious between 1893 and 1896, and thus cannot
Congresses at the World’s Columbian be pinned down without oversimplifica-
Exposition in 1893, bearing the caption tion, it is the imagery that has remained
“Swami Vivekananda.” Neely, it should be constant and forever etched in our minds.
pointed out, published more photo- Swami Vivekananda’s presentation of
graphs of Vivekananda than of any other self in Chicago offered an iconography

24i Swami Vivekananda 24j Swami Vivekananda 24k Swami Vivekananda
24 l Swami Vivekananda 24m Swami Vivekananda

Medical Yoga 25G From at least the end of the first mil-
Yoga Mimansa lennium CE, yogic and Tantric traditions
25A
Vol. 2, no. 2, page 116 in India began to evolve the idea of an
Anatomical Body Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
India, Gujarat, 18th century Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, India, 1926
alternative anatomy, which mapped the
Ink and color on paper, 60.5 × 58.5 cm Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm “subtle body”(sukshma sharira) as a
Wellcome Library, London, Asian Collections, National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
locus of spiritual energies and points of
MS Indic Delta 74
25H graduated awakening—chakras (wheels)
25B Yoga Personal Hygiene or padmas (lotuses)—arranged along
Satcakranirupanacitram Shri Yogendra a vertical axis (sushumna) through a
Swami Hamsasvarupa The Yoga Institute, Bombay, India, 1940
network of channels (nadis). By the
Trikutvilas Press, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India, 1903 Book, 21.5 × 27 cm
Book, 26.2 × 34.5 cm General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington, late nineteenth century, printed images
Wellcome Library, London, Asian Collections, DC, B132.Y6.Y63 of these yogic bodies reflected a slow
P. B. Sanskrit 391
but visible transformation through
25C encounters with the world of science and
The Chakras, a Monograph medicine. Partly due to the increasing
Charles W. Leadbeater (1854–1934) prevalence of anatomical dissections
Theosophical Publishing House,
Wheaton, IL, United States, 1972 (© 1927) and textbooks in Indian medical schools
Book, 31 × 26 cm after 1836,1 partly due to the increasing
General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington,
number of yoga advocates who were also
DC, BP573.C5 L4 1972
medical professionals, representations
25D of yoga began to reflect a new way of
The Mysterious Kundalini
“seeing” the yogic body through anatom-
Vasant Gangaram Rele
D. P. Taraporevala Sons and Co., Bombay, India, 1929
ical eyes. They also revealed a growing
Book, 21 × 26.5 cm (open) visual engagement with the vocabularies,
concepts, symbols, and measures of
DC, B132.Y6 R4a Copy 1
science as a new source of legitimizing
25E authority. This essay traces the medical-
Popular Yoga: Asanas
ization of yogic imagery through a few
Swami Kuvalayananda
key examples, ranging from indigenous
C. E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT,
United States, 1972 (1931) paintings to textbooks to depictions
Book, 22 × 31 cm of scientific yoga by two of its leading
DC, B132.Y6.K787
advocates in the early twentieth century:
Swami Kuvalayananda and Shri (or Sri)
25F Yogendra.
Yoga Mimansa
One of the earliest known indige-
Vol. 1, no. 1, page 57
Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed. nous medical paintings is a monumental
Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, India, 1924 eighteenth-century image of yogic anat-
Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm
omy superimposed on a medical body
National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
(cat. 25a).2 The painting was derived
from the Persian tradition of anatomical
illustration known as Tashrih-i-Mansuri,
which was popular in Iran and spread
to South Asia. As Dominik Wujastyk
suggests, it is primarily a medical image,
not a Tantric or a yogic one, emphasizing
the veins, arteries, and intestinal tract
of the body.3 Even so, there is what he
terms a discernible “Indianization” of the
medical body in the superimposition of
six chakras faintly drawn onto the spinal
MEDICAL YOGA | 275

column and the kundalini serpent coiled a seated asana (marked by the title as 25a Anatomical Body
at the base of the spine below the out- simhasanam, or lion pose) while the ana-
line of the body. The text offers a few fur- tomical body makes clear the physical
ther clues on this visual juxtaposition of locations of the associated chakras
medical and indigenous iconographies. and nadis.7
While the text surrounding the image While subtle body depictions of
is a mixture of Sanskrit and old Gujarati the chakras were based on traditional
(which places the painting in Western iconography, a somewhat different visual
India) and describes the subtle, mystical interpretation was introduced in the West
yogic body of Tantric meditation, the by the Theosophists, beginning with
text on the body is a mixture of Sanskrit Charles W. Leadbeater. A founding mem-
and Persian medical terms in Persian ber of the Theosophical Society (along
and Devanagari scripts, and presents a with Annie Besant) who championed the
mixture of ideas from medical as well as New Thought–led rediscovery of Eastern
yogic views of the body. Wujastyk notes mysticism and spirituality, Leadbeater
that despite the predominantly medical was a key conduit for the public dissemi-
content and non-Indian background nation of the Tantric chakra doctrine
of the Tashrih tradition, the painting’s that became popular in print circles.
Indian artist may have been motivated His book The Chakras, first published
to integrate his own artistic and cul- in 1927, sold more copies outside India
tural background with the more typical than any other Theosophical text at the
indigenous Tantric image of the body, time. The image shown here (cat. 25c)
featuring chakras and nadis or conduits, represents an early twentieth-century
such as ida and pingala, through which depiction of yogic anatomy that became
the breath (prana) travels and the coiled iconic in subsequent metaphysical,
energy (kundalini) ascends.4 Theosophist, and New Age thought—
By the early twentieth century, whether the more elemental classic
artists were engaging in a more lit- seated pose,8 or the ubiquitous standing
eral interpretation that argued for the pose with anatomically recognizable
physical reality of the yogic or sub- organs. Titled L’Homme Terrestre Naturel
tle body. Swami Hamsasvarupa’s Ténébreux,9 Leadbeater’s image makes
5
Satcakranirupanacitram includes eight two visual statements. First, it was one
color plates that show a visual rap- of the early instances of a schematic
prochement between yogic physiology of the yoga body that used prevailing
as described in early texts, and the ideas of chakra images to give readers a
anatomically correct body that was being potent and poetic visual metaphor
discovered by Western medicine in the for spiritual awakening as a kundalini
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In force: a snake moving as a brilliant
the foreword of the book that Mircea thread along the central sushumna nadi,
Eliade described as “the most author- piercing six lotus chakras, located not
itative treatise on the doctrine of the necessarily in a straight line but linked
cakras,”6 Sri Hamsasvarupa suggests that with elements (humors) and within
it was intended for educators at colleges anatomically recognizable organs in the
that emerged during nationalist efforts body (heart, liver, lungs, bladder). It also
to revive indigenous medicine in late made the visual case for yogic and subtle
nineteenth and early twentieth-century body “clairvoyance,” i.e., that the chakras
India. The image shown here, plate 2 (cat. can be perceived through psychic vision
25b), comes from a fine 1903 edition. or a form of stylized yogic visualization.
The yogic and anatomical bodies are This Theosophical idea of clairvoyance
shown side by side; the former assumes implies that the chakras have an
MEDICAL YOGA | 277

25b Satcakranirupanacitram

independent objective existence in the Plate 10 (cat. 25d) presents the yogic
subtle bodies and can be perceived by subtle body as the neurological body,
anyone who has developed the appro- through detailed anatomical diagrams
priate tools. The Chakras thus laid out of the nervous system, neurons, ganglia,
a visual physics of the yogic body in and synapses that are typically made
which chakras were presented as energy visible only through dissection.
transformers or centers of conscious- While scholars may disagree on
ness (vortexes) that physically linked the the earliest antecedents of medical
various subtle bodies—the etheric, astral, yoga,13 there is remarkable consensus
10
and mental bodies —and enabled a per- around the role of its key popularizers
son to assimilate cosmic consciousness. in the early twentieth century: Swami
Like his predecessor Vivekananda— Kuvalayananda and Shri Yogendra.
who, in Raja Yoga, was the first in the Kuvalayananda was a critically important
West to use a schematic chakra image figure in the modern renaissance of yoga
(see cat. 24h)11—Leadbeater turned the as therapeutic cure for disease. In 1921,
process of yogic samadhi (heightened using the paraphernalia, technology, and
consciousness) into a physiological equipment of modern medical science—
process akin to digestion. Dr. Vasant Rele, electrocardiograms, x-ray machines,
the author of The Mysterious Kundalini sphygmometers, spectroscopes—
(1929), took this idea further and did Kuvalayananda and his researchers at
the same with the neurological body. the Kaivalyadhama Institute attempted
A biomedical doctor, Rele was one of to measure the physiological effects of
the earliest “scientizers” of the kund- asana, pranayama, kriya, and bandha and
alini phenomenon, and his books were then used their findings to record, pres-
among the first to establish and popular- ent, and develop therapeutic approaches
ize a scientific basis for yogic physiology to a range of illnesses. The physiological
and hatha yoga practice. The Mysterious experiments were widely disseminated
Kundalini contains anatomical illus- through publications, journals, and pam-
trations, small black-and-white photo phlets and through mass yogic exercise
plates of a yogi demonstrating various schemes in schools and government
asanas, and an illustration of the kund- committees in Bombay. The institute’s
alini serpent in the center of an inverted journal, Yoga Mimansa, first published in
triangle radiating energy with the follow- 1924, was both a scientific review of these
ing inscription beneath: “The Kundalini efforts and a practical illustrated manual
is sleeping above the Kanda dispensing that appealed to medical authority for
liberation to Yogis and bondage to fools. legitimacy, although its assimilations of
12
He who knows her knows yoga.” the “modern” were often partial, incom-
In his preface, Rele wrote that the plete, and merely symbolic.
intended audience for the book was the The images shown here (cats. 25f,
medical community and an educated 25g) demonstrate this form of cultural
general audience familiar with some sci- syncretism: a 1920s photograph of a
entific and anatomical terminology. The yoga practitioner doing the fish pose
book is a scientific exposition of yogic (matsyasana) with arrows marking the
physiology—going one step beyond ana- anatomical location of the thyroid; and a
tomical description—and includes sev- 1926 graphical chart measuring blood
eral firsts: the first-ever clinical case note pressure during headstand pose (sirsa-
for yogic treatment and the first descrip- sana). Kuvalayananda’s book Popular
tion of the physiology of the pranic yogic Yoga: Asanas (1930) further consolidated
body, not through the endocrinological his role as scientific champion of yoga for
system but its neurological equivalent. health. It includes an image of anatomical
MEDICAL YOGA | 279

25c The Chakras, a
Monograph

25d The Mysterious
Kundalini
25e Popular Yoga:

Asanas
MEDICAL YOGA | 281

25f Yoga Mimansa
25g Yoga Mimansa

25h Yoga
Personal
Hygiene
musculature (cat. 25e) that is unremark- reach in Bombay, Yogendra also left an The book, and indeed Yogendra’s project
able except for the fact that it bore only important legacy abroad. He traveled itself, was an early forerunner of the kind
a simple caption, “The Muscles,” in a to the United States in 1919 and estab- of public health and fitness regimens
popular yoga book meant not just for lished the Yoga Institute of America in that would take over transnational yoga
medical students or yoga practitioners but New York, working with Western doctors circles in years to come. Medical yoga
the general public. Clearly, by 1930, the and naturopaths,15 while presenting and may have become a global common-
medical yogic body could translate cultur- performing what some have described place in the twenty-first century, but its
ally and take on modern identities on the as the earliest asana demonstrations foundations and contours were laid in
printed page, without breaking stride. in America in 1921.16 Yogendra’s books— the work of these early pioneers. SR
A similar mission of yoga as Yoga Asanas, Simplified (1928) and
medicine for the masses was led by Sri Yoga Personal Hygiene (1931)—brought
Yogendra—the self-styled “householder together many ideas on yoga for health.
yogi”—who founded the Bombay-based The latter in particular was a pioneer-
Yoga Institute of Santa Cruz in 1918 for ing text that salvaged the curative
the scientific corroboration of curative aspects of hatha yoga (cat. 25h). Unlike
yoga. The institute produced a large Vivekananda, who dismissed hatha yogis
body of research on the practical bene- as mystics and charlatans, Yogendra
fits of yoga for physical fitness and public refashioned hatha yoga as medicine,
health and created basic yoga classes a project that was at once reformist but
for the public.14 Beyond his considerable also rational, utilitarian, and scientific.
MEDICAL YOGA | 283

Modern Postural Yoga 26H Visual genealogies of yoga are rarely
Yoga Mimansa seamless, revealing themselves most
26A
Vol. 2, no. 4, July 1926 clearly at times of change, through
Fakire und Fakirtum im Alten Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
und Modernern Indien Kaivalyadhama Institute, Lonavla, India
“visual eruptions”1 of earlier images into
Richard Schmidt Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm the present. Nowhere are these changes
Germany, 1907 National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
and eruptions more apparent than in the
Book, 24.8 × 34.3 cm
General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington, 26I emergence of “modern postural yoga.”2
DC, BL2015.F2 S3 T. Krishnamacharya Asanas The visual record suggests that what
India, Mysore, 1938 we take for granted today in modern
26B Sponsored by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodiyar
Yogasopana Purvacatushka yoga—the emphases on asana (posture),
Digital copy of a lost black-and-white film, 57 min.
Narayana Ghamande Courtesy of Dan Mcguire vinyasa (sequential movement), and
Tukarama Book Depot, Bombay, India, 1951 even specific sequences (such as surya
Book, 22 × 22 cm
National Library of Medicine, QT 255 G411y
namaskar or sun salutation)—are neither
millennia old nor rooted in ancient texts,
26C but of relatively recent vintage. It also
Surya Namaskars
suggests that the rapid expansion of
Apa Pant
Orient Longmans, Bombay, India, 1970 (1929)
print technologies and the ready avail-
Book, 21 × 27.3 cm (open) ability of photography and film in the
first decades of the twentieth century not
DC, RA 781.P28
only made yoga accessible to mass audi-
26D ences, they enabled the visualization of
The Ten-Point Way to Health:
postures, sequences, and yogic bodies in
Surya Namaskars
specific ways that transformed practice.3
Balasahib Pandit Pratinidhi, Rajah of Aundh
Edited by Louise Morgan One of the earliest illustrated com-
J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1938 pilations of yoga asanas comes from an
Book, 18.3 × 12.6 × 1.8 cm
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins
unlikely source: a 1907 history of fakirs in
German by Richard Schmidt titled Fakire
26E und Fakirtum im Alten und Modernern
Massage and Exercises Combined
India. Fakire und Fakirtum was unusual
Albrecht Jensen
New York, United States, 1920
because it included not only negative
Book, 25 × 26 cm perceptions of yogis as “petty thieves
and swindlers,” as was common in
DC, RM 721.J4
Western popular media and travelogues
26F of the time, but also a reclamation of
The Yoga Body Illustrated
classical, text-based yoga.4 Its compre-
M. R. Jambunathan
hensive account of hatha yoga included
Jambunathan Book Depot, Madras, India, 1941
Book, 19 × 19 cm eighty-seven watercolors of asanas
General Collections, Library of Congress, Washington, drawing on artistic styles of early nine-
DC, RA781.7 J35
teenth-century illustrated manuscripts,
26G such as the Jogapradipika painted in
Yoga Mimansa the Kangra style or the Mysore Palace’s
Vol. 1, no. 3, October 1925 Tanjore-style Sritattvanidhi.5
Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
Kaivalyadhama Institute, Lonavla, India Each asana in Fakire und Fakirtum
Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm is isolated and labeled, as shown in
plates 2 and 3 (cat. 26a), in which two
figures, clad in simple orange and white
dhotis, perform simhasana (lion pose)
and padmasana (lotus pose), identified
in Devanagari script above each image.
The watercolor medium and unpainted

ground is typical of nineteenth-century the naturalistic, objective representa-
Company School paintings, which native tions of photographic realism as yoga
artists produced for foreign patrons was assimilated into the modern. A key
(see cats. 20a–d). Seen individually, the transitional text in this visual history is
paintings are unremarkable, executed in Yogasopana Purvacatushka, compiled
what Partha Mitter calls the “conceptual by Yogi Ghamande in 1905—described
mode of art followed by Indian artists by Mark Singleton as “perhaps the first
since antiquity”6: shallow, flat, two-di- and only self-help yoga manual to use
mensional outlines of figures that lack this (half-tone block print) reproduction
Western perspective. But, taken together, technique.”8 Yogasopana (literally, “stair-
Fakire und Fakirtum’s watercolors way to heaven”) includes thirty-seven
offer an expanded visual archive of the detailed black-and-white line drawings of
classical asanas outlined in medieval asanas, all modeled by Ghamande him-
hatha yoga texts, such as Hathapradipika self.9 Shown here (cat. 26b) is a detail of
and Gheranda Samhita. This archive was matsyendrasana (lord of the fish pose)
possibly the earliest inspiration for Indian with all the subtle gradations of light and
yoga pioneers like Swami Kuvalayananda shade needed to render a naturalistic
and T. Krishnamacharya, who developed body. Yogasopana broke new ground in
what would become modern postural depicting naturalistic, muscled, yogic
yoga practice.7 bodies, prefiguring photographic asana
Schmidt’s Fakire und Fakirtum can manuals by two decades.10
be seen as a precursor of the instruc- Yogasopana is particularly important
tional manuals of asanas published in to a visual genealogy of yoga because
26a Fakire und Fakirtum
the 1920s, when figurative, two-dimen- it was conceived not just as a practical in Alten und Modernern
sional, conceptual models gave way to manual but as a work of art.11 More than Indien
MODERN POSTURAL YOGA | 285

26b Yogasopana
Purvacatushka

other illustrated yoga texts, it embodies intersection of yoga, bodybuilding,
the aesthetic intersection of modern and physical culture through an asana
hatha yoga representation and modern sequence, it is Pratinidhi Pant’s Surya
Indian art. The drawings mark a clear Namaskars, first published in 1929
departure from the conceptual, sub- and revised and republished five times
tle body of earlier artistic renderings before 1940.14 The book’s title refers to
toward the Western, “perceptual” model the sun salutation exercise that may well
popularized by Raja Ravi Varma.12 Given be the single best-recognized asana
Varma’s pioneering use of chromolitho- sequence or yoga meme in postural
graphic techniques to make available yoga today. It is routinely invoked by
cheap naturalistic reproductions of his contemporary practitioners as an ancient
mythological art, it is not surprising feature of Indian civilization, although it
to learn that Yogasopana’s half-tone is thoroughly modern.
blocks were in fact crafted by his clerk, While it is often difficult to trace the
Purushottam Sadasiv Joshi. A clear exact genealogy of specific sequences,
institutional intersection between mod- historians agree that the creation of the
ern art and modern yoga is visible here: modern surya namaskar system can be
Jaganmohan Palace, home to the first attributed to Pratinidhi Pant, who was the
gallery of modern art in India, the Mysore raja of Aundh.15 Pant chose to illustrate
chitrasala (picture hall), also housed the first edition of Surya Namaskars
the most influential studio of modern with monochromatic prints of schematic,
postural yoga in the twentieth century, two-dimensional figures performing
namely T. Krishnamacharya’s famous ten asanas in the original series. Later
yogasala (yoga hall).13 editions include photographs of all ten
As with art, so with reinventions asanas, evidence of the new photo-
of asana. If there is a single text (and graphic realism that was changing
26c Surya 26d The Ten-Point
eponymous asana series) in the early perceptions of yogic bodies in the early Namaskars Way to Health:
twentieth century that embodies the twentieth century. Seen here are the Surya Namaskars

26e Massage
and Exercises
Combined
26f The Yoga Body

Illustrated

cover photograph from a 1938 edition by hand and indigenous bodybuilding on
Pant, titled The Ten-Point Way to Health the other. It was only later, in the 1930s,
(cat. 26d), and photographic sequence that it was absorbed into yoga routines,
of asana positions 2 and 3 from a later, in some part due to the popularity of
instructional edition of Surya Namaskars Pant’s book.
(cat. 26c). Other illustrated yoga manuals
Surya Namaskars sits at an import- made similar connections with Western
ant historical nexus of yoga, bodybuild- models of physical culture, such as
ing, and physical education in India the Scandinavian Ling exercise sys-
during the early twentieth century. Pant’s tem.17 A classic case in point is M. R.
project of health reform clearly fit with Jambunathan’s 1941 The Yoga Body
ongoing political, medical, and cul- Illustrated (cat. 26f), which promised
tural trends, but was also unique in its the reader “a strong and beautiful body”
emphasis on the relationship between through the practice of yoga. One of the
body discipline and nationalism in best-known among early printed asana
modern India. He was a devoted body- manuals, this publication presented yoga
builder and practitioner of the Eugene asanas as body-conditioning techniques
Sandow method who popularized the that could lead to bodily perfection and,
surya namaskar asana sequence as an therefore, happiness. Jambunathan’s
indigenous bodybuilding technique.16 In book exemplifies the absorption of pos-
gymnasia, this sequence became a prac- tural yoga by physical culturalists in the
tical expression of the unique blend of early twentieth century, the promotion
yoga–physical fitness through an internal of hatha yoga exercise as part of a larger, 26g (left) Yoga 26h (right) Yoga
regimen of body conditioning on the one highly aestheticized physical culture Mimansa Mimansa

26i Scenes from T. regime based on Western models. book, endorsed by American alternative
Krishnamacharya
During this period, books like The Yoga health luminary W. A. Kellogg, identified
Asanas in which
the father of Body Illustrated reflected an identifi- psychophysiological methods of muscle
modern yoga able shift in yogic body practice—from control as Indian yoga techniques. It thus
demonstrates a
series of yogic
hatha yoga’s perfection of the body (the recast yoga as a muscle-based physical
exercises conquest over the “material”) to mod- culture for a new generation of American
ern fitness models based on Western alternative health enthusiasts, who
ideals of physique and strength. Swami would not have easily encountered hatha
Kuvalayananda’s Yoga Mimansa, which yoga through other routes.
first made the link between yoga, health, For all their transformative poten-
and science in the 1920s, was a classic tial in producing new forms of asana,
case in point, as seen in two images static print and photographic technolo-
shown here: the chaturdandasana (plank gies of visual reproduction were thor-
pose) and a standing figure flexing his oughly eclipsed by the extraordinary
biceps (cats. 26h, 26g). As such, these reach of moving images and film in
manuals anticipated by several decades the early twentieth century, especially
all the other photographic manuals of when these new media were used by a
asanas that followed: Theos Bernard’s legendary practitioner to disseminate
Hatha Yoga in 1941 and, later in the yoga’s dynamic potential as sequential
1960s, works by Indra Devi, B. K. S. movement. Such was the case in 1938
Iyengar, and Vishnudevananda.18 when the Mysore maharaja, Krishnaraja
Similar attempts to link hatha yoga Wodiyar, sponsored an early film of T.
with physical culture and muscle control Krishnamacharya—the father of modern
occurred in the transnational context. yoga—demonstrating a series of flowing
During the first decades of the twenti- asana sequences. For the first time in
eth century, early proponents of yoga history, these sequences could be show-
in the United States included Yogendra, cased around the country to non-students:
Ramacharaka, Yogi Gherwal, and Yogi “imagined communities” in pre-indepen-
Wassan, but they also extended to alter- dence India, united through shared pasts
native healthcare practitioners who drew and invented futures (cat. 26i).19
on New Thought philosophies. An early Partly filmed in black-and-white
example of this therapeutic synthesis and partly in color, this archival fifty-
is Albrecht Jensen’s 1920 Massage seven-minute silent film is a composite
and Exercise Combined (cat. 26e). The of rare footage showing a fifty-year-

old Krishnamacharya demonstrating At the time the film was made, well as museum artifact; live theater as
advanced postures in linked sequences Krishnamacharya was the resident well as historical documentation of a
that are both hypnotic and inspiring. teacher in the Mysore Palace, where he tradition in the making. In the late 1930s,
He is accompanied by several other created his own yoga synthesis, com- it was a cinematic innovation in visualiz-
practitioners, young and old, male and bining hatha yoga practice, British and ing modern yogic practice, but also part
female, including his then-student B. K. Swedish calisthenics, and the gymnastic of a larger project of public dissemina-
S. Iyengar. In the grainy, eight-minute and wrestling traditions of Karnataka. tion that relied heavily on a nationalist
opening sequence, the camera focuses Moving images or silent film offered physical culture.22
on a young Iyengar, who performs a the perfect dynamic and public medium Located somewhere between
series of difficult seated asana posi- through which these vinyasas could documentary and ethnography, the
tions, what seems to be a modified be presented for the first time in film’s narrative-free sequences of asanas
version of Ashtanga Advanced A Series, pre-independence India. This impulse encode their own hidden visual histories,
in an unidentified outdoor location to spread the gospel of new yoga much like a palimpsest. It can be seen as
(see page 99). The next segment (ten through regular demonstrations was a performative spectacle that recalls ear-
minutes long) features close-ups of both democratizing—it introduced yoga lier performances of fakirs and yogis but
Krishnamacharya doing a series of to unprecedented new audiences—and was reinvented for nationalist audiences
seated nauli and pranayama exercises, competitive, attracting students who eager to see yoga as indigenous exercise.
the grace and elegance of the linking might otherwise have gone the way of If this film footage suggests one thing, it
20
vinyasas matched only by the control Western gymnastics. The maharaja is that new ways of representing asana
required to sustain each position. In the sent Krishnamacharya all over South led directly to new ways of perceiving
21
short sections that follow, the camera India on this “propaganda work,” and yoga, and therefore, of practicing asanas,
moves indoors to feature two women the teacher’s debut on celluloid was performing yogic identities, and inhab-
and two children (performing asanas conceived as part performance piece, iting yogic bodies. In a world marked by
synchronously), ending in a sequence part spectacular enticement to introduce increasing media cacophony and image
where Krishnamacharya demonstrates yoga to mass audiences. saturation, we are reminded that visual
a set of balancing exercises with the Throughout the film, the slow, technologies can change practice, media
children, more reminiscent of an almost languorous, aesthetic of unfold- sometimes do create the message, and
acrobatic circus act. The film ends with ing asanas complements the camera’s yogic lives can, and often do, imitate
a black-and-white sequence outdoors, rigorous focus on the practitioner; the yogic art. SR
against a backdrop of unidentified dynamic linking vinyasas provide both
mountains, in which Krishnamacharya sequential narrative and connective
dazzles the viewer with a tightly choreo- tissue for the story of modern postural
graphed series of difficult inversions and yoga in India. The film achieves many
headstands. things at once: it is cultural archive as

292 | REFERENCE MATERIAL
Exhibition Checklist
Note: Items marked with an asterisk (*) are not illustrated in this catalogue.
Venues Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection Kurrum Doss (cat. 21e)
in The People of India (1868–75), volume 4, folio 158
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (Sackler) Gosain Kirpal Girji Receives Sheeshvalji and His Son ca. 1862
October 19, 2013–January 26, 2014 (cat. 2c) Photograph, 34.3 × 25.4 cm
India, Rajasthan, Marwar or Jodhpur, mid-18th Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (SFAAM) century Collection
February 22–May 18, 2014 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 34.9 × 24.8 cm Venues: Sackler, SFAAM
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) Venues: All The People of India, volume 2*
June 22–September 7, 2014 India, 1868
Krishna Vishvarupa (cat. 10a) Book, 34.3 × 25.4 cm
India, Himachal Pradesh, Bilaspur, ca. 1740 Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 19.8 × 11.7 cm Collection
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection Venues: All
Venues: All
Photos: John Tsantes
Sadashiva (cat. 1e)
India, Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur, ca. 1670
Attributed by B. N. Goswamy to Devidasa The British Museum, London
Opaque watercolor, gold, and applied beetle-wing
on paper, 19.1 × 18.4 cm Ascetics Performing Tapas (cat. 20c)
Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection South India, ca. 1820
Venues: All Opaque watercolor on paper, 23.5 × 29 cm (page)
The Trustees of the British Museum, Bequeathed
Photos: John Tsantes through Francis Henry Egerton, 2007,3005.4
Venues: All
Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer Bhairava (cat. 20b)

Collection in an album of 91 paintings
India, Thanjavur, ca. 1830
Bairagees, Hindoo Devotees, Delhi (cat. 21f) Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 22.6 × 17.6 cm
in The People of India (1868–75), volume 33, folio 203 The Trustees of the British Museum, 1962,1231,0.13.70
Charles Shepherd for Shepherd & Robertson, Venues: All
ca. 1862
Photograph, 34.3 × 25.4 cm Shiva as Bhairava (cat. 1a)
Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer India, Tamil Nadu, 11th century
Collection Granite, 108 x 47.9 × 28.4 cm
Venue: CMA The Trustees of the British Museum, Brooke Sewell
Permanent Fund, 1967.1016.1
Venues: All
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST | 293

The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin The Prince Begins His Journey (cat. 17e) Three Women Present a Young Girl to Aged Ascetics
from the Mrigavati (cat. 14c)
Ten folios from the Bahr al-hayat (Ocean of Life) India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4 India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1670–80
(cat. 9) Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper;
India, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, 1600–1604 28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 18.2 × 9.2 cm (painting) 39.5 × 27.5 cm (folio with borders),
Opaque watercolor on paper, 22.7 × 13.9 cm (folio) The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, 21.9 × 14.8 cm (painting without borders)
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Dublin, In 37.23b The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
Virasana (Persian, sahajasana) (cat. 9a) Venues: All Dublin, In 73.3
13.3 × 7.8 cm (painting) Venues: All
In 16.10a The Prince in Danger (cat. 17g)
Venues: All from the Mrigavati A Yogini in Meditation (cat. 18f)
Attributed to Haribans from the Impey Ragamala
Garbhasana (Persian, gharbasana) (cat. 9b)
India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4 India, Bengal, ca. 1760
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Opaque watercolor and gold on paper;
In 16.18a
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 15.2 × 9.5 cm (painting) 35.1 × 24.3 cm (folio with borders),
Venues: All
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, 22 × 14.3 cm (painting without borders)
Nauli Kriya (Persian, niyuli) (cat. 9c) The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
Dublin, In 37.28a
Attributed to Govardhan Dublin, In 65.2
Venues: All
9.5 × 8 cm (painting) Venues: All
In 16.19a
The Prince Meets Rupman*
Venues: All Yogini with Mynah (cat. 3f)
from the Mrigavati
Headstand (Persian, akucchan) (cat. 9d) India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4 India, Karnataka, Bijapur, ca. 1603–4
9.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Opaque watercolor and gold on paper;
In 16.20a 28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 15.3 × 9.5 cm (painting) 39.2 × 27.6 cm (folio with borders),
Venue: Sackler The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, 19.3 × 11.6 cm (painting without borders)
Untitled (Persian, nashbad) (cat. 9e) Dublin, In 37.29b The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
13.5 × 7.6 cm (painting) Venues: SFAAM, CMA Dublin, In 11a.31
In 16.21b Venues: All
Venues: All The Raj Kunwar on a Small Raft (cat. 17f)
from the Mrigavati
Untitled (Persian, sitali) (cat. 9f) The Cleveland Museum of Art
In 16.22a Base for a Seated Buddha with Figures of Ascetics
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 15.3 × 9.5 cm (painting)
Venues: All (cat. 6c)
Pakistan or Afghanistan, ancient Gandhara,
Khecari Mudra (Persian, khechari) (cat. 9g) Dublin, In 37.27a
ca. 150–200 CE
10.6 × 8.5 cm (painting) Venues: All
Gray schist, 38 × 36.2 cm
In 16.24a
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Norman
Venues: All The Sage Bhringisha and Shiva (cat. 13)
Zaworski, 1976.152
Kumbhaka (Persian, kunbhak) (cat. 9h) folio 304b from the Yoga Vasishta
Venues: All
8 × 7.8 cm (painting) Attributed to Keshav Das
In 16.25a India, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad, 1602
Fasting Buddha (cat. 6b)
Venues: All Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper;
India, Kashmir, 8th century
27 × 18.5 cm (folio), 8.6 × 9.7 cm (painting)
Sthamba (Persian, thambasana) (cat. 9i) Ivory, 12.4 × 9.5 cm
13.6 × 7.8 cm (painting) The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.
Dublin, In 05, f.304b
In 16.26b Fund, 1986.70
Venues: All
Venues: All Venues: All
Untitled (Persian, sunasana) (cat. 9j) Saha (cat. 3e)
11.5 × 7.7 cm (painting) Head of a Rishi (fig. 3, p. 39)
folio 242a from The Stars of the Sciences
In 16.27b India, Mathura, 2nd century
(Nujum al-‘Ulum)
Venues: All Stone, 27.7 × 24 cm
India, Karnataka, Bijapur, dated 1570–71
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L.
Bhupali Ragini (cat. 18g) Whittemore Fund, 1971.41
25.8 × 16 cm (folio), 8.6 × 9.7 cm (painting)
from the Impey Ragamala Venues: All
India, Bengal, ca. 1760 Dublin, In 02 f.242a
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Jain Ascetic Walking (cat. 5f)
Venues: All
35.2 × 26.3 cm (folio with borders), India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1600
23.3 × 16.1 cm (painting without borders) Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper,
Saindhavi Ragini, wife of Bhairon (cat. 18h)
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, 14.7 × 9.8 cm
from the Impey Ragamala
Dublin, In 65.4 The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.244
India, Bengal, ca. 1760–73
Venues: SFAAM, CMA Venue: CMA
The Feast of the Yogis (cat. 17h) Jina (cat. 5b)
23.2 × 15.8 cm (painting without borders)
from the Mrigavati India, Rajasthan, 10th–11th century
India, Mughal dynasty, 1603–4 Bronze with silver inlay, 61.5 × 49.5 × 36.8 cm
Dublin, In 65.7
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Severance and Greta
Venues: All
28.3 × 17.5 cm (folio), 14.2 × 9.7 cm (painting) Millikin Purchase Fund, 2001.88
The Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Dublin, In 37, f.44a
Venues: All

The Knots of the Subtle Body (cat. 11a) Images of Yogis (cat. 22b) Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection
India, Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur, ca. 1690–1700 John Chapman (act. 1792–1823)
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 20 × 14 cm September 1, 1809 Group of Yogis
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L. Whittemore from Encyclopædia Londinensis or, Universal Colin Murray for Bourne & Shepherd, ca. 1880s
Fund, 1966.27 Dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature … vol. 10 Albumen print, 22.2 × 29.2 cm
Venues: All (London: J. Adler, 1811) Collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck,
Copper-plate engraving, 26.7 × 21.6 cm 2011.02.02.0004
Prince and Ascetics (cat. 19c) Robert J. Del Bontà collection, E1232 Venues: All
Painting attributed to Govardhan; Venues: All Photo: John Tsantes
borders attributed to Payag
Detroit Institute of Arts Library of Congress, Washington, DC
37.5 × 25.2 cm (sheet), 20.3 × 14.3 cm (painting) The Chakras, a Monograph (cat. 25c)
Yogini (cat. 3b)
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Andrew R. and Martha Charles W. Leadbeater (1854–1934)
India, Tamil Nadu, Kanchipuram or Kaveripakkam,
Holden Jennings Fund, 1971.79 Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, IL,
900–975
Venues: All United States, 1972 (© 1927)
Possibly dolerite, 116.8 × 76.2 × 45.7 cm
Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Book, 31 × 26 cm
Shiva and Devi on Gajasura’s Hide* General Collections, Library of Congress,
L.A. Young Fund, 57.88
India, ca. 1680 Washington, DC, BP573.C5 L4 1972
Venues: All
Ink and color on paper, 23.5 × 16.2 cm Venues: All
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L.
Whittemore Fund, 1952.587 Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Fakire und Fakirtum im Alten und Modernern Indien
Venues: SFAAM, CMA (cat. 26a)
The Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped by the Sage Richard Schmidt
Shiva Bhairava (cat. 1b) Chyavana (cat. 8c) Germany, 1907
India, Karnataka, Mysore, 13th century from a Tantric Devi series Book, 24.8 × 34.3 cm
Chloritic schist, 116.6 × 49.23 cm India, Pahari Hills, ca. 1660–70 General Collections, Library of Congress,
The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 21.3 × 23.1 cm Washington, DC, BL2015.F2 S3
Fund, 1964.369 Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.8 Venues: All
Venues: All Venue: Sackler
Hindoo Fakir (cat. 23d)
Yoga Narasimha, Vishnu in His Man-Lion Avatar Kedar Ragini (cat. 18a) Edison Manufacturing Company, United States, 1902
(cat. 8a) from the Chunar Ragamala Film, transferred to DVD, 3 minutes
India, Tamil Nadu, ca. 1250 India, Uttar Pradesh, Chunar, 1591 General Collections, Library of Congress,
Bronze, 55.2 cm Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 22.5 × 15 cm Washington DC, NV-061-499
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Norman Freer Gallery of Art, Michael Goedhuis Ltd., F1985.2 Venues: All
Zaworski, 1973.187 Venue: Sackler
Venues: All Massage and Exercises Combined (26e)
Sarang Raga (cat. 18d) Albrecht Jensen
from the Sirohi Ragamala New York, United States, 1920
Robert J. Del Bontà Collection India, Rajasthan, Sirohi, ca. 1680–90 Book, 25 × 26 cm
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 23.2 × 17.8 cm General Collections, Library of Congress,
“Diverses Pagodes et Penitences des Faquirs”
Freer Gallery of Art, F1992.18 Washington, DC, RM 721.J4
(Various Temples and Penances of the Fakirs)
Venue: Sackler Venues: All
(cat. 22a)
Bernard Picart (1673–1733)
Siddha Pratima Yantra (cat. 5e) The Mysterious Kundalini (cat. 25d)
1729
Western India, dated 1333 (Samvat 1390) Vasant Gangaram Rele
from Jean-Frédéric Bernard and Bernard Picart,
Bronze, 21.9 × 13.1 × 8.9 cm D. P. Taraporevala Sons and Co., Bombay, India, 1929
Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses des Peuples
Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.33 Book, 21 × 26.5 cm (open)
Idolatres (Ceremonies and Religious Customs of
Venue: Sackler General Collections, Library of Congress,
the Idolatrous Peoples), vol. 2 (Amsterdam: J. F.
Bernard, 1728) Washington, DC, B132.Y6 R4a Copy 1
Vishvamitra Practices His Austerities (cat. 7a) Venues: All
Copper-plate engraving, 48 × 52.4 cm
folio 61a from the Freer Ramayana
Mushfiq Neely’s History of the Parliament of Religions and
Venues: All
India, subimperial Mughal, 1597–1605 the Religious Congresses at the World’s Columbian
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper, Exposition (cat. 24g)
“Hindu Fakir on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta” (cat. 22c)
26.5 × 15.6 cm Walter R. Houghton, ed.
James Ricalton (1844–1929)
Freer Gallery of Art, Gift of Charles Lang Freer, Chicago, United States, 1893
ca. 1903
F1907.271.61 Book, 22.5 × 37 cm
from James Ricalton, India through the Stereoscope:
Venue: Sackler General Collections, Library of Congress,
A Journey through Hindustan (New York and London:
Underwood & Underwood, 1907) Washington, DC, BL21.W8N4
Photos: Neil Greentree, Robert Harrell, John Tsantes Venues: Sackler, CMA
Stereoscopic photograph, 8.9 × 17.8 cm
Robert J. Del Bontà collection, SV49
Venues: All

Popular Yoga: Asanas (cat. 25e) Equivalence of Self and Universe (cat. 10d) The Transmission of Teachings (cat. 4c)
Swami Kuvalayananda folio 6 from the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati folio 4 from the Nath Charit
C. E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, VT, United States, Bulaki Bulaki
1972 (1931) India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1824 (Samvat 1881) India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1823 (Samvat 1880)
Book, 22 × 31 cm Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 122 × 46 cm Opaque watercolor, gold, and tin alloy on paper,
General Collections, Library of Congress, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2378 47 × 123 cm
Washington, DC, B 132.Y6.K787 Venues: All Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2401
Jalandharnath Flies over King Padam’s Palace*
Raja Yoga (cat. 24h) from the Suraj Prakash Water Springs Forth from the Power of Jalandharnath’s
Swami Vivekananda India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1830 Mantra*
Advaita Ashram, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India, 1944 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, from the Suraj Prakash
(1896) 23.3 × 38.6 cm (image) Amardas Bhatti
Book, 18.5 × 27 cm (open) Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 1644 India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1830
General Collections, Library of Congress, Venues: SFAAM, CMA Opaque watercolor and gold on paper,
Washington, DC, B132.V3 V58 23.3 × 38.6 cm (image)
Venues: All The King Praises Jalandharnath as His Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 1640
Enemies Drown* Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Surya Namaskars (cat. 26c) from the Suraj Prakash
Apa Pant Amardas Bhatti Photos (except 4a, 4b): Neil Greentree
Orient Longmans, Bombay, India, 1970 (1929) India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1830
Book, 21 × 23.7 cm (open) Opaque watercolor and gold on paper,
General Collections, Library of Congress, 23.3 × 38.6 cm (image) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Washington, DC, RA 781.P28 Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 1641
The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva (cat. 16)
Venues: All Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Attributed to Payag
Thurston the famous magician, East Indian rope trick The Practice of Yoga*
(cat. 23a) folio 5 from the Siddha Siddhanti Paddhati
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase,
Otis Lithograph Company Amardas Bhatti
Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2011, 2011.409
United States, ca. 1927 India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1824 (Samvat 1881)
Venue: Sackler
Color lithograph, 104 × 35 cm Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 46 × 122 cm
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2377
Head of the Fasting Buddha (cat. 6a)
Washington, DC, POS-MAG-.T48 no.14 (C size) Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Pakistan or Afghanistan (Gandhara),
Venues: Sackler, CMA
ca. 3rd–5th century
Rama Enters the Forest of the Sages (cat. 17a)
Schist, 13.3 × 8.6 × 8.3 cm
The Yoga Body Illustrated (cat. 26f) from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1532–1623)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Samuel Eilenberg
M. R. Jambunathan India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, ca. 1775
Collection, Gift of Samuel Eilenberg,
Jambunathan Book Depot, Madras, India, 1941 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper,
1987, 1987.142.73
Book, 19 × 19 cm 62.7 × 134.5 cm
Venues: All
General Collections, Library of Congress, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2524
Washington, DC, RA781.7 J35 Venues: All
Kedar Ragini (cat. 18e)
Venues: All
Ruknuddin (act. ca. 1650–97)
Rama in the Forest of the Sages (cat. 17b)
India, Rajasthan, Bikaner, ca. 1690–95
Yoga Personal Hygiene (cat. 25h) from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1532–1623)
Shri Yogendra India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, ca. 1775
14.9 × 11.9 cm (image), 25.6 × 18.7 cm (page)
The Yoga Institute, Bombay, India, 1940 Opaque watercolor on paper, 62.7 × 134.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and
Book, 21.5 × 27 cm Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2527
Mrs. Peter Findlay, 1978, 1978.540.2
General Collections, Library of Congress, Venues: All
Venue: Sackler
Washington, DC, B 132. Y6.Y63
Venues: All Three Aspects of the Absolute (cat. 4a)
“Misbah the Grocer Brings the Spy Parran to His
folio 1 from the Nath Charit
House” (cat. 17c)
The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali (cat. 24a)* Bulaki
folio from a Hamzanama (The Adventures of Hamza)
M. N. Dwivedi, trans. India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1823 (Samvat 1880)
Attributed to Dasavanta and Mithra
Theosophical Publication Fund, Bombay, India, 1890 Opaque watercolor, gold, and tin alloy on paper,
Book, 21 × 37 cm 47 × 123 cm
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on cotton,
General Collections, Library of Congress, Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2399
70.8 × 54.9 cm (folio)
Washington, DC, B132.Y6.P267 1890 Copy 1 Venues: All
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund,
Venues: All
1924, 24.48.1
The Transmission of Teachings (cat. 4b)
Venue: Sackler
folio 3 from the Nath Charit
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur Bulaki
Tile with impressed figures of emaciated ascetics
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1823 (Samvat 1880)
The Chakras of the Subtle Body (cat. 11b) and couples behind balconies (cat. 6d)
folio 4 from the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati India, Jammu and Kashmir, Harwan, ca. 5th century
47 × 123 cm
Bulaki Terracotta, 40.6 × 33.6 × 4.1 cm
India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, 1824 (Samvat 1881) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Cynthia
Venues: All
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 122 × 46 cm Hazen Polsky, 1987, 1987.424.26
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2376 Venues: All
Venues: All

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Shiva Blesses Yogis on Kailash (cat. 14a) Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailash (cat. 7c)
by an artist in the first generation after Manaku India, Rajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, late 18th century
Yogini with a Jar (cat. 3c) and Nainsukh of Guler Opaque watercolor, gold, and tin alloy on paper,
India, Tamil Nadu, Kanchipuram or Kaveripakkam, India, Punjab Hills, 1780–1800 28.7 × 20.5 cm
ca. 900–975 Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 21.5 × 19.8 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia,
Metagabbro, 114.3 × 72.39 × 39.37 cm Museum Rietberg Zürich, Gift Horst Metzger Felton Bequest, 1980, AS242-1980
Lent by Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Christina Collection, RVI 2127 Venues: All
N. and Swan J. Turnblad Memorial Fund, 60.21 Venues: All
Venues: All
Two Ascetics (cat. 7b) National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, 1725–50
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin “An Abd’hoot” (cat. 20d)
in Balthazar Solvyns, A Collection of Two Hundred
Gaur Malhara Ragini (cat. 18i) 15.5 × 22.5 cm (page), 13 × 18 cm (painting)
and Fifty Colored Etchings: descriptive of the manners,
India, Rajasthan, Kotah, 18th century Museum Rietberg Zürich, Gift of Barbara
customs and dresses of the Hindoos (Calcutta: [Mirror
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 14 × 18.3 cm and Eberhard Fischer
Press], 1799)
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5523 Venues: All
Balthazar Solvyns (1760–1824)
Venues: All Hand-colored etching, 52 × 38 × 11 cm
National Anthropological Archives, National Library of Medicine, WZ 260 S692c
Megha Mahlar Ragini (cat. 18c) Venues: All
India, Rajasthan, Bundi, ca. 1600
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 30.2 × 24 cm Untitled (cat. 21a) Yoga Mimansa (cat. 25f)
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5698 John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros, 1858 vol. 1, no. 1, page 57
Venue: Sackler Albumen print, 14 × 10 cm Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
National Anthropological Archives, Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, India, 1924
Worship of Shiva (cat. 15c) Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04604500 Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm
folio from the Kedara Kalpa Venue: Sackler National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu Venues: All
India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815 Untitled (cat. 21b)
Opaque watercolor on paper; John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros, 1858 Yoga Mimansa (cat. 26g)
36.2 × 48.9 cm (folio), 30 x 42.2 cm (image) Albumen print, 13.7 × 9.5 cm vol. 1, no. 3 (October)
Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK I 5733 National Anthropological Archives, Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
Venues: All Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04565100 Kaivalyadhama Institute, Lonavla, India, 1925
Venue: Sackler Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Untitled (cat. 21c) Venues: All
Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar Visiting John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros, 1858
Savina Khera Math (cat. 14e) Albumen print, 13.5 × 10.2 cm Yoga Mimansa (cat. 26h)
India, Rajasthan, Mewar, ca. 1725 National Anthropological Archives, vol. 2, no. 4 (July)
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 60.3 × 73 cm Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04566000 Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles Bain Hoyt Venue: Sackler Kaivalyadhama Institute, Lonavla, India, 1926
Fund, 1999, 1999.94 Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm
Venues: Sackler, SFAAM Untitled (cat. 21d) National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
John Nicholas for Nicholas Bros, 1858 Venues: All
Albumen print, 14 × 10.2 cm
Museum Rietberg Zürich National Anthropological Archives, Yoga Mimansa (cat. 25g)
Smithsonian Institution, NAA INV 04565500 vol. 2, no. 2, page 116
Dara Shikoh Visiting a Yogi and Yogini* Venue: Sackler Shrimat Kuvalayananda, ed.
India, Mughal dynasty, 17th century Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla, India, 1926
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Periodical (quarterly), 23.5 × 16.1 cm
36.2 × 34 cm (folio), 21 × 14.2 cm (painting) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne National Library of Medicine, W1 Y0661
Museum Rietberg Zürich, Collection Barbara Venues: All
and Eberhard Fischer, RVI 0954 Maharana Sangram Singh II and Gosain Nilakanthji*
Venues: SFAAM, CMA India, Rajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, ca. 1725
Yogasopana Purvacatushka (cat. 26b)
Narayana Ghamande
Female Guru and Disciple (cat. 14b) 45.5 × 62.4 cm (sheet), 35.5 × 54.8 cm (painting)
Tukarama Book Depot, Bombay, India, 1951
India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1650 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia,
Book, 22 × 22 cm
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Felton Bequest, 1980, AS97-1980
National Library of Medicine, QT 255 G411y
37.5 × 25 cm (page), 12 × 7.8 cm (painting) Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Venues: All
Museum Rietberg Zürich, RVI 987
Venues: All Maharana Sangram Singh II Visiting Gosain
Nilakanthji after a Tiger Hunt (cat. 14f) Cynthia Hazen Polsky
Monkeys in the Cave of Swayamprabha* India, Rajasthan, Mewar, Udaipur, ca. 1725
folio 46 from the Mankot Ramayana Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 65 × 48.5 cm Himalayan Pilgrimage of the Five Siddhas (cat. 15a)
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mankot, ca. 1720 National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, folio from the Kedara Kalpa
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; Felton Bequest, 1980, AS92-1980 Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu
19.8 × 31 cm (folio), 16.2 × 26.8 cm (painting) Venues: All India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815
Museum Rietberg Zürich, Collection Barbara Opaque watercolor on paper;
and Eberhard Fischer, REF 25 36.2 × 48.9 cm (folio), 29.8 × 42.5 cm (image)
Venues: SFAAM, CMA Cynthia Hazen Polsky, New York, 8070 IP
Venue: Sackler

Pritzker Collection The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars Untitled (cat. 21g)
(cat. 26d) Charles Shepherd for Shepherd & Robertson
The Guru Vidyashiva (cat. 2a) Balasahib Pandit Pratinidhi, Rajah of Aundh 1862
India, Bengal, 11th–12th century Edited by Louise Morgan Albumen print, 19.6 × 16 cm
Stone, 129.5 × 66 × 15.2 cm J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, 1938 Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
Pritzker Collection Book, 18.3 × 12.6 × 1.8 cm Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1419
Photo by Hughes Dubois Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Untitled (cat. 21r)
Photos: Neil Greentree India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai) or
Private Collection
Orissa, ca. 1880
Standing Jina (cat. 5c) Albumen print, 14.8 × 9.7 cm
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
India, Tamil Nadu, 11th century
Bronze, 73.7 × 69.2 × 17.5 cm Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1473
Seated Jina Ajita (cat. 5a)
Private Collection, LT16 Venue: Sackler
India, Tamil Nadu, 9th–10th century
Photo by Maggie Nimkin Bronze, 18.5 × 14.5×x 9.3 cm
Venues: All Untitled (cat. 21o)
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Gift of Arthur M. Sackler,
India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai),
S1987.16
ca. 1870
Venues: SFAAM, CMA
Private Collection Albumen print, 14.5 × 9.8 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
“Mystery girl: why can’t she be killed?” (cat. 23c) Yogini (cat. 3a)
Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C1474
Look Magazine, September 28, 1937 India, Tamil Nadu, Kanchipuram or Kaveripakkam,
Venue: CMA
Des Moines, Iowa, United States ca. 900–975
34.1 × 26.6 cm Metagabbro, 116 × 76 × 43.2 cm
Untitled (cat. 21q)
Private Collection Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Gift of Arthur M. Sackler,
India, Tamil Nadu, Madras (currently Chennai),
Venues: All S1987.905
ca. 1880
Venues: All
Albumen print, 14.3 × 9.9 cm
Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Collection Photos: Neil Greentree, Robert Harrell, John Tsantes
Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.1522
“Fakir on Bed of Nails” (cat. 22e) Venue: SFAAM
D. Macropolo & Co., Calcutta, early 20th century San Antonio Museum of Art
Postcard, 9 × 14 cm Untitled (cat. 21n)
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Yogini (cat. 3d) India, Calcutta, ca. 1870
Venues: All India, Uttar Pradesh, Kannauj, first half Albumen print, 14.1 × 9.5 cm
of the 11th century Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
“Hindu Fakir: For thirteen years this old man has been Sandstone, 86.4 × 43.8 × 24.8 cm Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C3313
trying ‘to find peace’ on this bed of spikes” (cat. 22d) San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with Venues: Sackler, SFAAM
Young People’s Missionary Movement, New York, the John and Karen McFarlin Fund and Asian Art
early 20th century Challenge Fund, 90.92 Untitled (cat. 21k)
Postcard, 8.3 × 13.6 cm Venues: All Westfield & Co.
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins India, ca. 1870
Venues: All Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
Ethnologisches Museum Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C3314
“Hindu Fakir on Bed of Spikes, Benares” (cat. 22f)
Baptist Missionary Society, early 20th century Venue: CMA
Untitled (cat. 21t)
Postcard, 8.6×x 13.5 cm Edward Taurines (act. 1885–1902)
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Untitled (cat. 21j)
India, Bombay, ca. 1890
Venues: All Westfield & Co.
Albumen print, 23.5 × 19 cm
India, ca. 1870
Lakshman Das (cat. 20a) Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm
Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.8007b
folio from the Fraser Album Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
Venues: Sackler, SFAAM
India, Delhi, ca. 1825 Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C3315
Watercolor and ink on paper, 25.4 × 14.6 cm Venue: SFAAM
Untitled (cat. 21p)
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins India, Tamil Nadu, ca. 1870
Venues: SFAAM, CMA Untitled (cat. 21l)
Westfield & Co.
Matsyendranath (cat. 2b) India, ca. 1870
India, Karnataka, Bijapur, ca. 1650 Albumen print, 9.4 × 5.8 cm
Venue: CMA
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 16.5 × 20.3 cm Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer
Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C3316
Untitled (cat. 21h)
Venues: All Venue: SFAAM
India, ca. 1870
Untitled (cat. 21m)
Westfield & Co.
Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, VIII.C 447
India, ca. 1870
Venue: CMA
Venue: CMA

Untitled (cat. 21i) Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24m) Bhairava Raga (cat. 18b)
India, Orissa, ca. 1870 United States, 1893 from the Chunar Ragamala
Albumen print, 14.6 × 9.9 cm Photographic negative India, Uttar Pradesh, Chunar, 1591
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Vedanta Society of Northern California, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 25.5 × 15.7 cm
Kulturbesitz, Ethnologisches Museum, Harrison series, V25 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.40-1981
VIII S-SOA NLS 1 Inscription (recto): “Thou art the father the lord the Venues: All
Venues: SFAAM, CMA mother the husband and love—Swami Vivekananda”
Venues: All The Five-Faced Shiva (cat. 1d)
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, ca. 1730–40
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Swami Vivekananda and Narasimhacarya (cat. 24b) Opaque watercolor on paper, 26.6 × 18.2 cm
United States, 1893 Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by Col.
Bifolio from the Gulshan Album (cats. 19a–b)
Photographic print, copy of original T. G. Gayer-Anderson and Maj. R. G. Gayer-Anderson,
India, Mughal dynasty, first quarter of the 17th century
Vedanta Society of Northern California, V17 Pasha, IS.239-1952
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 53.5 × 40 cm
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Orientabteilung, Libri pict. A 117, ff.6b, 13a
Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament (cat. 24f) Hanuman as Yogi (cat. 8b)
Venue: Sackler
United States, 1893 India, Kerala, Cochin, early 19th century
Photograph (original), approx. 15.2 × 10.2 cm Teak wood and color, 37.6 × 37 × 9.5 cm
Vedanta Society of Northern California Vedanta Society of Northern California, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.2564E-1883
Harrison series, V26 Venues: All
Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24c) Inscription (recto): “Eka eva suhrid dharma
United States, 1893 nidhanepyanuyati yah. Virtue is the only friend that Koringa (cat. 23b)
Photograph (original), approx. 15.2 × 10.2 cm follows us even beyond the grave. Everything else W. E. Barry Ltd.
Vedanta Society of Northern California, ends with death. Vivekananda” Bradford, United Kingdom, ca. 1938
Harrison series, V21 Venues: All Print, 74.4 × 50.9 cm
Inscription (recto): “One infinite—pure & holy— Victoria and Albert Museum, London, S.128-1994
beyond thought, beyond qualities, I bow down to Swami Vivekananda, Hindoo Monk of India (cat. 24e) Venues: All
thee. —Swami Vivekananda” United States, 1893
Venues: All Poster (color lithograph), copy of original from Scroll with Chakras (cat. 11c)
Goes Lithographing Company, Chicago India, Kashmir, 18th century
Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24i) Vedanta Society of Northern California, Opaque watercolor, gold, silver, and ink on paper,
United States, 1893 Harrison series, V22 376.7 × 17 cm
Photographic print, copy of original Inscription (recto): “To Hollister Sturges—All strength Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.8-1987
Vedanta Society of Northern California, and success be yours is the constant prayer of your Venues: All
Harrison series, V27 friend, Vivekananda”
Venues: All Venues: All Vishnu Vishvarupa (cat. 10b)
India, Rajasthan, Jaipur, ca. 1800–1820
Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24j) Swami Vivekananda on the Platform of the Parliament Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 38.5 × 28 cm
United States, 1893 (cat. 24d) Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by
Scan of a halftone print United States, 1893 Mrs. Gerald Clark, IS.33-2006
Vedanta Society of Northern California, Photographic print, copy of original Venues: All
Harrison series, V20 Vedanta Society of Northern California, V16
Venues: All Venues: All “Fakir Sitting on Nails” (cat. 22g)
India, late 19th century
Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24k) Painted clay, 11.4 × 20.3 cm
United States, 1893 Victoria and Albert Museum, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Given by
Photographic negative the Indian High Commission, IS.196-1949
Battle at Thaneshwar (cat. 12)
Vedanta Society of Northern California, Venues: All
bifolio from the Akbarnama
Inscription (recto): “Samata sarvabhuteshu
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
etanmuktasya lakshanam. Equality in all beings
Venues: All
this is the sign of the free—Vivekananda”
Left folio (cat. 12a) Five Sages in Barren Icy Heights (cat. 15d)
Venues: All
Composed by Basawan; painted by Basawan folio from the Kedara Kalpa
and Tara the Elder Attributed to the workshop of Purkhu
Swami Vivekananda (cat. 24l)
32.9 × 18.7 cm India, Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, ca. 1815
United States, 1893
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Opaque watercolor on paper;
Photographic negative
IS2:61-1896 36.2 × 48.3 cm (folio), 35.7 × 48.1 cm (image)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Arthur
Harrison series, V24 Right folio (cat. 12b)
and Margaret Glasgow Fund, 85.1548
Inscription (recto): “Thou art the only treasure in Composed by Basawan; painted by Asi
this world—Vivekananda” 38.1 × 22.4 cm
Venues: All Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
Forms of Vishnu (cat. 10c)
IS.2:62-1896
folio from the Jnaneshvari
India, Maharashtra, Nagpur, 1763 (Samvat 1856)
Bhairava (cat. 1c)
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper,
India, Himachal Pradesh, Mandi, ca. 1800
37.7 × 25.4 cm (folio)
Opaque watercolor on paper, 27.9 × 17.6 cm
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Adolph D.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, IS.45.1954
and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 91.9.1-628
Venues: All

Jina (cat. 5d) T. Krishnamacharya Asanas (cat. 26i)
India, Rajasthan, probably vicinity of Mount Abu, 1160 India, Mysore, 1938
(Samvat 1217) Sponsored by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodiyar
Marble, 59.69 × 48.26 × 21.59 cm Digital copy of a lost black-and-white film, 57 min.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Adolph D. Courtesy of Dan McGuire
and Wilkins C. Williams Fund, 2000.98 Venues: All
Venue: Sackler
The Tale of Devadatta (cat. 17d)

from the Kathasaritasagara
ca. 1585–90
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, 13.8 × 13.6 cm
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Nasli and Alice
Heeramaneck Collection, 68.8.55
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
Ascetics before the Shrine of the Goddess (cat. 15b)

folio from the Kedara Kalpa
36.5 × 49.2 cm (folio), 24.7 × 47.3 cm (image)
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
(Gift of John and Berthe Ford, 2001), W. 859
Venues: All
Babur and His Retinue Visiting Gor Khatri (cat. 14d)

folio 22b from the Baburnama (Book of Babur)
India, Mughal dynasty, 1590s
32 × 21 cm
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland,
W. 596
Wellcome Library, London
Anatomical Body (cat. 25a)

India, Gujarat, 18th century
Ink and color on paper, 60.5 × 58.5 cm
Wellcome Library, London, Asian Collections,
MS Indic Delta 74
Venues: All
Satcakranirupanacitram (cat. 25b)

Swami Hamsvarupa
Trikutvilas Press, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India, 1903
Book, 26.2 × 34.5 cm
Wellcome Library, London, Asian Collections,
P.B. Sanskrit 391
Venues: All
Film Clips
Note: Hindo Fakir (cat. 23d) is listed under

Library of Congress.
“Yogi Who Lost His Will Power” (cat. 23e)

Song clip from the film You’re the One (1941)
Johnny Mercer (lyrics); Mercer-Mchugh; Jerry
Cohonna with Orrin Tucker and his Orchestra
Clip from YouTube, loop at 3’14:
youtube.com/watch?v=ixwmfoZJHq8
LC Recorded Sound 578945
Columbia 35866
Venues: All

Glossary
Note: Unless otherwise indicated, direct translations are of Sanskrit terms.
Adil Shah dynasty rulers of the Bijapur Sultanate on Bhairava god often considered to be a particularly Chola dynasty rulers of an empire that extended
the Deccan Plateau between 1490 and 1686. fierce or terrible form of Shiva or the Buddha; the over much of South India and Sri Lanka between the
divine founder or leader of several Tantric orders and ninth and thirteenth centuries.
Advaita Hindu philosophical school that postulates revealer of several Tantric scriptures. See Kapalika.
the identity between the individual soul and the Dasnamis (ten-named) confederation of ten ascetic
unique ground of all being, called brahman. Because bhakti Hindu tradition that emphasizes an intense orders that are today Shaiva. According to Dasnami
this school’s metaphysics is based on the non-dualist and personal relationship with God. tradition, they were founded by the ninth-century
teachings found in certain Upanishads, it is also teacher Shankara (also known as Shankaracharya).
known as Advaita Vedanta. See brahman, Vedanta. brahman according to Hindu thought, the Absolute; See Giri, Puri, Shaiva.
the self-existent, Universal Self; the ground of
Agamas scriptural canon of orthodox Shaivism, all being; the infinite power of eternal being and dhoti garment wrapped around the waist.
whose works date from the sixth to the thirteenth becoming. Brahman is distinct from Brahma (a
century CE. See also Shaiva Siddhanta. Hindu god) and Brahmin (a member of the highest fakir (Arabic: poor man) Muslim religious
Hindu caste). mendicant; also spelled faqir, fakeer.
Akbar Mughal emperor who reigned from 1556 to
1605. Brahmin member of the highest of the four Hindu Gandhara region that extended over parts of
castes; a Hindu priest. Afghanistan and Pakistan; a Buddhist kingdom under
anjali mudra gesture of respect in which the palms the Kushan dynasty from the first to the fifth century.
are pressed together with the fingers pointing British East India Company trading company—
upward. with shareholders and the largest standing army Giri one of the ten Dasnami suborders, whose
in Asia—that gradually extended its control over initiates are given the “surname” Giri.
asana (seat or the act of sitting down) a yogic India between the seventeenth and mid-nineteenth
posture. centuries. Goraksha, Gorakh, Gorakhnath twelfth- to
thirteenth-century founder of the Nath sampradaya
ashram hermitage. British Raj British rule of India from 1858 to 1947. and purported author of several Sanskrit and
vernacular works on the practice of hatha yoga
austerities various forms of asceticism, such as Buddhist person whose way of life is grounded in and the mystic experiences of the yogi. See
celibacy and self-mortification, that lead to the the teachings of Gautama Buddha, the fifth-century Matsyendranath.
correct perception of reality and generate spiritual BCE founder of Buddhism, as well as the canon
power. of doctrines and practices attributed to subsequent guru religious preceptor or teacher. A guru initiates
Buddhist teachers and holy men. shishyas or chelas (disciples) into a lineage, which
Bahr al-hayat (Persian: The Ocean of Life) yoga text theoretically extends back to the god or goddess who
written circa 1550 by Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari, chakra (wheel, circle) one of the energy centers originally revealed the teachings.
a Sufi master of the Shattari order; illustrated at the aligned along the spinal column of the yogic body.
Allahabad court of the Mughal Prince Salim, circa The number of chakras varies from one tradition to hatha yoga body of yogic practice that combines
1600–1604. See Sufi, Salim. another, with several traditions extending chakras asanas (postures), pranayama (breath control),
into the space above the top of the head. Chakra mudras (seals), bandhas (locks), and techniques
Bhagavad Gita a circa 200–400 CE portion of also refers to the discus that is one of Vishnu’s of bodily purification, which reverse the normal
the Mahabharata’s sixth book, comprising the primary emblems and the circular weapon wielded downward flow of energy, fluids, and consciousness
divine revelations of the great Hindu god Krishna by militant ascetics. in the body, and provide the practitioner with bodily
concerning three paths of practice called yogas: immortality, supernatural powers, and embodied
karma (activity), jnana (insight), and bhakti (devotion liberation.
to God). See Mahabharata, Vishvarupa.
GLOSSARY | 301
Hindu person whose way of life is grounded in the Krishnamacharya, Tirumalai (1888–1989) often mudra (seal) ritually instrumental gesture of the
foundational doctrines of Hindu revelation (the regarded as the father of modern postural yoga, hand or body. In hatha yoga, an internal hermetic
Vedas, Upanishads, etc.) and tradition (the Bhagavad Krishnamacharya focused on postural movement seal effected through breath control and other
Gita, Puranas, Tantras), as well as the teachings of and pranayama oriented toward health, fitness, techniques. Among the Nath Yogis, mudras are the
Brahmins and other exemplary humans. and healing. His most famous disciples are B. K. S. great hoop earrings worn through the thick of the
Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, T. K. V. Desikachar, ear. More generally, a hand gesture with symbolic
Hoysala dynasty rulers in the southern Deccan from and Indra Devi. meaning, as in anjali mudra, the gesture of respect.
circa 1006 to 1346.
Kundalini (She who is coiled) in Hindu hatha yoga Mughal dynasty, ruled 1526–1857 at the height of
Jahangir Mughal emperor who reigned from 1605 to and Tantra, the female energy that descends through Mughal power in the late sixteenth and seventeenth
1627. See Salim. the yogic body to lie coiled in “sleep” in the lower centuries, the Indo-Islamic empire extended over
abdomen. Through combined yogic techniques, she much of the subcontinent.
Jain person whose way of life is grounded in the is “awakened” and made to rise through the chakras
teachings of Mahavira, the sixth-century BCE founder to the cranial vault and beyond. Nath sampradaya religious order purportedly
of Jainism, as well as the canon of doctrines and founded by Gorakhnath. The Nath Yogis (Yogi
practices attributed to subsequent Jain teachers and Kuvalayananda, Swami (1883–1966; born Lords) were historically known for their distinctive
holy men. Jagannath Gune) central figure in the emergence regalia and their roles as advisors to kings in a
of modern yoga. Kuvalayananda sought to demystify number of medieval and early modern kingdoms
Jalandharnath illustrious Nath Yogi and siddha yoga through scientific research and establish it as in South Asia. See also Gorakhnath, Jalandharnath,
who is the subject of a rich body of medieval and a key component of Indian physical education and Matsyendranath, mudra, singi.
modern legend. In the western Indian kingdom of fitness.
Marwar (modern-day Jodhpur and its environs), nadi in both Hindu and Buddhist mapping of the
Jalandharnath is regarded as a semidivine figure who laya yoga (yoga of absorption) form of yoga practice yogic body, one of an elaborate network of some
was instrumental in the rise to power of the early involving the absorption of the individual mind or 72,000 subtle ducts of the yogic body, through
nineteenth-century King Man Singh. self into the Absolute brahman, often through the which breath and vital energy are channeled. Of
experience of subtle sounds. Laya yoga was one these, the three that run through the center and
jata matted hair or “dreadlocks” worn by yogis in component in a fourfold system of yoga introduced along the right and left sides of the spinal column
imitation of the Hindu god Shiva. in several medieval texts, along with raja yoga, hatha are most prominent.
yoga, and mantra yoga.
jatamukuta crown or bun of matted locks. om quintessential Hindu mantra, the acoustic
linga, lingam pillar-shaped emblem of the Hindu expression of the brahman.
Jina (conqueror) one of the twenty-four legendary god Shiva. In most Shiva temples, the lingam is
founders of Jainism. The last of these was Mahavira, nested in an abstract representation of the great padmasana lotus posture.
a historical figure who lived in the sixth century BCE. goddess who is his consort. This lingam-yoni config-
The term jina is used interchangeably with tirthankara uration harks back to Tantric doctrine, according to Pala dynasty the Palas ruled northeast India (and
(one who has crossed over). which Shiva and the goddess create and maintain modern-day Bangladesh) from the eighth to the
the universe through their sexual energy. twelfth century.
jogi in the vernacular languages of north India
(Hindi, Rajasthani, etc.), the Sanskrit term yogi was Mahabharata one of India’s two great epics; the Pali canon sacred texts of Buddhism and the earliest
pronounced and written as jogi. In the colonial period, other is the Ramayana. The Mahabharata, which was sources on the religion.
jogi was often used in a pejorative sense to refer to composed between the second century BCE and the
a charlatan or false ascetic. See yogi. fourth century CE, contains the Bhagavad Gita. Pallava dynasty the Pallavas (sixth–ninth century)
originated in Andhra Pradesh and gradually extended
Kapalika (Skull bearer) Shaiva yogi who carries a maharaja (great king) title for a Hindu ruler. their territories to include Tamil Nadu; their capital at
kapala (skull) as a begging bowl during a twelve-year Kanchipuram was a major cultural center.
period of itinerancy, as a marker of his membership mala rosary or garland.
in a heterodox Tantric order that featured sexual Pashupata name of an early Shaiva sect devoted to
excess and antisocial behavior. The divine exemplar Man Singh maharaja of Jodhpur-Marwar from 1803 Pashupati, a form of Rudra/Shiva.
of Kapalika practice is the Tantric god Bhairava, to 1843; a devotee of Jalandharnath and great patron
whose iconography features skulls and other bone of the Nath sectarian order. Patanjali author, perhaps legendary, of the circa
ornaments. second- to fourth-century Yoga Sutras.
mantra (mental device; instrument of thought)
kanphata (Hindi: split-eared) term used for the acoustic formula whose sound shape embodies pranayama breath control; the body of techniques
Nath Yogis, who since the turn of the nineteenth and reproduces the energy-level of a deity; a spell, for regulating and stilling the breath (prana).
century have worn large hoop earrings (mudras) incantation, or charm employed in Tantric ritual
through the cartilage of their ears. or sorcery. Purana medieval canon of Hindu devotional religion.
Traditionally eighteen in number, the Puranas are
Kathaka Upanishad Hindu scripture, circa third math, matha Hindu monastery or lodge. compendia of Hindu mythology, cosmology, and
century BCE, in which practices for controlling the instructions for devotional religious practice.
body and breath are first described within the context Matsyendra, Matsyendranath (Lord of the fishes)
of a set of teachings on yoga. illustrious Tantric figure who is the subject of a Puri one of the ten Dasnami suborders, whose
rich body of medieval Hindu and Buddhist legend. initiates are given the Puri “surname.”
Kaula (clan-related, son of the clan) elite body of Hindus believe that Matsyendra was the founder of
Hindu Tantric practices used specifically by the inner the Kaulas, an early Tantric order and the guru of raga classical Indian musical mode. Some ragas
circle of the “clan” of gods, goddesses, and advanced Gorakhnath, the founder of the Nath Yogis. See Kaula were conventionally illustrated with images of Shiva
human practitioners. Sons of the clan sought to and Nath. or yogis.
obtain supernatural powers and bodily immortality
through unconventional practices. Mattamayura (Drunken peacock) name of an ragamala (garland of ragas) series of thirty-six or
influential medieval Shaiva religious order. forty-two classical Indian musical modes.

raja Hindu king; see also maharaja. Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati (Step by Step Guide Vedanta (the “end”—anta—of the Vedas) the
to the Principles of the Perfected Beings) Upanishads, the final corpus of Hindu revelation; by
raja yoga (royal yoga) term used to designate the compendium of Nath metaphysics, cosmology, and extension, the philosophical school that takes the
system of the Yoga Sutras, identified as “classical subtle physiology, attributed to Gorakhnath. Upanishads as the foundation for its teachings. There
yoga” by Vivekananda and his successors in the are three forms of Vedanta philosophy: non-dualist
twentieth and twenty-first centuries. siddhi supernormal power, such as the ability to fly, (advaita), dualist (dvaita), and qualified non-dualist
that is a byproduct or goal of yogic practice. (visishtadvaita). See also Advaita, Upanishads.
Ramanandi Vaishnava ascetic order that was
formalized in the early eighteenth century and is Sidh Sen raja of Mandi, a kingdom on the Beas River Vishvarupa (Universal Form) the cosmic form
today the largest ascetic order in India. From as in Himachal Pradesh, who reigned circa 1684–1724 that Krishna reveals to Arjuna in the course of
early as the twelfth century, Ramanandis—like other and was a Tantric devotee of Shiva. his revelation of the Bhagavad Gita, after Arjuna
Vaishnava ascetics—have been devoted to the god has asked the god to demonstrate his “masterful
Rama (Hindi: Ram), whose name they often mark on singi horn whistle worn by Nath Yogis; today it yoga” (aishvaryam yogam). Krishna’s body is seen
their bodies. is usually called nad due to the sound it produces to encompass the entire universe, with all of its
when blown. creatures inside his body.
Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas sixteenth-century
retelling in vernacular Hindi of the Sanskrit Sufi Islamic tradition that stresses a mystical path Vivekananda, Swami (1863–1902, born
Ramayana. and personal relationship with God. In India, several Narendranath Datta) key figure in the emergence
Sufi ascetic orders interacted with Hindu yogis and of modern yoga. His publications and public
Rig Veda earliest (circa fifteenth to tenth century adopted yogic techniques. appearances in India, North America, and
BCE) and most prominent of the four Vedas, the England disseminated yoga as an ecumenical and
original revelations of the Hindu faith. Tantra medieval and modern Hindu, Jain, and philosophically grounded tradition (in which asanas
Buddhist system of ritual and theory, distinctive in its played little part).
rudraksha beads worn by devotees of Shiva. goal (self-deification) and the means employed to
realize that goal: mandala-based visualization and a yantra geometric ritual diagram used by practi-
sadhu Hindu holy man. highly elaborate ritual practice, sometimes involving tioners to summon deities, or to control or subdue
impure or prohibited substances (sexual fluids, the mind, demonic beings, or elements of the
Salim, Prince the future Mughal Emperor Jahangir alcohol, flesh), etc. phenomenal world.
(1569–1627), Prince Salim commissioned yoga
manuscripts in his Allahabad court between 1600 Tantras medieval scriptures of Hindu, Buddhist, and yogapatta band of cloth wrapped around the torso
and 1604. Jain Tantra. and knees to assist in sitting.
samadhi (composition, meditative concentration) tapas ascetic practices that generate heat; the heat Yoga Sutras of Patanjali circa second- to fourth-
according to the Yoga Sutras, the final component generated through austerities or yogic practice. century work on yoga philosophy, which also includes
and result of ashtanga (eight-limbed) yoga, an practical instructions on the eight successive
integrated state of pure contemplation, in which tilak mark applied to the forehead or body, either to stages of practice (ashtanga yoga) and discussion
consciousness is aware of its fundamental isolation indicate one’s sectarian affiliation (in Hinduism) or of the supernatural powers enjoyed by advanced
from materiality and its own absolute integrity. purely for cosmetic purposes. See also urdhvapundra. practitioners.
According to the teachings of the Buddha, it is the
final component and result of the practices of the Tirthankara see Jina. Yoga Vasishta (Vasishtha’s Teachings on Yoga)
Noble Eightfold Path, which leads to the extinction Sanskrit philosophical treatise from Kashmir that
(nirvana) of suffering existence. Udasi (one who is not attached) religious combined analytical and practical teachings on yoga
mendicant; member of a Sikh ascetic order whose with vivid mythological accounts that revealed the
sannyasi renouncer; traditionally a high-caste male practices include yoga. Also spelled oodasi. transformative powers of consciousness.
Hindu who has entered into the fourth and final stage
of life, in which he has renounced all ties to family, Upanishads final canon of Vedic revelation dating yogi, yogin male practitioner of yoga.
society, and ritual practice by burning his sacrificial from the fifth century BCE to the third century CE.
implements that he has symbolically “laid up The Upanishads contain both dvaita (dualist) and yogini goddess belonging to a cohort ranging
together” (sannyasa) inside his body. In the modern advaita (non-dualist) speculations on the relationship in number from 42 to 108; in Hindu Tantra, a
period, members of the Dasnami order refer to between the Absolute brahman and individual souls, practitioner’s female consort.
themselves as sannyasis, regardless of whether they between purusha (spirit) and prakriti (matter), and
renounce early or late in life. other topics.
Sanskrit language of the Vedas and classical Hindu urdhvabahu the austerity of permanently raising one
texts as well as a cosmopolitan literary language in or both arms in the air; a term for the ascetics who
South and Southeast Asia. perform this austerity.
Shaiva follower or devotee of Shiva. The ensemble urdhvapundra V-shaped mark on the foreheads of
of philosophical and ritual systems followed by Vaishnavas.
Shaivas is known as Shaivism.
Vaishnava follower or devotee of Vishnu. The
Shaiva Siddhanta philosophical and ritual system of ensemble of philosophical and ritual systems
orthodox Shaivism. followed by Vaishnavas is known as Vaishnavism.
shaykh Sufi master and teacher. Vairagi religious mendicant, devotee, or ascetic,
usually Vaishnava. Also spelled Vairagee, Bairagi.
siddha (perfected being) an exemplary superman
of Hindu Tantra; an advanced practitioner of Tantra;
a fully realized Nath or Jain practitioner.
GLOSSARY | 303
Endnotes to the Catalogue
Catalogue 1 the French: “Appar 4.73.6” in Tevaram: Hymnes 1964), no. 25, pl. XIV; Stuart C. Welch, A Flower
1 Selected publications include Ronald M. Sivaites du pays Tamoul, vol. 2, ed. T. V. Gopal from Every Meadow (New York: Asia Society,
Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social Iyer and François Gros (Pondicherry: Institut 1973), no. 26; Rosemary Crill, Marwar Painting
History of the Tantric Movement (New York: français d’indologie, 1985), p. 73. (Mumbai: India Book House, 2000), p. 48.
Columbia University Press, 2002), fig. 12. 9 For a Mandi painting of Bhairava with the same 3 See, for example, Thomas E. Donaldson,
2 Selected publications include Deborah Swallow attributes but wearing the garb of an itinerant “Lakulīśa to Rājaguru: Metamorphosis of
and John Guy, eds., Arts of India: 1550–1900 ascetic, see B. N. Goswamy, Domains of Wonder: the ‘Teacher’ in the Iconographic Program of
(London: V&A Publications, 1990), p. 147, pl. 126. Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting (Seattle: the Orissan Temple,” in Studies in Hindu and
3 Selected publications include Stella Kramrisch, University of Washington Press, 2005), p. 213, Buddhist Art, ed. P. K. Mishra (Delhi: Abhinav
Manifestations of Shiva (Philadelphia: fig. 88. Publications, 1999).
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981), p. 194, fig. 10 His boyish mien may point to the deity’s 4 Gouriswar Bhattacharya, “Inscribed Image
P-30. manifestation as Bāla (boy) Bhairava. K. Guha, of a Śaivācārya from Bengal,” in South Asian
4 The title of the entry is in homage to the scholar “Bhairon, A Shaivite Deity in Transition,” Folklore 1, Archaeology 1993, ed. Asko Parpola and
and curator Stella Kramrisch, who organized an no. 4 (July-August 1960), pp. 207–22. Petteri Koskikallio (Helsinki: Suomalainen
exhibition of the same name at the Philadelphia 11 Gavin Flood, Body and Cosmology in Kashmir Tiedeakatemia, 1994), pp. 93–99; Bhattacharya,
Museum of Art in 1981. Manifestations of Shiva Shaivism (New York: Edward Mellen Press, “A New Śaivācārya with Disciples,” Kalyan Bharati
was the first major thematically organized 1993), p. 43. 6 (2002), pp. 5–14; Linrothe, Holy Madness,
exhibition of Indian art. 12 Shaman Hatley, “The Brahmayāmalatantra and p. 389, cat. no. 88; Ranjusri Ghosh, “Image of
5 Bhairava also figures in the Buddhist Tantras. Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginīs” (PhD diss., University a Saiva Teacher and an Inscription on Pedestal:
See for example, David Gordon White, “At of Pennsylvania, 2007), p. 267. Vidya Dehejia New Evidence for Bangarh Saivism,” Pratna
the Mandala’s Dark Fringe: Possession and notes that Sadāśiva is visualized as the five Samiksha 1 (2010), pp. 135–39.
Protection in Tantric Bhairava Cults,” in Notes faces of the liṅgam of Śiva in devotional images 5 The relationship between image and individual
from a Maṇḍala: Essays in the History of Indian created in South India under the Chola rulers; in medieval Indian portraiture was signified most
Religions in Honor of Wendy Doniger (Newark: Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred, p. 91. often less through a mimetic physical likeness
University of Delaware Press, 2010), pp. 200–15, 13 See, for example, “Maharaja Sidh Sen of Mandi than through an epigraph identifying the por-
esp. pp. 201–2. as a Manifestation of Shiva,” reproduced in trayed person explicitly by name. On portraiture,
6 David Lorenzen, Religious Movements in Joan Cummins, Indian Painting (Boston: MFA see Padma Kaimal, “The Problem of Portraiture
South Asia, 600–1800 (Berkeley: University of Publications, 2006), p. 180, pl. 100. in South India, circa 870–970 A.D,” Artibus
California Press, 1972), pp. 77–81. 14 Retellings of the mythic narrative feature both Asiae 59, nos. 1/2 (January 1, 1999), pp. 59–133;
7 Bhairava temples appeared in Tamil Nadu as Śiva and Bhairava as well as assimilate (the Kaimal, “The Problem of Portraiture in South
early as the eighth century. Bhairava is closely deity) Brahmā into (the caste) Brahmin. India, Circa 970–1000 A.D,” Artibus Asiae 60, no.
related by iconography to the kṣetrapālas that 15 For the descent of teachings from Śiva as 1 (January 1, 2000), pp. 139–79; Vincent Lefèvre,
were set within niches near the doorways of formless sound to humans, see Hatley, “The Portraiture in Early India: Between Transience and
temples where they were “worshipped for pro- Brahmayāmalatantra,” pp. 267–70. Eternity (Leiden: Brill, 2011); Vidya Dehejia, The
tection, to prevent suffering, to remove imped- Body Adorned: Dissolving Boundaries Between
iments, and for the fertility of crops”; Vidya Catalogue 2 Sacred and Profane in India’s Art (New York:
Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola 1 Selected publications include Rob Linrothe, ed., Columbia University Press, 2009), pp. 27–28,
Bronzes from South India (New York: American Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas (New 41–42, 67–68. That this is not a unique sculp-
Federation of Arts, 2002), pp. 118–19. York and Chicago: Rubin Museum of Art and ture, but representative of more widespread
8 Vidya Dehejia, The Sensuous and the Sacred: Serindia Publications, 2006), p. 389. artistic practices, is hinted at through the
Chola Bronzes from South India (New York: 2 Selected publications include Jack R. McGregor, fortuitous survival of fragments of similarly
American Federation of Arts, 2002), p. 118. Indian Miniature Painting from West Coast Private large-scale gurus and ācāryas in archaeological
Poem by Appar translated by Vidya Dehejia from Collections (San Francisco: Society for Asian Art, museums across North and Central India. While
304 | ENDNOTES, PP. 106–15

fully preserved images following a typology the Minneapolis Institute of Arts have not been Yoginīs,” in Asia Past and Present, ed. Martha
that one might effectively dub “guru-portraiture” analyzed to date; however, visual study suggests Ann Selby (Ann Arbor: Association of Asian
are relatively rare outside of northeastern India, they are composed of basalt. Studies, 2012). Kaimal’s monograph identifies
fragments of such images can still be found in 2 Shaman Hatley, “The Brahmayāmalatantra pieces of thirteen extant yoginīs, three mother
situ in the field and in museum collections. Over and the Early Śaiva Cult of Yoginis” (PhD diss., goddesses, and four male figures (Śiva, his
the course of my own research, I have observed University of Pennsylvania, 2007), p. 24. son Skanda/Shanmuga, and two guardians);
them at the Gujri Mahal Museum in Gwalior 3 Hatley, “Brahmayāmala,” v. 52, p. 409 and v. 41, the twelve-armed Skanda was situated at the
and the Rani Durgavati Museum in Jabalpur. p. 406. Composed in Sanskrit sometime before temple’s center.
Klaus Bruhn has noted the particular popularity the ninth century, the Tantric text about yoginīs 12 Intriguingly, their sloped shoulders deviate from
of the ācārya motif, which he identifies as a is structured as a revelation of the Hindu deity the straight shoulders proscribed for Hindu
subset of the “teacher-and-disciple motif,” Śiva in his form as Bhairava. deities in iconographic manuals (shilpa shastras).
among the reliefs found at Jaina temples at 4 The Kaulas emerged in India in the late seventh A Chola bronze sculpture in the Freer Gallery of
Deogarh, mainly between 1000 and 1150 CE; century. Art (F1929.8)—which Vidya Dehejia has compel-
see Klaus Bruhn, “The Ācārya Motif at Deogarh,” 5 “Distinctive to the Tantric traditions are the lingly proposed is a portrait sculpture of Queen
in Deyadharma: Studies in memory of Dr. D.C. goals of mokṣa and bhoga (power, supernatural Sembiyan Mahadevi as the goddess Parvati/
Sircar, ed. Gouriswar Bhattacharya (Delhi: Sri experience, and supernatural pleasures) as Uma—has similarly sloped shoulders. Art of the
Satguru Publications, 1986), pp. 179–87. I am the fruits of practice, rather than mokṣa alone. Imperial Cholas (New York: Columbia University
also grateful to Nachiket Chanchani for bringing Yoginī veneration, however, typically is oriented Press, 1990), pp. 4, 36–39. Whether the
my attention recently to two twelfth- to thir- towards attainment of powers.” Correspondence rounded shoulders of the Kanchi yoginīs indi-
teenth-century figures. from Shaman Hatley to the author, October 9, cate a regional aesthetic or the fluid boundaries
6 Vidyāśiva is mentioned in an eleventh-century 2012. between human and divine that characterize
inscription of Mahīpalā I (reigned 1027–43) 6 Kaula ritual included the empowering exchange yoginī identity is a subject for further research.
found at Bāṇgaḍh and placed in the lineage of bodily fluids through ritualized sexual inter- 13 Kaimal, Scattered Goddesses, p. 37, proposes
of the legendary Durvāsas, edited by D. C. course between male adepts and their female that the iconography of jar and wand might refer
Sircar, “Bāṇgaḍh stone inscription of the time partners, who were also known as yoginīs. See to medicine.
of Nayapāla,” Journal of Ancient Indian History “Yoga in Transformation” by David Gordon White 14 No sculptures of this quality (or images of
7 (1974), pp. 135–58, 264. The legendary in this catalogue. yoginīs) from this period have been found
Durvāsas is mentioned in the Tantrāloka (XII, 7 White, “Yoga in Transformation.” near Kannauj, a city some 190 miles north of
383) as the source of three mind-born sons, 8 Vidya Dehejia’s seminal study, Yoginī, Cult and the Chandella dynasty capital at Khajuraho. In
the second of whom (Amardaka) is said to Temples: A Tantric Tradition (New Delhi: National the tenth century, local Kannauj kings were
be the promulgator of Śaiva Siddhānta. For Museum, 1986), examines the extant ruins of associated with the Chandella dynasts (tenth
more on Durvāsas, see Richard Davis, Ritual medieval yoginī temples located in a broad to thirteenth century), a political alliance that
in an Oscillating Universe: Worshiping Śiva in swath from Rajasthan in the west to Orissa in would have encouraged aesthetic, religious,
Medieval India (Princeton: Princeton University the East and Tamil Nadu in the south. But there and cultural connections. The yoginī temple at
Press, 1991), p. 15; V. V. Mirashi, Inscriptions of must have been more. No yoginī temples sur- Khajuraho (now without sculptures) was located
the Kalachuri-Chedi Era, vol. 4, part 1. Corpus vive, for example, in Delhi, which was one of the within walking distance of the main temple
Inscriptionum Indicarum. Ootacamund: Gov. great centers of yoginī worship and which was complex, and the plump flesh, square face,
Epigraphist for India, 1955), pp. 371, 373; and known as Yoginipura or city of yoginīs. Nor are high waist, round breasts, and asymmetrical
V. S. Pathak, History of Śaiva cults in northern there any in Assam, which was probably where necklace tassel of the Kannauj yoginī recall
India, from inscriptions 700 A.D. to 1200 A.D. the yoginī cult emerged and where to this day the female figures on the Khajuraho temples.
(Allahabad: Abinash Prakashan, 1980), p. 30. the sixty-four yoginīs are invoked. Yet differences suggest regional produc-
7 On the Dasnāmi sampradāya , see Matthew 9 Dehejia, Yoginī, Cult and Temples, pp. 2, 185–86, tion. Dehejia, Yoginī, Cult and Temples, p. 48,
Clark, The Daśanāmī-samnyāsīs : The Integration makes the connection of ground plans to connects her by style to Naresar. Vishakha
of Ascetic Lineages into an Order (Leiden: E. J. yoginī chakras. Margrit Thomsen, “Numerical Desai and Darielle Mason, Gods, Guardians and
Brill, 2006). Symbolism and Orientation in Some Temples of Lovers: Temple Sculptures from North India, A.D.
8 The fullness has traditionally be interpreted as the 64 Yoginīs,” in Art and Archaeology Research 700–1200 (New York: Asia Society Galleries,
indicating prāṇa , or life breath. The idea may Papers, March 1980, p. 53, observes that the 1993), cat. 30, suggest Jhusi in Allahabad; both
stem from Stella Kramrisch, but has found plans of round yoginī temples with extended sites were in the Chandella domain.
expression in many subsequent sources. See portals also recall the yoni-shaped bases of Śiva 15 Hatley “Brahmayāmala,” p. 17.
Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, vol. 2 lingams, cited in Shaman Hatley, “Goddesses in 16 Dehejia, Yoginī, Cult and Temples, p. 150
(Calcutta: University of Calcutta, 1946), p. 342; Text and Stone: Temples of the Yoginīs in Light 17 Carl W. Ernst,“Accounts of Yogis in Arabic and
Kramrisch, Indian Sculpture in the Philadelphia of Tantric and Purāṇic Literature,” in History Persian Historical and Travel Texts,” Jerusalem
Museum of Art (Philadelphia: University of and Material Culture in Asian Religions, ed. Studies in Arabic and Islam, vol. 33 (2008), pp.
Pennsylvania Press, 1961), pp. 34–37; Benjamin Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann (London: 411–14.
Rowland, The Art and Architecture of India: Routledge, forthcoming). David Gordon White 18 In 2011, historian Emma Flatt published a
Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (London: Penguin Books, has suggested that the hypaethral temples groundbreaking analysis of the colophons and
1953), p. 55; Bettina Baumer et al., “Vāyu,” in were perceived of as landing pads for the flying text of the Stars of the Sciences, identifying its
Primal Elements Mahābhūta: Kalātattvakośa, yoginīs, Kiss of the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in its author as Ali ‘Adil Shah, describing its chapters
vol. 3, ed. Bettina Baumer and Kapila Vatsyayan South Asian Contexts. (Chicago: University of on astrology, divination and yoginīs, and outlin-
(New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, Chicago Press),pp. 7–13, 204–18. ing the linguistic strategies the sultan employed
1996), pp. 183–84. See also fig. 4 in “From Guru 10 Reading newly translated Sanskrit texts against to make the often esoteric material compre-
to God: Yogic Prowess and Places of Practice in material culture, Hatley, in “Goddesses in Text hensible to his diverse court. Emma Flatt, “The
Early-Medieval India” in this volume. and Stone,” provides compelling evidence that Authorship and Significance of the Nujūm
the temples mark (and indeed enable) a transi- al-’ulūm: A Sixteenth-Century Astrological
Catalogue 3 tion from primarily individual and esoteric rites Encyclopedia from Bijapur,” Journal of the
1 Petrographic analysis of the Sackler yoginī by into more public and conventional forms American Oriental Society 131, no. 2, pp. 225–35,
Freer|Sackler conservation scientist Janet of worship. and passim.
Douglas shows that it is composed of a 11 For more on the temple and its sculptures, see 19 Dehejia, Yoginī, Cult and Temples, pp. 5, 187–218.
metamorphosed gabbro; the sculptures in the Dehejia , Yoginī, Cult and Temples, and Padma 20 It contains 340 folios and 400 paintings in
collections of the Detroit Institute of Art and Kaimal, “Scattered Goddesses: Travels with the opaque watercolor and gold on paper of
ENDNOTES, PP. 115–24 | 305

excellent quality. Chester Beatty Library, MS [represents] this form without attributes.” For Jainism teach the importance of karma. While
In2, published in Linda Leach, Mughal and Other the Rajasthani verses, see Diamond, Garden and Patañjali says that karma can be black, white, or
Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, Cosmos, p. 287. Jalandharnāth was the focus of mixed, Jainism counts six colors of karma that
vol 2 (London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995). devotion for the manuscript’s patron, Man Singh. manifest in 148 varieties (see the Tattvārtha
21 Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings, p. Here, his identification with Gorakhnāth bridges Sūtra, circa 400 CE). It is safe to say that these
862. a more localized Nāth tradition with what James traditions have been in continual interplay for
22 For the group of single-figure yoginī paintings, Mallinson has described as an increasingly orga- more than two thousand years.
see Deborah Hutton, Art of the Court of Bijapur nized and transregional Nāth order that recog- 10 Christopher Key Chapple, Reconciling Yogas:
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), nizes Gorakhnāth as both historical founder and Haribhadra’s Array of Views on Yoga (Albany:
pp. 83–96; for their yogic connections, see supreme siddha. James Mallinson, “The Nāth State University of New York Press, 2003), pp.
Debra Diamond, “Occult Science and Bijapur’s Saṃpradāya,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, 15–38.
Yoginis,” in Indian Painting: Themes, History vol. 3, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2011), 11 The Yogaśāstra shows the strong Tantric influ-
and Intepretations (Essays in Honour of B. N. pp. 407–28. ence on medieval Jainism. The sixth chapter, on
Goswamy), ed. Mahesh Sharma (Ahmedabad: 8 The nine and eighteen Nāths on folios 3 and 4 breath control, also records divination exercises,
Mapin, forthcoming). refer to canonical groups of siddhas. Mallinson, catalogued under prāṇāyāma because they
23 In “Occult Science and Bijapur’s Yoginis,” “The Nāth Saṃpradāya.” partly rely on knowledge of the breath and its
Diamond reviews the art historical literature in 9 On pratyakṣa, see White, The Alchemical movements. Most are geared toward determin-
which the yoginīs are consistently interpreted as Body. On the ranking of authority, see Wendy ing the time of death, but some focus on warfare,
images of mortal ascetics or princesses in yogic Doniger O’Flaherty, Dreams, Illusion, and Other harvest, and offspring. See Olle Quarnström,
masquerade. Realities about Yoga: Tales from the Yogavāsiṣṭha trans., The Yogaśāstra of Hemacandra: A twelfth
24 The Persian translation of the Kāmarūpañcāśikā (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. century handbook on Śvetambara Jainsim
describes sixty-four immortal, beautiful and 172–74. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2002).
bejewled yoginīs with supernatural pow- 12 Dundas, The Jains, p. 202.
ers. Carl W. Ernst, “Being Careful with the Catalogue 5 13 For the first tīrthaṅkara, one can find a bull; for
Goddess: Yoginīs in Persian and Arabic Texts,” 1 Selected publications include Phyllis Granoff, the most recent, Mahāvīra , one finds a lion.
in Performing Ecstasy: The Poetics and Politics Victorious Ones: Jain Images of Perfection (New 14 First, the statue is bathed in water. Then sandal-
of Religion in India, ed. Pallabi Chakravorty and York: Rubin Museum of Art, 2009), p. 210, cat. wood paste or red kumkum is applied to the to
Scott Kugle (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers S26; Thomas Lawton, Asian Art in the Arthur M. the knees, the forearms, the shoulders, the top
and Distributors, 2009) , pp. 191–96; see also Sackler Gallery (Washington, DC: Smithsonian of the head, the spiritual center between the
“Muslim Interpreters of Yoga” by Carl W. Ernst Institution Press, 1987), pp. 62–63. eyebrows (ājñā cakra), the heart, and the stom-
in this volume. For the identification of the 2 Inscription: Prosperity! ach. Flowers are placed on the body of the Jina,
Kāmarūpañcāśikā, see Kazuyo Sakaki, “Yogico- The image of the omniscient Ajidi for beauty and as a reminder of impermanence.
tantric Traditions in the Ḥawd al-Ḥayāt,” Journal [was caused to be made] by the honorable ... Incense is lit for its fragrance and to evoke mind-
of the Japanese Association for South Asian of [or landlord of] Pullininra-puttur in Vilai-natu. fulness of the life in air. A lamp (dīpa) is ignited
Studies 7 (2005), pp. 135–56. Y. Subbarayalu, translator, Department of and waved in front of the statue, symbolizing
Indology, Institut Français du Pondichéry, in and creating a connection with consciousness.
Catalogue 4 Granoff, Victorious Ones, p. 210, cat. S26. Offerings of rice, food, and fruit to the Jina
1 Published in Debra Diamond, Garden and 3 Selected publications include The Jina image constitute the last three aspects of Jain
Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur Collection (New York: Frederick Schultz Ancient ritual (pūjā ). In addition, worship takes the form
(Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Art in Association with Peter Marks Gallery, of a meditation involving vocalized prayers.
2008), cat. 40. 2001), pl. 13. The most widely used mantra of the Jain faith
2 David Gordon White, The Alchemical Body: 4 Selected publications include Granoff, Victorious honors the twenty-four Great Victors or Jinas,
Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (Chicago: Ones, p. 216, cat. S29. the saints (siddhas) who have attained perfect
University of Chicago Press, 1998). 5 Selected publications include Joseph Dye, The freedom, the living heads of religious orders
3 “A close reading of the corpus of Sanskrit texts Arts of India (Richmond: VMFA, 2001), cat. 51. (ācāryas), living teachers (upādhyāyas), and
that taught haṭha yoga in its formative period 6 Inscription: In the year VS 1390 [1333] on the the active legions of monks and nuns (sādhus
(approximately the eleventh to the fifteenth eleventh [lunar day) of the dark half of [the and sādhvīs).
century) shows that it consisted of a variety of month of] Jyaistha [May-June] with a shrine 15 Like Jinas, monks of the Digambara order tradi-
ancient physical techniques aimed at achieving [and] with attendants [was caused to be made] tionally take a vow of total nudity because they
liberation by controlling the breath, mind, and for his own welfare by the merchant Maladeva. are aware that bugs can become trapped and
semen.” See James Mallinson, “Yogis in Mughal the son of the Merchant Devaimha [and his wife] suffocate in clothing.
India,” in this catalogue. Desatadevi, the son of the merchant Mahicandra, 16 Although similar to the haṭha yoga pose
4 Maharaja Man Singh’s lavish patronage included belonging to the illustrious Gurjara family. commonly called ṭādāsana, it carries some
the collecting of existing Nāth treatises and the Selected publications include Pratapaditya differences, especially in how the arms are held
production of new knowledge through the com- Pal, Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India (Los slightly distant from the body.
missioning of texts and illustrated manuscripts. Angeles: LACMA, 1994), cat. 14. 17 His white garments further indicate that he is a
For more on illustrated Nāth manuscripts, see 7 Paul Dundas, The Jains, 2nd ed. (London: monastic in the Śvetāmbara order.
Diamond, Garden and Cosmos, pp. 43–49; Routledge, 2002), p. 23. 18 To ride a horse would hurt the horse; to drive an
173–254. 8 This karma with its attendant coloring adheres to automobile or ride a scooter or bicycle would
5 See n. 6. and obscures one’s soul. For instance, domestic kill countless bugs and, in a big accident, result
6 Deities with comprehensible forms are more violence cloaks its perpetrators and victims with in harm to other humans.
visible in Hindu religious practice. what might seem to be an ashen hue. Some 19 Jain monks and nuns also often carry or wear a
7 Terse descriptions of each cosmic manifestation souls commit heinous acts that result in rebirth covering for the mouth so they will not inhale
are inscribed on the verso of the folio: “First in one of the many realms of hell; other souls bugs or do damage to microscopic souls in the
there is the glorious Nāth, whose nature is self through their goodness ascend after death into air as they speak or exhale; they may carry a
effulgent and without beginning, limit, form, or a heavenly realm. broom to sweep insects from their path. In con-
blemish, 1. Bliss-form Nāth. Then after many 9 The relationship between classical yoga and trast, Śvetāmbara tīrthaṅkaras and living monks
eons, Jallandhar sat down and created vast Jainism has a long and glorious history. The of the Digambara order are totally naked.
waters. Thus, he is renowned as lord (īśa). He ethical principles of yoga, the five yamas, are
is also known as Gorakhnāth. The third picture the same as found in Jainism. Both yoga and
306 | ENDNOTES, PP. 124–37

Catalogue 6 vol. 20 (Bombay: 1901), p. 362. See also v. 8.8., a circa fourth- to eighth-century Vaiṣṇava
1 Selected publications include Michael R. Heinrich Lüders, “A List of Brahmi Inscriptions,” text, as per Jim Mallinson in correspondence
Cunningham, Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Appendix to Epigraphia Indica and Record of the dated Sept. 20, 2012.
Wardwell, J. Keith Wilson, Masterworks of Archaeological Survey of India, vol. 10 (Calcutta: 10 Tapkār āsana is named and depicted in the
Asian Art (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art Superintendent Government Printing, 1912), pp. illustrated Jogpradīpakā of Jayatarāma, Gudrun
and Thames and Hudson, 1998), pp. 152–53; 97–98, nos. 954–56. Bühnemann, Eighty-four Āsanas in Yoga: A
Pratapaditya Pal, Himalayas: An Aesthetic 12 Johannes Bronkhorst, Greater Magadha: Studies Survey of Traditions with Illustrations (New Delhi:
Adventure (Berkeley, CA, and Ahmedabad, in the Culture of Early India (Leiden: Brill, 2007), D. K. Printworld, 2007), p. 51. This enables us to
India: University of California Press and Mapin pp. 40–41. identify an earlier representation of the āsana
Publishing, 2003), p. 114, cat. 69. from Kulu. Dated circa 1725–40 by style, it is
2 Selected publications include Andrew Topsfield, Catalogue 7 reproduced in Pratapaditya Pal, The Flute and
In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Arts of India 1 Selected publications include Richard the Brush: Indian Paintings from the William Theo
(London: Philip Wilson, 2004), cat. 78. Ettinghausen, Paintings of the Sultans and Brown and Paul Wonner Collection, An Exhibition
3 Figures seated with their legs crossed in the Emperors of India (New Delhi: Lalit Kalā (Newport Beach: The Museum, 1976), no. 49.
manner of the lotus posture (padmāsana) are Akademi, 1961), pl. 3; Milo Beach, The See cats. 9a–j for the āsana’s origins in the
prevalent in early sculpture. Yet we cannot Adventures of Rama with Illustrations from a bat-penance vagguli-vata of śramaṇa ascetics.
assume these postures are always indicative of Sixteenth-Century Mughal Manuscript (1983; 11 E. F. Oaten, European Travellers in India, during
introspection, because they are often placed in repr. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art the Fifteenth Sixteenth and Seventeenth centu-
narrative contexts not involving meditation. and Mapin Publishing, 2011), pp. 20–21; ries: the evidence afforded by them with respect
4 As in the Kaṭhaka Upaniṣad (circa third century Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, The to Indian social institutions, & the nature, &
BCE) and Yoga Sūtras (circa 2nd century CE). Illustrated Ramayana (New Vrindaban: Palace influence of Indian governments (New Delhi: J.
5 Ṛg Veda I 105, 8 and see Walter O. Kaelber, Publishing,1989), p. 38, fig.7; John Seyller, Jetley for Asian Educational Services, 1991), p.
“Tapas and Purification in Early Hinduism,” Workshop and Patron in Mughal India: The Freer 46, notes ritual decapitation in fifteenth-century
Numen, vol. 26 (December 1979), pp. 198, 204. Ramayana and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of Vijayanagar by pilgrims who “cut off their own
and Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 9.5.1.2-4, 4.5.1.6-9, ‘Abd al-Rahim (Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, head[s], yielding up their lives as a sacrifice to
and 3.1.2.1. 1999), pp. 132–33, fig. 57; Milo Beach, The their idols.”
6 Many scholars believe these images represent Imperial Image: Paintings for the Mughal Court
a time prior to the enlightenment and therefore (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2011), p. Catalogue 8
represent Śākyamuni as the future Buddha 90, fig. 14e. 1 Selected publications include Crispin Branfoot,
rather than as a fully enlightened being. 2 Selected publications include Andrew Topsfield, “Processions and Presence: Bronze Sculptures
7 Alfred Foucher, L’Art Gréco-Bouddique du Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery from the Temples of Southern India,” Arts of
Gandhāra: étude sur les origines de l’influence of Victoria (Melbourne: National Gallery of Asia 36, no. 6 (2006), p. 68, fig. 8; Vidya Dehejia,
classique dans l’art bouddhique de l’Inde et de Victoria, 1980), pg. 148, fig. 226. The Sensuous and the Sacred (New York:
l’Extrême-Orient (Paris: E. Leroux, 1905), pp. 3 For third- to eighth-century images of austeri- American Federation of Arts, 2002), pp. 186–87,
381–83. Foucher was among the first to offer ties, see cats. 6a–d; for the yogic nature of the fig. 45; Vidya Dehejia, Chola: Sacred Bronzes
this attribution. More recently Robert L. Brown ascetic techniques of śramaṇas mentioned of Southern India (London: Royal Academy of
has suggested that many of the earliest images in Buddhist and Jain texts, as well as those Arts, 2006), pp. 120–23, fig. 22; Adrian K Locke,
depict events that occur shortly after the end of practiced by sages in the Rāmāyaṇa and “Divine Beauty: Sacred Medieval Bronzes from
this first period of fasting. After being given food Mahābhārata, see James Mallinson, “Śāktism Southern India,” Minerva 18, no. 1 (January–
and ending his six-year fast, Gautama headed and Haṭhayoga,” in The Śākta Traditions (Oxford: February 2007), p. 23, fig. 6.
to Bodhgaya where he attained Buddahood. Oxford University Press, 2013). 2 Selected publications include John Guy, La
What follows is a second period of fasting that 4 For other images of Viśvāmitra, see fig. 6 in escultura en los templos indios: el arte de la devo-
lasted forty-nine days during which a number “Yoga the Art of Transformation” by Debra ción (Barcelona: Fundación “la Caixa,” 2007), p.
of miraculous events occurred. See Robert L. Diamond in this catalogue. 229, cat. 184. Guy notes that the Cochin temple
Brown, “The Emaciated Gandharan Buddha 5 The prayer beads (māla) he holds indicate he is was demolished in 1874.
Images: Asceticism, Health, and the Body,” in reciting mantras. 3 Selected publications include Thomas Lawton,
Living a Life in Accord with Dhamma: Papers in 6 The Rāmāyana of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient Beyond the Legacy: Anniversary Acquisitions
Honor of Professor Jean Boisselier, ed. Natasha India, vol. 1, “Bālakaṇḍa,” trans. Robert P. for the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M.
Eilenberg, M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, and Robert Goldman (Princeton: Princeton University Press, Sackler Gallery (Washington, DC: Smithsonian
L. Brown (Bangkok: Silpakorn University, 1997), 1984), 64:2, p. 246. Institution Press, 1998), pp. 190–93; Vidya
pp. 105–15. 7 See, for example, Raja Sidh Sen of Mandi as Dehejia, Devi: The Great Goddess: Female Divinity
8 Mahāsaccaka Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya I. a Manifestation of Shiva, Mandi, circa 1725, in South Asian Art (New York: Prestel, 1999), p.
245–46. I. B. Horner, trans., The Collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Keith Mcleod 129, fig. 3; B. N. Goswamy, Pahari Masters: Court
Middle Length Sayings, vol. 1 (Oxford: Pali Text Fund, 2001.137, reproduced in Joan Cummins, Painters of Northern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae
Society, 2000), p. 300. Indian Painting from Cave Temples to the Colonial Publishers, 1992), p. 38–39, cat. 8.
9 The exact identity of these figures is unclear. Period (Boston: MFA Publications, 2006), p. 180, 4 In Patañjali’s treatise, meditation is one of eight
Typical depictions of the Buddha’s ascetic com- pl. 100. limbs, or components, of yoga that restrain the
panions present them as a group of five, and 8 On how the immobilization of the body stops fluctuations of the mind (Yoga Sūtra 1.2; yogaś
most textual sources indicate that his two teach- transactions with the world and allows for higher citta vṛtti nirodhaḣ).
ers, Udraka and Ārāḍa, had died by the time he levels of consciousness, see Gavin Flood, Body 5 For a philosophically grounded discussion
reached enlightenment. Over his lifetime, the and Cosmology in Kashmir Shaivism (New York: of meditation within the Yoga Sūtra, see
Buddha converted many ascetics. It is possible, Edward Mellen Press, 1993), p. 205 and passim. Christopher Key Chapple, Yoga and the
therefore, that a different event is depicted. 9 In the early nineteenth century, Purn Puri identi- Luminous: Patañjali’s Spiritual Path to Freedom,
10 Robert E. Fisher, “The Enigma of Harwan,” Art fied the ascetics who started at the sun as ākāśa- Albany: State University of New York Press,
International 25, no. 9 (1982), pp. 33–34. munis in “Oriental Observations, No. X: The 2008, esp. pp. 61 – 67.
11 Aśoka’s Seventh Pillar inscription mentions Travels of Prán Puri, a Hindoo, who travelled over 6 Multiple mythic narratives and philosophical
the Ājīvikas as recipients of royal largesse. India, Persia, and Part of Russia,” in The European interpretations surround every great Hindu
See Georg Buhler, “Barābar and Nāgārjuni Magazine and London Review, vol. 57 (1810), p. deity. Philip Lutgendorf’s magisterial study
Hill-Cave inscriptions of Aśoka and Daśaratha,” 263. A more ancient, related practice of staring at of Hanuman conveys how the god’s diverse
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal the sun is attested in the Vaikhānasasmārtasūtra, “messages” emerge “through the experiences
ENDNOTES, PP. 138–46 | 307

and expressions of worshipers, who exercise Terry McInerney, in Devi: The Great Goddess, pp. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library 4369;
considerable agency in shaping (and at times 119–36 and p. 391. Thanjavur Palace Library B6390. The edition was
contesting) them; hence these messages also read by Professor Alexis Sanderson, Jason Birch,
reflect historical contingencies and may change Catalogue 9 Péter-Dániel Szántó, and Andrea Acri at Oxford
with time.” Philip Lutgendorf, Hanuman’s Tale: 1 Selected publications include Linda Leach, in early 2012, all of whom I thank for their valu-
The Message of the Divine Monkey (Oxford: Mughal and Other Indian Paintings in the able emendations and suggestions.
Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 28–29. Chester Beatty Library, vol. 2 (London: Scorpion 7 This text has come to be known as the
7 South Indian traditions also localize the mythic Cavendish, 1995), pp. 556–64, cat. 5.137. Haṭhayogapradīpikā, but in the colophons of
event; in Andhra Pradesh, the temple complex Persian translations here by Carl W. Ernst; for its several hundred manuscripts it is more
at Ahobilam is identified as the site of the full translation of Persian text and identification commonly known simply as the Haṭhapradīpikā.
god’s slaying of the demon and his bhakti yoga of postures, see www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions. Svāmī Digambarjī and Dr. Pītambar Jhā, eds.,
lessons. Lavanya Vemsani, “Narasiṃha, the 2 Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Haṭhapradīpikā of Svātmārāma (Lonavla:
Supreme Deity of Andhra Pradesh: Tradition Modern Posture Practice (New York: Oxford Kaivalyadhām S. M. Y. M. Samiti, 1970).
and Innovation in Hinduism—An Examination University Press, 2010), chap. 8. 8 For photographs of mayūrāsana, see James
of the Temple Myths, Folk Stories, and Popular 3 An ascetic in a position similar to kukkuṭāsana, Mallinson, “Yogic Identities: Tradition and
Culture,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 24, the cock posture, is carved on the outer wall Transformation,” www.asia.si.edu/research/
no. 1 (January 2009), p. 39. of the Mallikarjuna temple at Shrishailam articles.
8 Earlier images of Narasiṃha, as well as those in Andhra Pradesh that can be dated to 1510, 9 Haṭhapradīpikā 1.30. Swami Maheshananda,
from other parts of India, generally depict the making it the earliest depiction of a non-seated B. R. Sharma, G. S. Sahay, R. K. Bodhe, eds.,
god standing or in the act of disemboweling the āsana. Rob Linrothe, “Siddhas and Srīśailam, Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā Yogakāṇḍa, rev. ed. (Lonāvalā:
demon with his claws. ‘Where All Wise People Go,’” in Holy Madness: Kaivalyadhām Śrīmanmādhav Yogamandir
9 Hanuman’s ability to cure diseases is linked Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, ed. Rob Linrothe Samiti, 2005), 1.76–77.
to the siddhis (supernatural powers) of yogic (New York and Chicago: Rubin Museum of Art 10 Śrīsvāmīhāthīrāmjī, ed., Vimānārcanākalpa
attainment in Peter Van der Veer, Gods on Earth: and Serindia Publications, 2006), p. 138. (paṭala 96) (Madras: Venkateshwar Press, 1926).
Religious Experience and Identity in Ayodhya 4 Philipp André Maas, “Samādhipāda: Das erste On the dating of this text see Gérard Colas,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 92. Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten “Vaiṣṇava Saṃhitās” in The Brill Encyclopedia of
For a fuller discussion of Hanuman as divine Mal kritisch ediert” (Samādhipāda: The First Hinduism, vol. 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2011), pp. 153–67.
healer, see Sudhir Kakar, Shamans, Mystics and Chapter of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra for the First This may be the earliest example in any Sanskrit
Doctors: A Psychological Inquiry into India and its Time Critically Edited), in Studia Indologica text of āsana referring to a physical posture
Healing Traditions (New Delhi: Oxford University Universitatis Halensis—Geises kultur Indiens: other than a seated position. Such usage soon
Press India, 1982), pp. 53–88. Texte und Studien 9 (Aachen: Shaker, 2006), spread to activities other than yoga. The early
10 Śaiva yogis of the Nāth tradition also have a p. xix. twelfth-century Mānasollāsa teaches āsanas
Hanuman cult. Peter Van der Veer, Gods on 5 The earliest extant Tantric text, the for wrestlers (4.1.104–9) and also uses the
Earth: Religious Experience and Identity in Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā, teaches āsana in its word to describe the various different standing
Ayodhya (New York: Oxford University Press, Nayasūtra (4.14c–15d). Dominic Goodall, Alexis positions of fighting elephants (4.3.613–18).
1988), p. 92. Sanderson, and Harunaga Isaacson, eds., G. K. Shrigondekar, ed., Mānasollāsa of King
11 The program of the ceiling frieze is the wedding Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā (Pondicherry: Publications Someśvara, vol. 2 (Baroda: Oriental Institute,
of Rāma: twelve panels (IS.2564A-L-1883) can de l’Institut français d’Indologie, forthcoming). 1939). The twelfth- or thirteenth-century
be viewed in the online collections site of the The earliest textual reference to the lotus posi- Mallapurāṇa teaches āsanas specific to different
Victoria and Albert (http://collections.vam. tion (padmāsana) is found in the circa third-cen- types of wrestler (6.45–48, 8.16–21). B. J.
ac.uk). Each extant panel depicts a winged deity, tury Kāmasūtra, which describes a posture to Sandesara and R. N. Mehta, eds., Mallapurāṇa
although only Hanuman wears a yogapaṭṭa. be used for lovemaking as “like padmāsana” (Baroda: Oriental Institute, 1964). An early four-
Because the sharp-feathered wings in the upper (6.30). Pt. Kedārnāth, ed., Kāmasūtram of teenth-century Maithili text, the Varṇaratnākara,
corners appear on all the other deities in the Vātsyāyana with the Jayamaṅgalā commentary lists the āsanas (and bandhas) of lovemaking;
Kerala temple panels, they may not convey of Yaśodhara (Bombay: Nirnaya Sagara Press, S. K. Chatterji and B. Misra, eds., Varṇaratnākara
anything specific about Hanuman, although 1900). The earliest representations of ascetics in of Jyotirīśvarakaviśekharācārya (Calcutta: Royal
Lutgendorf notes an “anomalous story in which meditational āsanas date to the last three centu- Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1940), p. 29.
the young Hanuman is equipped with wings …”; ries BCE. An ascetic sitting in yogapaṭṭāsana, 11 See fig. 11 in “Yogis in Mughal India” by James
Lutgendorf, Hanuman’s Tale, p. 191. i.e., with a band supporting his crossed legs, is Mallinson in this volume for a photograph of
12 In a Mughal folio in the Fondation Custodia, depicted in a sculpture found at the Buddhist Yogirāj Jagannāth Dās at Haridwar Kumbh Mela
Paris collection, Cyāvana is represented caught site of Sanchi (third- to first-century BCE); see in 2010.
within the nets of fishermen who acciden- fig. 5 in “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” by 12 Haṭhapradīpikā 1.23 = Ahirbudhnyāsaṃhitā 31.38,
tally disturbed his underwater austerities. Debra Diamond in this volume. The Buddha Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā Yogakāṇḍa 1.78.
Although the episode does not appear in the Śākyamuni is shown sitting in padmāsana in a 13 Matsyendrasaṃhitā 3.8a–13b. Csaba
Mahābhārata, the folio is from the Razmnama second-century CE sculpture from Gandhara, Kiss, “Matsyendranātha’s Compendium
(Book of War), the 1598–99 imperial translation reproduced in “A Visual Offering: Treasures of (Matsyendrasaṃhitā): A critical edition and
of the Sanskrit epic. It is reproduced in Akbar: Buddhist Art,” p. 44, and available at http://hun- annotated translation of Matsyendrasaṃhitā
The Great Emperor of India, exh. cat. Fondazione tingtonarchive.osu.edu/resources/downloads/ 1–13 and 55 with analysis” (PhD thesis, Oxford
Roma Museo (Milan: Skira, 2012), p. 216, fig. webPresentations/Masterpieces.pdf. University, 2009).
v.22. 6 These texts are the Dattātreyayogaśāstra (vv. 14 Dattātreyayogaśāstra 24cd.
13 Like most Hindu manuscripts, the pages of the 34–38) and Vivekamārtaṇḍa (vv. 5–8). The 15 Jātaka 1, p. 493 (Naṅguṭṭha Jātaka); Jātaka 3,
Tantric Devi series were unbound, and viewers former teaches the lotus position (padmāsana) pp. 232–37 (Setaketu Jātaka). V. Faussell, ed.,
lifted the folios one by one to appreciate them. to which the latter adds the adepts’ posture (sid- Jātaka, 4 vols. (London: Trübner & Co., 1877–87).
The central image is protected by painted red dhāsana). From an unpublished critical edition 16 Jogpradīpakā vv. 179–83. M. L. Gharote, ed.,
borders, whose notations in Takri script identify by James Mallinson, based on the following Jogpradīpakā of Jayatarāma (Jodhpur: Rajasthan
the goddess, her devotee, and the folio’s num- witnesses: Dattātreyayogaśāstra, edited by Oriental Research Institute, 1999).
ber, 57, within the series. Brahmamitra Avasthī, Svāmī Keśavānanda Yoga 17 Singleton, Yoga Body, pp. 81–162.
14 The verse also includes the syllable bhaiṃ, Saṃsthāna (1982); Man Singh Pustak Prakash 18 Yogasūtra 2.46. Nārāyaṇa Miśra, ed., Yogasūtra
Bhadrakālī’s manifestation as a sacred sound. nos. 1936; Wai Prajñā Pāṭhaśālā 6/4–399, of Patañjali with the commentaries (Bhāṣya,
For the verse and a discussion of the series, see 6163; Baroda Oriental Institute 4107; Mysore Tattvavaiśāradī, and Yogavārttikā) of Vyāsa,
308 | ENDNOTES, PP.146–57

Vācaspatimiśra, and Vijñānabhikṣu (Benares: Atharvavedasaṃhitā in the Śaunakīya recension reasons for this preference are as yet only hazily
Bhāratīya Vidyā Prakāśan, 1971). with the commentary (-bhāṣya) of Sāyaṇācārya theorized. However, the nīm qalam
̣ illustrations
19 Haṭhapradīpikā 1.17; cf. e.g., Haṭharatnāvalī 3.5, (Bombay: Government Central Book Depot, of the Bahr al-ḣayāt manuscript suggest another
Jogpradīpakā 49. M. L. Gharote, P. Devnath, V. K. 1895). line of inquiry. In “Muslim Studies of Hinduism?
Jha, eds., Haṭharatnāvalī (Lonavla: Lonavla Yoga 25 Haṭharatnāvalī upadeśa 3. Of the eighty-four A Reconsideration of Arabic and Persian
Institute, 2002). named āsanas, thirty-six are described. Translations from Indian Languages,” Iranian
20 Mahābhārata 1.13.10–13; 1.26.2; 1.41.1–3; 3.94.11– 26 Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari (MGG) wrote Bahr Studies 36, no. 2 (June 2003), pp. 173–95, Carl
14; 3.185.4–5; 12.126.18; 13.7.8–13. V. Sukthankar, al-ḣayāt in Gujarat around 1550. Carl W. Ernst, W. Ernst observes that translations of the practi-
S. K. Belvalkar et al., eds., Mahābhārata, 19 “Sufism and Yoga according to Muhammad cal arts and sciences from Indian languages into
vols. (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Ghawth,” Sufi 29 (spring 1996), pp. 9–13. Arabic and Persian begin in the ninth century
Institute, 1927–59). “The hero’s pose” (vīrāsana) 27 James Mallinson, following Carl W. Ernst, during the Àbbasid caliphate and continue, on
is also mentioned in the Mahābhārata 12.292.8, “The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda the subcontinent, under Sultanate and Mughal
13.7.13, 13.13.10, 13.13.54, although its form is first Translations,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, patronage. Ernst includes in this category trans-
described in a tenth-century commentary on s. 3, vol. 13, no. 2 (2003), pp. 1–23; and Kazuyo lations of works on mathematics, medicine, toxi-
the Yogasūtra, the Tattvavaiśāradī, which on 2.46, Sakaki, “Yogico-tantric Traditions in the Ḥawd cology, astronomy, alchemy, divination, auguries,
n. 21, explains it to be the practice shown in a al-hayāt,” Journal of the Japanese Association for and omens. The illustrated Bahr al-ḣayāt, which
photograph of Mānav Nāth Tapasvī (reproduced South Asian Studies, vol. 7 (2005), pp.135–56. describes twenty-one postures with benefits
in Mallinson, “Yogic Identities”) and which to The various Persian and Arabic recensions are ranging from spiritual insight to supernatural
this day is associated with tapas rather than yoga. compilations of translations of passages from abilities to better health, would seem to belong
Personal communication to James Mallinson various Sanskrit texts, put into an Islamic frame. to this category. Art historical studies have
from Mānav Nāth Tapasvī, an itinerant Nāth Yogi 28 The twenty-one āsanas in the Bahr al-ḣayāt are heretofore concentrated on the fully colored
at Gorakh Dibbi, Jvalamukhi, on November 11, almost all seated postures for meditation on and burnished paintings that appear in literary
2011. It may be that the Mahābhārata’s vīrāsana various unconditioned forms of the absolute, and historical manuscripts as well as in Persian
is simply an uncomfortable place to sit—in which suggests the Nāth tradition’s greater translations of Sanskrit epics and metaphysical
the passages in which it is found, there is also emphasis on contemplative techniques. In contexts. A comparison of the Bahr al-ḣayāt folios
mention of the ascetic practice of vīraśayyā, “the trast is the predilection for more complex and with other illustrated Mughal manuscripts on
heroic place to sleep”—but a squatting position difficult postures evinced by their counterparts practical subjects may allow us to better eval-
similar to the virasana of the Tattvavaiśāradī is the Sannyasis, who are the heirs of the ancient uate the importance of the treatise within the
also included among the practices of ascetics ascetic tradition in which such practices are intellectual culture of Salim’s Allahabad court.
dismissed by the Buddha in the Pali canon. likely to have originated.
See James Mallinson, “Śāktism and Haṭhayoga,” 29 Aditya Behl and Simon Weightman, Manjhan Catalogue 10
in The Śākta Traditions (London: Routledge, Madhumalati: An Indian Sufi Romance (New 1 Selected publications include Joan Cummins,
forthcoming). York: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. xxi– Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Saviour
21 W. Falconer, trans. The Geography of Strabo, vol. xxii. MGG was pivotal in Babur’s capture of (Ahmedabad, India: Mapin, 2011), p. 218, cat. 131;
3 (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1857), pp. 112–13. Gwalior fort from the Afghans in the 1520s, for Stuart C. Welch, A Flower from Every Meadow
22 For example, Bernier’s seventeenth-century which he received a land grant. He was also (City: Publisher, 1973), no. 42. B. N. Goswamy,
account (Archibald Constable, trans., Travels in patronized by Humayun. MGG went to Gujarat in conversation with the author, May 2012,
the Mogul Empire A.D. 1656–1668 by François when Humayan fled to Iran. compared the work with the Devidasa’s painting,
Bernier [London: Oxford University Press, 1916], 30 Posture 4, verse 7. “Shiva and Parvati playing Chaupar,” Metropolitan
p. 317). In the circa 1590 ‘Ain-i Akbari (H. S. 31 MGG observes that sahajāsana—in which “one Museum of Art, reproduced in B. N. Goswamy
Jarrett, The ‘Ain-i-Ākbari of Abul Fazl-i-‘Āllami, meditates, placing one shin over the other … and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court
vol. 3 [Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, clasping both hands together” while intoning Painters of Northern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae
1948], p. 185), it is said that there are eighty-four haṇs and so haṃ upon exhaling and inhaling—is Publishers, 1992, pp. 70–71, cat. 26.
āsanas, “of which thirteen are esteemed the taught by yogis to their students to open the 2 John Guy, Indian Temple Sculpture (London: V&A
most efficacious, and each has a special mode door to the hidden. The hazy form near the Publications, 2007), p. 70, fig. 76.
and a separate name. Under their influence, yogi’s folded thighs is a later repair. 3 Selected publications include Joseph Dye, Arts
cold, heat, hunger and thirst are little felt.” 32 An even more curious relationship between of India (Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine
23 The practice of the eighty-four āsanas, with each image and text appears on folio 20a. In Arts, 2001), pp. 370–74, cats. 162–64. Burlington
to be held for “several hours,” is included in an presenting the eighth posture, akuñcan, the Magazine 1991, p. 416, fig. 116. Archives of Asian
eighteenth-century list of eighteen methods text mentions siddhāsana, a seated posture, Art 1992, p. 109, fig. 41.
of tapas recounted by the famous wandering and describes a practice similar to Sanskrit 4 Selected publications included Debra Diamond,
Sannyasi Puran Puri, “Oriental Observations, descriptions, such as Haṭharatnāvalī 2.58, of Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of
No. X: The Travels of Prán Puri, a Hindoo, who mūlabandha, in which the yogi, often sitting in Jodhpur (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler
travelled over India, Persia, and Part of Russia,” siddhāsana, is told to clench (ā-kuñc) the yoni Gallery, 2008), cat. 48.
in The European Magazine and London Review, region, and draw up air. However, the image 5 David Gordon White, “On the Magnitude of the
vol. 57 (1810), pp. 263–64; see cat. 22, Bed depicts an inversion. This may be a literalization Yogic Body,” in Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories
of Nails. Modern yoga practice often includes (or a misunderstanding) of a phrase within the and Legends of the Nāths, ed. David N. Lorenzen
sequences of āsanas but these are absent Bahr al-ḣayāt’s description: “One holds the and Adrian Munoz (Albany, NY: SUNY Press,
in premodern Indian sources on yoga. The buttocks firmly together and pulls the water-lily 2011), pp. 79–90.
seventeenth-century traveler Peter Mundy does up by the feet.” 6 In the “Bhagavadgītā and the Kūrma Purāṇa, the
not mention āsana in his descriptions of ascetics, 33 The interest of Sufis and Muslim rulers in yoga great gods Viṣṇu and Śiva are said to practice
but does describe acrobats (bāzīgars) moving was largely practical rather than philosoph- yoga precisely when they are in the process
from the lotus position to a headstand. Peter ical. Carl W. Ernst, “Situating Sufism and of internalizing all external phenomena by
Mundy, The Travels of Peter Mundy, in Europe and Yoga,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15, either manifesting the entire universe within
Asia, 1608–1667. Vol. II: Travels in Asia 1628–1634 no. 1 (2005), p. 9; and “Accounts of Yogis in their cosmic bodies or by swallowing all … both
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1914), pp. 254–55. Arabic and Persian Historical and Travel Texts,” gods are called Masters of Yoga in this role.”
24 Forerunners of these ascetics may perhaps Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, vol. 33 White, “On the Magnitude of the Yogic Body,” p.
be found in the Vedic Vrātyas, who are said to (2008), p. 410. 88. For early medieval temple reliefs of Śiva
stand upright for a year; Atharvavedasaṃhitā 34 Mughal images of yogis were often drawings or and Viṣṇu as Masters of Yoga see Michael W.
15.3.1. Shankar Pândurang Pandit, ed., lightly-tinted drawings (Persian, nim qalam); the Meister, “Art and Hindu asceticism: Śiva and
ENDNOTES, PP. 157–60 | 309

Vishṇu as masters of Yoga,” in Explorations in art construct of channels (nāḍīs) that carry vital other schematic, are reproduced in Diamond,
and archaeology of South Asia: essays dedicated breath through the body. Between the fifth and Garden and Cosmos, pp. 188–91, fig. 44, and p.
to N. G. Majumdar, ed. Debala Mitra (Calcutta: nineteenth centuries, increasingly complex 290, fig. 44a.
Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, conceptions of the subtle body were articulated 14 It is known as both the maṇipura (jewel city) and
Government of West Bengal, 1996), pp. 315–21, within yogic traditions. nābhi (navel) chakra.
pls. 22.1–.3. 5 Common to all haṭha systems are techniques 15 See, for example, Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga
7 Angelika Malinar, “Yoga Practices in the that arouse the latent energy, the goddess Tradition: Its History, Literature, Philosophy and
Bhagavadgītā,” in Yoga in Practice, ed. David Kuṇḍalinī, lying coiled at the perineum. The Practice, 3rd ed. (Prescott, AZ: Hohm Press,
Gordon White (Princeton, NJ: Princeton yogi raises Kuṇḍalinī up a central channel 2008), pp. 353–55.
University Press, 2011), pp. 61–62. (suṣumṇā nāḍī) that runs parallel to the spine.
8 Malinar, “Yoga Practices,” p. 59. As Kuṇḍalinī pierces each chakra, gross matter Catalogue 12
9 Bhagavadgītā 11. 20, 24. transforms into subtler essence, reversing the 1 Selected publications include Geeti Sen,
10 Here, the artist is drawing upon longstanding natural tendency toward decay and death. With Paintings from the Akbar Nama (Lustre Press,
iconographic traditions that link multiple limbs each transformation, the yogi reaches a higher 1984), p. 106, fig. 43; James Mallinson, “Yoga
with cosmic creation to illustrate the “mani- plane of spiritual awareness and the ability to & Yogīs,” in Nāmarūpa: Categories of Indian
fold arms, bellies, mouths and eyes” of Kṛṣṇa control the gross matter associated with that Thought 3, no. 15 (March 2012), pp. 16, 17, 25
Viśvarūpa; Bhagavadgītā 11.16. For more on energy center. According to the SSP, in the early (details); Susan Stronge, Painting for the
multiplicity, see Doris Srinivasan, “Many Heads, years, the adept learns to fly, see, and hear over Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560–1660
Arms and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of great distances; in the middle years, he over- (London: V&A Publications, 2002), pp. 52–53,
Multiplicity in Indian Art,” Studies in Asian Art comes disease and becomes immortal; in the pl. 35.
and Archaeology 20 (1997). penultimate year, he experiences the oneness of 2 Selected publications include Sen, Paintings
11 Bhagavadgītā 11.24; for a discussion of the universal macrocosm with his own body; and from the Akbar Nama, p. 107, fig. 44; Mallinson,
Kṛṣṇa’s viśvarūpa forms, see Angelica Malinar, in the twelfth year, he becomes even greater than “Yoga & Yogīs,” p. 15; Stronge, Painting for the
The Bhagavadgītā: Doctrines and Contexts the gods. Mughal Emperor, pp. 52–53, pl. 35.
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 6 For portraits of Raja Mandhata, see W. G. Archer, 3 William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian
2007), pp. 163–87. Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, vol. 2 Empires (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
12 Malinar, The Bhagavadgītā, pp. 182–83, observes (London and New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet, Press, 2006), pp. 6–8, 60–103, provides the
that visualizing Kṛṣṇa by reciting the Gītā or wor- 1973), p. 303, nos. 5 and 6. definitive overview of how armed asceticism
shiping sculptures and paintings became of cen- 7 James Mallinson, in conversation with the developed in relation to India’s shifting military
tral importance in later bhakti traditions. On the author, December 14, 2013, noted that the three landscapes between 1500 and 1900.
Vaiṣṇava devotionalism that swept north Indian granthis originate with the vāyu (breath or wind) 4 Abu’l Fazl, Akbarnama, trans. H. Beveridge
courts, see Patton E. Burchett, “Bhakti Religion technique, which predates the chakras of the (Calcutta, 1902–39), vol. 2, pp. 423–24. A large
and Tantric Magic in Mughal India: Kacchvāhās, subtle body. As evidenced by classic haṭha detail from the version of the Thaneshwar battle
Rāmānandīs, and Nāths, circa 1500–1700” (PhD yoga treatises, including the Gorakṣaśataka, in the collection of the Khuda Baksh Oriental
diss., Columbia University, 2012), pp. 34–59. Amaraughaprabodha, Yogabīja, and Amṛtasiddhi, Public Library, Patna, is published in Pinch,
13 Kṛṣṇa is variously the supreme deity or a form of the granthis were subsequently adopted into the Warrior Ascetics, p. 31, fig. 2.
Viṣṇu with different Vaiṣṇava traditions. See, for breath techniques of prāṇāyāma. The Nurpur 5 The term kur that appears in Abu’l Fazl’s text is
example, Srinivasan, “Many Heads, Arms and painting (cat. 11a) depicts one of the many haṭha typically interpreted as a reference to the “Giri”
Eyes,” pp. 134, 240–59. yogic systems of three granthis that are identi- order because “gir” and “kur” are very similar in
14 For more on Nāth Siddhas and Maharaja Man fied as Brahma, Viṣṇu, and Rudra. Tantric works Persian script; Pinch, Warrior Ascetics, p. 42.
Singh, who became a devotee of the Siddha often include these three within larger sets of 6 Akbar can also be recognized through a yak-tail
Jallandharnāth and a great patron and political twelve (e.g., Netratantra, 7.22–.25) or sixteen flywhisk, the round imperial standard above
ally of the Nāth order, see cats. 4a–c and 11b; granthis (e.g., Kubjikāmatatantra, 17.61–.84). his head, a suitably supplicating courtier with
for the painting’s sociopolitical context, see 8 The three deities appear in these same outstretched arms, and his relative isolation
Diamond, Garden and Cosmos, pp. 31–41. locations on the subtle body in a loose folio in space.
15 The painting was burnished by rubbing the from an unidentified manuscript from Chamba 7 A Portuguese account of 1503, which William
verso with a stone to fuse the pigments, which (Himachal Pradesh), circa 1675, 20.63 x 10.16 Pinch notes is the first European account of
increases the shine and emphasizes the flat- cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, armed yogis, describes how militant ascetics
ness of the surface. M.81.530. from Surat (Gujarat) wielded the chakra: “Others
9 James Mallinson, “Nāth Sampradāya,” in Brill’s carry certain iron diskes [sic] which cut all round
Catalogue 11 Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Volume 3, ed. Knut A. like razors, and they throw these with a sling
1 Selected publications include Stella Kramrisch, Jacobsen (Leiden: Brill, 2011), p. 426, dates it to when they wish to injure any person.” The Travels
Manifestations of Shiva (Philadelphia: the early eighteenth century. of Ludovico di Varthema (1503–8) cited in Pinch,
Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981), p. 232, cat. 10 These attainments are identified in the SSP with Warrior Ascetics, p. 61, n. 4.
P-58; Linda Y. Leach, Indian Miniature Paintings the second (svādhṣṭhāna), eighth (nirvāṇa) and 8 Several clearly identifiable Śaiva Nāths wearing
and Drawings (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of ninth and highest (ākāśa) chakras, respectively. black robes and hats or necklaces strung with
Art, 1986), cat. 134. 11 The small black circle also appears twice to cloth strips appear in the scene as observers.
2 Selected publications include Jackie Menzies, represent the unmanifest universe and indi- An orange-robed ascetic with a Vaiṣṇava tilak
Goddess: Divine Energy (Sydney: Art Gallery vidual body on the first folio of the manuscript wielding a trident in the left folio may indicate
of New South Wales, 2006), p. 83, cat. 115. (Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2373). that tridents served as non-sectarian weapons
Pratapaditya Pal, Arts of Kashmir (Florence: 12 The scroll’s style and Śārada script indicate its as well as Śaiva emblems.
Conti Tricolors, 2007), p. 165, fig. 179. production in Kashmir for an as-yet-unidentified 9 See “Yogīs in Mughal India” in this cata-
3 Selected publications include Debra Diamond, client. A similar Kashmiri scroll dated to the logue and “Yogic Identities: Tradition and
Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of 1800s in the Ajit Mookerjee collection of the Transformation” at www.asia.si.edu/research/
Jodhpur (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler National Museum of India (82.533) is repro- articles, both essays by James Mallinson. For an
Gallery, 2008), p. 290, fig. 44b. duced in Menzies, Goddess Divine Energy, p. 182, earlier identification of the Thaneshwar combat-
4 Its earliest foundations lie in the Kāṭhaka fig. 114. ants as Śaiva Puris and Śaiva Nāths, see Pinch,
Upaniṣad (third century BCE), which posits 13 Two other contemporaneous Jodhpur represen- Warrior Ascetics, p. 43.
the essential sameness of the individual with tations of the mūlādhāra chakra with the same
brahman and introduces the physiological iconography, one elaborately painted and the
310 | ENDNOTES, PP. 160–73

Catalogue 13 and local South Asian schools. For discussions Rice, “A Persian Mahābhārata: The 1598–1599
1 Selected publications include Linda Leach, of this inheritance, see, for example, John Razmnama,” Manoa, 2010, pp. 125–31.
Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Seyller, The Adventures of Hamza: Painting 14 For more on Nāths in general and this painting,
Chester Beatty Library, vol. 1 (London: Scorpion and Storytelling in Mughal India (Washington, see James Mallinson, “Yogis in Mughal India” in
Cavendish, 1995), p. 191, fig. 2.40. DC: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler this volume, and “Yogic Identities” at www.asia.
2 A highly engaging study of the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha Gallery, 2002); and for the development of si.edu/research/articles.
narratives is Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, Dreams, landscape painting under Akbar’s succes- 15 Shymaldas, Vir Vinod, vol. 2, p. 764. I am grateful
Illusion and Other Realities (Chicago and sors, see Ebba Koch, Dara-shikoh Shooting to Sonika Soni for locating and translating this
London: University of Chicago Press, 1984). Nilgais: Hunt and Landscape in Mughal Painting reference.
3 A clear and accurate discussion of the philos- (Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 1998) 16 Shymaldas, p. 764, identifies Guru Purṇimā and
ophy of the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha may be found in and Milo C. Beach, Ebba Koch, and W. M. Rakṣabandhan as the two festivals.
the English-language summary presented in Thackston, King of the World: The Padshahnama: 17 An eight-line Rajasthani inscription on the
François Chenet, Psychogenèse et cosmogonie An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal reverse describes the event.
selon le Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha: “Le monde est dans l’âme, Library, Windsor Castle (Washington, DC and
Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne, London: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Windsor Catalogue 15
67.1-2 (Paris: De Boccard, 1998–99), vol. 1, pp. Castle, 1997). 1 The Kedāra Kalpa appears to have been a
9–23 8 See fig. 5 in “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” floating text, and might well have originated
4 For more on the translation of the Yoga Vāsiṣṭha by Debra Diamond in this volume. in the Kedarnatha region in what is now the
at the Mughal court and within the context of 9 See “From Guru to God: Yogic Prowess and Uttarakhand state. My wife Karuna and I have
Islamic knowledge, see Carl W. Ernst, “Muslim Places of Practice in Early-Medieval India” by been working on this text and were the first to
Studies of Hinduism? A Reconsideration of Tamara I. Sears in this volume. establish a connection between it and the series
Persian and Arabic Translations from Sanskrit,” 10 One reason for the scarcity of such images is of paintings referred to here, thus putting to rest
Iranian Studies 36 (2003), pp. 173–95. logistical: in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- widely varying speculations about their subjects
5 Yoga Vāsiṣṭha V. 66-69, cited in Christopher turies, imperial artists focused on those ascetics, made by other scholars; we have been able to
Key Chapple, “The Sevenfold Yoga of the such as Nāths, who moved easily within Mughal access two versions of it, both now printed. The
Yogavāsiṣṭha” in Yoga in Practice, ed. David environs; they would have had less access to one we located first was without a cover; had a
Gordon White (Princeton: Princeton University the retreats of female ascetics. However, highly one-page introduction in Hindi by Jwala Prasad
Press, 2012), p. 132. idealized and romanticized images of yoginīs Mishra of Dindarpura, Moradabad; and consisted
6 Keshav Das, also known as Kesu the Elder and and women’s ashrams became a popular trope of 200 pages, the last one giving an address in
Kesu Das, was ranked fifth in Abu’l Fazl’s list of in Mughal painting in the latter half of the eigh- Mumbai from where it could be purchased. It
the best painters in Akbar’s atelier. He worked teenth century when direct observation was less contained a translation of the Sanskrit verses in
for Akbar circa 1570–99, and then for Prince of an artistic concern (see, for example, cats. Hindi. The other version, which differs from the
Salim, 1599–1604. Amina Okada, “Keshav Das,” 18f–h). For further discussion of why Mughal first one in several respects, was simply titled
Masters of Indian Painting, Vol. I (Zurich: Artibus visual cuture privileged particular ascetic groups, Kedāra Kalpa ; the translator and commentator
Asiae Publishers, 2011), p. 153. see James Mallinson, “Yogic Identities: Tradition was Vishalmani Sharma Upadhyaya. It was
and Transformation,” www.asia.si.edu/research/ published in VS 2009 (1952 CE) at Narayankoti,
Catalogue 14 articles. Garhwal and consists of 320 pages.
1 Selected publications include Milo Beach, ed. 11 The Walters fragmentary copy of the 2 Clues lie in the strong, rich palette; the types
Masters of India Painting Vol. II, 1650–1900 Baburnāma, originally composed in Chaghatay of men and women seen in the paintings;
(Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 2011), text: Turkish and later translated into Persian under that coloring takes precedence over drawing,
p. 692, no. 20c, image: p. 710, fig. 22. Akbar, contains thirty full-page paintings. which shows occasional weaknesses, as in the
2 Selected publications include an article by Another large fragment of the same manuscript lax movements of the women dancers; the
Monika Horstmann, “Kabīr: Heiliger Dichter aus is preserved in the State Museum of Eastern treatment of foliage with its emphasis on lush
Nordindien,” in Mystik: Die Sehnsucht nach dem Cultures, Moscow; see Tuliaev, Miniatures floral sprays streaming down from branches; the
Absoluten, ed. Albert Lutz (Zurich: Museum of Babur Namah. Other sixteenth-century rendering of the thin fingers of the hands when
Rietberg and Scheidegger & Spiess, 2011), pp. interpretations of Babur’s visit to Gurkattri they are held spread out.
195–203, esp. p. 202, fig. 93. survive in copies of the Baburnāma preserved It needs to be said that there was not much
3 Selected publications include Ellen Smart, in the British Library and the Victoria and Albert likelihood of coming and going between the two
“Paintings from the Baburnama: A Study of Museum, both in London. places, Kangra and Kedarnatha. The members
Sixteenth-Century Mughal Historical Manuscript 12 See Babur’s references to Gurkattri in W. M. of the Purkhu family artists most certainly were
Illustrations” (PhD diss., School of Oriental and Thackston, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, familiar with the Dhauladhar range, which rises
African Studies, University of London, 1977); S. Prince and Emperor (Washington, DC: Freer behind Dharamsala and are likely to have based
I. Tuliaev, Miniatures of Babur Namah (Moscow: Gallery of Art, 1996), pp. 186–87, 285. Gurkattri their reconstruction of the Kedara landscape
State Fine Arts Publishing House, 1960); is depicted in the British Library’s Baburnāma, on the snowbound peaks they were able to see
Ellen Smart, “Yet Another Illustrated Akbari Or. 3714, The Holy Men at Gurkhatri (f. 197r) and from their own homes. There is an odd chance
Baburnama Manuscript,” in Facets of Indian Art, Babur’s Second Trip to Gor Khatri (reproduced in that someone may have gone on pilgrimage to
ed. Robert Skelton (London: Victoria and Albert Smart, “Paintings from the Baburnama,” pp. 80, Kedarnatha/Badrinath, although the landscapes
Museum, 1986), pp. 105–15; M. S. Randhawa, 87), and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, I.M. they created in this series is fairly clearly based
Paintings of the Baburnama (New Delhi, 1983). 260-1913, The Yogis at Gurkhatri (reproduced in on imagination.
4 Selected publications include Joan Cummins, Smart, p. 47).
Indian Painting: From Cave Temples to the 13 For important new insights into the Persian Catalogue 16
Colonial Period (Boston: MFA Publications, translations of Sanskrit texts and their 1 Selected publications include Indian Miniature
2006), pp. 134–35, fig. 73. illustrated manuscripts during Akbar’s reign, Painting, to be exhibited for sale by Spink and
5 Selected publications incldue Andrew Topsfield, see Audrey Trushcke, “The Mughal Book of Son Ltd. (London: Spink and Son, 1987), pp.
Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery War: A Persian Translation of the Sanskrit 38–39, no. 16; S. Kossak, Indian Court Painting,
of Victoria (Melbourne: National Gallery of Mahābhārata,” Comparative Studies of South 16th–19th Centuries (New York: Metropolitan
Victoria, 1980), pp. 73–75, cat. 76. Asia, Africa and the Middle East 31, no. 2, pp. Museum of Art, 1997), p. 52, no. 23; S. C. Welch,
6 Bhagavad Gita 6.11. 506–19, and “Cosmopolitan Encounters: “The two worlds of Payag—further evidence on a
7 The Mughals built upon a tradition of portraying Sanskrit and Persian at the Mughal Court” Mughal artist,” in Indian Art and Connoisseurship,
landscapes inherited largely from Safavid Iran (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2012); Yael ed. J. Guy (New Delhi: Mapin, 1995), pp. 320–41,
ENDNOTES, PP. 176–96 | 311

pl. 19, p. 293; The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, of Shah Jahan, bearing an almost identical Sarkar (repr. New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint
Part Two: Arts of India, Sotheby’s sale catalogue, sword, and with a halo of light around the tip Corporation, 1989), vol. 2, p. 40, cited in Pinch,
London, May 31, 2011, lot 5, pp. 14–17; N. Haidar, of the spear. Warrior Ascetics, p. 46 and p. 47, n. 41.
“Recent Acquisitions, A Selection: 2010–2012,” 12 For more on the context, production and artists
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, fall Catalogue 17 of the Hamzanama, see Seyller, Adventures
2012, p. 32. 1 Selected publications that discuss the of Hamza.
2 See Welch, ‘The two worlds of Payag,” pp. 292, manuscript include Debra Diamond, Garden 13 The related text for this episode is lost.
333, figs. 9, 10, and pl. 19 as convincing evidence and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur Although an inscription on the painting
for the attribution. (Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery identifies the setting as the grocer’s home, it is
3 See “Yoga in Transformation” by David Gordon of Art, 2008), pp. 21–30; 118–36; Bisheshwar more likely the lodge (maṭha) of Parran the spy.
White in this volume. Nath Reu, Rāmāyana kā Kathā (Jodhpur: Sardar See, for example, the similar architecture and
4 From evidence in early Mughal manuscripts, Museum, 1934). hanging weapons of the lodge of Baba Bakhsha,
including an Akbar-period Devī Māhātmya 2 Selected publications include John Seyller, The a militant ascetic and yogi-spy, in another
series from circa 1565, and more remotely from Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling Hamzanama folio (Austrian Museum of Applied
longstanding Indian sculptural traditions. B. N. in India (London and Washington, DC: Arthur M. Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna, 8.1, 8770/59;
Goswamy, “An Akbar-period Devī Māhātmya,” in Sackler Gallery of Art, 2002), pp. 168–69, fig. reproduced in Seyller, Adventures of Hamza, pp.
Arts of Mughal India, ed. Rosemary Crill, Susan 54; and Steven Kossak, Indian Court Painting 198–99, fig. 64).
Stronge, and Andrew Topsfield (London and 16th–19th Century (New York: Metropolitan 14 Dervishes were cast as wily spies in Arabic
Ahmedabad, India: Victoria and Albert Museum Museum of Art, 1997), pp. 32–33, cat. 7. (and Persian) tales. Peter Health. “‘Ayyar: the
and Mapin, 2004), pp. 57–66. 3 Selected publications include Heike Franke, Companion, Spy, Scoundrel in Premodern
5 The painting contains Mewar inventory numbers “Akbar’s Kathāsaritsāgara: The Translator and Arabic Popular Narratives,” Classical Arabic
on the reverse. The numerals in red (14/45?) Illustrations of an Imperial Manuscript,” in Humanities in Their Own Terms: Festschrift
correspond to the category of religious or Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Cultures of for Wolfhart Heinrichs on his 65th Birthday
mythological subjects in the jotdan (royal the Islamic World, vol. 27, ed. Gulru Necipoglu Presented by his Students and Colleagues, ed.
painting store). Andrew Topsfield, “The Royal (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010), pp. 313–56, Beatrice Gruendler (Leiden and Boston: Brill,
Paintings Inventory at Udaipur,” in Indian Art and see p. 315, fig. 7; Joseph Dye, The Arts of India 2008). I am grateful to Zeynep Simavi for draw-
Connoisseurship, pp. 194–95. (Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2001) ing this source to my attention.
6 Mahavidya goddesses are a group of Tantric p. 242–44, cat. 81b. 15 The seventeenth-century traveler Jean Baptiste
deities, ranging in number from ten to eighteen. 4 Selected publications include Linda Leach, Tavernier identified armed ascetics carrying “a
7 Welch, “The two worlds of Payag,” p. 332. Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the sort of hunting horn” as “dervishes.” William
N. Haidar, “The Kishangarh School of Painting, Chester Beatty Library (London: Scorpion Pinch interprets Tavernier’s account as illus-
c. 1680–1650,” (DPhil thesis, Oxford, 1995), Cavendish, 1995), vol. 1, p. 201; image: p. 206, trative of the phenomenon of “armed yogis
vol. 1, p. 34; K. Khandalava and E. Dickinson, cat. 2.53. who had accommodated themselves culturally,
Kishangarh Painting (New Delhi: Lalit Kalaì, 5 Selected publications include Leach, Mughal linguistically, and militarily to Mughal service.”
Akademi 1959), p. 6, also makes mention and Other Indian Paintings, vol. 1, p. 201; image: Pinch, Warrior Ascetics, p. 68 and n. 19.
of this. p. 209, cat. 2.56. 16 See “Yoga in Transformation” by David Gordon
8 Welch, “The two worlds of Payag,” pp. 292, 333, 6 Selected publications include Leach, Mughal White in this volume.
figs. 9, 10, and pl. 19. A sense of temporality and Other Indian Paintings, vol. 1, p. 201; image: 17 James Mallinson, The Ocean of the Rivers
is also conveyed in the siege scenes from the p. 211, cat. 2.57. of Story by Somadeva (New York: New York
Windsor Padshahnama, cited by Welch, showing 7 Selected publications include Leach, Mughal University Press & JCC Foundation, 2009),
various stages, from warring soldiers to dead and Other Indian Paintings, vol. 1, p. 205; image: vol. 2, pp. 281–90, verses 5.3.195-5.3.255.
bodies to skeletons. The overall impression p. 215, cat. 2.64. Jalapada’s name may be a corruption of
conveyed is that of a lengthy siege having taken 8 Tulsīdās titled his work the Rāmcharitmānas, or Jalandhar, an advanced adept in both Buddhist
place over time. the Holy Lake of the Acts of Rama; it is often and Nath traditions. In the story, Jalapada is
9 For related scenes, see The New Holstein referred to as the Tulsī Rāmāyana or the Mānas. described as a kāpālika who performs the great
Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and 9 Even during the poet’s lifetime, itinerant holy vow (mahāvrata), rites (kāraṇam) associated
Woodcuts, 1450–1700: The Collaert Dynasty, Part men spread Tulsīdās’s verses from Varanasi with gaining control over others, and worships
2 (Amsterdam: Sound and Vision Publishers, in eastern India, where it was composed, to Bhairava.
2005), p. 126 (350/1), p. 127 (351/1); Maarten de Rajasthan. 18 Heike Franke identifies the manuscript’s patron,
Vos, vol. 45, p. 228 (676), The Wierix Family, vol. 10 For more on ascetic spies, from the Arthaśāstra, previously considered to be subimperial, as
60, part 2, pp. 340, 347. a second-century Sanskrit treatise on kingship, Akbar in “Akbar’s Kathāsaritsāgara,” pp. 313–56.
10 It appears to be related to Govardhan’s to a seventeenth-century account by the 19 The Mṛgāvatī includes explicit references
seminude figure in the foreground of an earlier Venetian Niccolao Manucci, see William R. to the princes-turned-yogis Bhartṛhari and
album page depicting a group of sadhus in a Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires Mādhavānala. Aditya Behl, Qutban Suhravardī’s
smoky landscape. Welch, “The two worlds of (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Mṛgāvatī: The Magic Doe (Oxford: Oxford
Payag,” p. 336. pp. 46–51; see also C. A. Bayly, Empire and University Press, 2012), p. 138, verse 267; see
11 M. Ekhtiar et al., eds., Masterpieces from the Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social also nn. 142, 172.
Department of Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge: 20 Behl, Qutban Suhravardī’s Mṛgāvatī, p. 81, verse
Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Cambridge University Press, 1996), passim. A 106.
Museum of Art, 2011), p. 350, illustrates a folio royal spy in the guise of a seedy Tantric yogi 21 Behl, Qutban Suhravardī’s Mṛgāvatī, p. 24.
from the Harivaṃśa showing Kṛṣṇa with this is featured in one of the stories in the Jain
same subtle treatment of eyes. Yaśastilaka, dated 959, cited in Shaman Hatley, Catalogue 18
12 The folio shows the defeat of Dhumralochan; “Goddesses in Text and Stone: Temples of the 1 Selected publications include John Seyller,
Goswamy, “An Akbar-period Devī Māhātmya,” Yoginīs in Light of Tantric and Purāṇic Literature,” Workshop and Patron in Mughal India: The Freer
pp. 57–66. The same pair of demons is shown in History and Material Culture Ramayana and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of
in the reference above, p. 60, fig. 4. in Asian Religions, ed. Benjamin Fleming ’Abd al-Rahim (Zurich: Artibus Asiae Publishers,
13 S. C. Welch et al., The Emperor’s Album: and Richard Mann (London: Routledge, 1999); Christie’s catalogue, November 22 and
Images of Mughal India (New York: forthcoming). 23, 1984.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987), p. 203, 11 Abu’l Fazl, A’in-i-Akbari, trans. H. Blochmann 2 Selected publications include Stuart C. Welch,
no. 59, illustrates Payag’s equestrian portrait and H. S. Jarrett, with corrections by Jadunath India: Art and Culture 1300–1900 (New York:
312 | ENDNOTES, PP. 196–214

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), p. 342; 7 Jahangirnama, p. 209, 285, 313–14. Chitrup/ study the peoples and objects of every known
Deborah Swallow and John Guy, eds. Arts of Jadrup, who was visited by other Mughal court- culture is a prime factor of the seventeenth- and
India: 1550–1900 (London: V&A Publications, iers and many Sufis, enters recorded history in eighteenth-century intellectual movement,
1990), p. 133, pl. 114; Andrew Topsfield, The several Persian language accounts that together the Enlightenment. For an overview see Kim
Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts under Mughal provide a remarkably detailed biography. A Sloan, ed., Enlightenment: Discovering the
Rule (London: V&A Publications, 1982), p. 57, jeweler’s son from Gujarat on India’s west coast, World in the Eighteenth Century (Washington,
cat. 138. he lived from approximately 1559 to 1638. After DC: Smithsonian Books, 2003). See also cats.
3 Selected publications include Linda Leach, marriage and children, at the age of twenty-two, 22a–g regarding an example of the extensive
Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the he became a renunciant. As a yogi, he practiced European print tradition regarding ascetics.
Chester Beatty Library (London: Scorpion austerities, and prāṇāyāma (breath control) at 3 Mildred Archer, Company Paintings: Indian
Cavendish, 1995), p. 676, cat. 6.277. several sites in North India, mostly along the Paintings of the British Period (London: Victoria
4 Selected publications include Leach, Mughal Ganges. Reputed to have magical powers, he and Albert Museum, 1992), pp. 11–19. Archer
and Other Indian Paintings, p. 677, cat. 6.284. died at about the age of eighty in Varanasi. The defines Company painting as painting by Indian
5 Selected publications include Leach, Mughal Dabistān is the only text that names his order, artists who worked for European patrons or the
and Other Indian Paintings, p. 672, cat. 6.272. explaining that Dandaheri yogis follow the tourist trade and adapted European visual tech-
6 For an exceptionally lucid, extended expla- teachings of Shankaracharya, wear dreadlocks, niques and genres into their works. I am using
nation of rāgas and rāginis, see Joep Bor, The and smear ash on their bodies. See Muhsin an expanded definition that includes British as
Raga Guide: A Survey of 74 Hindustani Ragas Fānī, The Dabistān, or School of Manners, vol. well as Indian artists who similarly adapted their
(Rotterdam: Nimbus Communications, 1999). To 2, ed. D. Shea and A. Troyer (Paris: Oriental techniques and subject matter.
date, the definitive text on illustrated rāgamālās Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland, 4 David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago:
remains Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting (New 1843), pp. 142–48. Wheeler M. Thackston, The University of Chicago Press, 2009), chap. 1 and
Delhi: Ravi Kumar, 1973). Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of pp. 236–40; and Francis Pritchett, Marvelous
7 Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, p. 130. India (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), Encounters: Folk Romance in Urdu and Hindi
8 Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, p. 142. pp. 209, 285, 313–14. Shireen Moosvi, “The (Riverdale, MD: Riverdale Company, 1985), p. 21.
9 Ebeling, Ragamala Painting, p. 126. Mughal Encounter with Vedanta: Recovering the 5 See “Yogis in Mughal India” by James Mallinson
10 Abu’l Fazl, A’in-i Akbari III, trans. Colonel H. Biography of ‘Jadrup,’” Social Scientist (2002), in this volume. Mildred Archer and Toby Falk,
S. Jarrett (New Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint, pp. 12–23. India Revealed: The Art and Adventures of James
1978), p. 263. 8 The paintings are: Portrait of Gosain Jadrup, and William Fraser 1801–1835 (London: Cassell,
11 Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS. Laud Or. 149. private collection, Ajmer; published in 1989), p. 123; and Princes and Painters in Mughal
Molly Emma Aitken, “The Laud Rāgamālā Coomaraswamy, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Delhi, 1707-1857, ed. William Dalrymple and
Album, Bikaner, and the Sociability of Society of Great Britain and Ireland, July 1919, Yuthika Sharma (New York: Asia Society, 2012).
Subimperial Painting,” Archives of Asian Art pp. 389–91. See also M. Abdulla Chaghtai, 6 Archer and Falk, India Revealed, pp. 9 and 40.
(forthcoming). “Emperor Jahangir’s interviews with Gosain 7 Carl W. Ernst, “Muslim Studies of Hinduism?
12 British Museum, 1973,0917,0. 1–56. Jadrup and his portraits,” Islamic Culture, vol. A Reconsideration of Arabic and Persian
13 Francesca Orsini, “‘Krishna is the Truth of Man’: 36 (1962), pp. 119–30. Jahangir Visiting the Translations from Indian Languages,” Iranian
Mir ‘Abdul WahidBilgrami’s Haqā’iq-i Hindī Ascetic Jadrup, folio from Jahangirnama, Musée Studies 36, no. 2 (June 2003), p. 189.
(Indian Truths) and the circulation of dhrupad Guimet, no. 7171. Selected publications include 8 Ernst, “Muslim Studies,” p. 189, and Norah M.
and bishnupad,” Culture and Circulation: Mobility Milo C. Beach, B. N. Goswamy, and Ellen Titley, Miniatures from Persian Manuscripts: A
and Diversity in Premodern Literature, ed. Fischer, eds., Masters of India Painting I (Zurich: Catalogue and Subject Index of Paintings from
Thomas de Bruijn and Allison Busch (forth- Artibus Asiae Publishers, 2011), pp. 326–28. Persia, India and Turkey in the British Library
coming). Akbar Visits the Hindu Saint Jadrup, circa and British Museum (London: British Museum
14 Carl W. Ernst, “Situating Sufism and Yoga,” 1625–30, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Publications, 1977), p. 156, no. 372.
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15, no. 1 Art Museums, 1937.20.1. Selected publications 9 See cat. 5.70 in Anna L. Dallapiccola, South
(April 2005), pp. 15–43. include Rochelle Kessler, “In the Company of Indian Paintings: A Catalogue of the British
15 Katherine Schofield, “Hindustani Music in the Enlightened: Portraits of Mughal Rulers and Museum’s Collections (London: British Museum
the Time of Aurangzeb,” (PhD diss., School Holy Men,” Studies in Islamic and Later Indian Press, 2010), p. 90. For an overview of Bhairava
of Oriental and African Studies, University of Art (Cambridge, MA: Arthur M. Sackler Museum, in South Asian literary history, see David
London, 2003), p. 192. Harvard University Art Museums, 2002), pp. Gordon White, “At the Mandala’s Dark Fringe:
17–42. Unknown, ca. 1650. Victoria and Albert Possession and Protection in Tantric Bhairava
Catalogue 19 Museum, IS.94-1965. Selected publications Cults” in Notes from a Mandala: Essays in the
1 Selected publications include Milo C. Beach, include Elinor W. Gadon, “Dara Shikoh’s mysti- History of Indian Religions in Honor of Wendy
Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600– cal vision of Hindu-Muslim synthesis,” in Facets Doniger, ed. Laurie L. Patton and David L.
1660 (Williamstown, MA: Clark Art Institute, of Indian Art: A Symposium Held at the Victoria Haberman (Newark: University of Delaware
1978), cat. no. 22. and Albert Museum, ed. Robert Skelton, Andrew Press, 2010).
2 Facing folios of calligraphy alternate with paired Topsfield, Susan Stronge, and Rosemary Crill 10 T. Richard Blurton, Hindu Art, (London: British
paintings throughout each Mughal albums. (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986, pp. Museum Press, 1992), p. 89, fig.50.
3 The central paintings are strategically placed off 153–57. 11 White, Sinister Yogis, p. 197.
center so that the borders appear of equal width 12 Carl W. Ernst, “Accounts of yogis in Arabic and
when the album is opened and the viewed. Catalogue 20 Persian historical and travel texts,” in Jerusalem
4 See “Yogis in Mughal India” by James Mallinson 1 Around 1600, European nations such as Great Studies in Arabic and Islam 33 (2007), pp.
in this volume for a more detailed discussion of Britain and the Netherlands formed joint-stock 419–21; and White, Sinister Yogis, pp. 236–40.
the sectarian orders depicted in this painting. “East India Companies,” comprised of sharehold- Further, the famous story of Ciruttontar, or the
5 David J. Roxborough, The Persian Album ers invested in trade abroad, including India. Little Devotee, in South India, where this painting
1400–1600: From Dispersal to Collection (New After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, however, the was produced, stresses the malleability of the
Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), passim. British East India Company became a governing ascetic-god: the Little Devotee sacrifices his son
6 Sunil Sharma, “Representation of Social Groups body as well as a commercial enterprise. British at the request of a hungry ascetic who is actually
in Mughal Art and Literature: Ethnography or East India Company rule was transferred to the the god Bhairava. See David Shulman, The
Trope?” in Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition, ed. British government, known as the Raj, after the Hungry God: Hindu Tales of Filicide and Devotion
Alka Patel and Karen Leonard, Brill’s Indological Indian Rebellion of 1857. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993),
Library, vol. 38 (2011), pp. 17–36, passim. 2 The European desire to collect, catalogue, and chap. 1; and White, Sinister Yogis, pp. 33–37.
ENDNOTES, PP. 214–35 | 313

13 Kala Bhairava is one of ninety-one paintings 3 Photographers whose work did not make religieuses des Peuples Idolatres, as is the case
of Indian deities identified by Telegu inscrip- it in time for the 1862 exhibition: Reverend with the volume discussed here. The English
tion, including visual maps of the principal E. Godfrey and James Waterhouse (Central translation was published a decade later as
pilgrimage sites of this period and the murtis India), Shepherd & Robertson (Bharatpur), The Ceremonies and Religious Customs of the
(sculptures) housed within. See Dallapiccola, Benjamin Simpson (Nagpur, Sikkim, and Various Nations of the Known World …, 7 vols.
South Indian Paintings, p. 74. Bhutan), Dr. Tressider (Northwest provinces), (London: William Jackson and Claude Dubosc,
14 An almost identical album is in the Victoria and Captain Fitzmaurice and Lieutenant R. H. De 1733–39). In the English edition, volumes 3
Albert Museum (IM 355-1923 to 454-1923). For Montmorency (Oudh), T. T. Davies (Hazara), (1734) and 4 (1733) relate to India. In this essay,
this information and a detailed provenance of Captain Houghton and Lieutenant Tanner I will reference the English translation. Dutch
the British Museum album, see Dallapiccola, (Bombay and Sind) as well as anonymous and German editions were also published,
South Indian Paintings, pp. 55–56 and 74. material from various sources. Other credited among others.
15 For a discussion of tapas, see cats. 7a–c, photographers for the photographs are J. C. 4 Picart, vol. 4, (London, 1733), pp. 4–6.
Austerities. A. Dannenberg, W. W. Hooper, Captain H. C. 5 Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Les six voyages de
16 See Dallapiccola, South Indian Paintings, p. 39, McDonald, James Mulheran, Captain Oakes, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (Paris, 1679), livre
for a detailed explanation of the poses. Reverend G. Richter, Dr. B. W. Switzer, C. C troisieme, chapitre VI, pp. 419–23. Though
17 See Charles Gold, Oriental Drawings (London: Taylor, and Eugene Clutterbuck Impey. Picart’s engraving is primarily based on
Bunney and Co., 1806); Asiatic Costumes Drawn 4 The reason for the shift lay at least partly in a Tavernier’s, he added figures possibly copied
by Captn. R. Smith 44th. Regt. (1826), Yale string of unfortunate events, including the bank- from Indian paintings in the collection of the
Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Fund; and ruptcy of the publishing firm Day & Company Italian Conte Abate Giovanni Antonio Baldini
online collections at the Victoria and Albert and subsequent loss of most of the last two vol- (1654–1725), notably the central Jain figure
Museum, British Museum, and British Library. umes in a fire. For an account on the publishing with a cloth over his mouth and a broom and
18 Dallapiccola, South Indian Paintings, p. 37. history of The People of India, see John Falconer, the sadhus feeding birds. Other figures, such as
19 Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr., A Portrait of the Hindus: “A Pure Labor of Love: A Publishing History of the kneeling woman giving an ascetic a “liṅga
Balthazar Solvyns & the European Image of The People of India,” in Colonialist Photography: kiss,” were removed from the English and
India 1760–1824 (Oxford: Oxford University Imagining Race and Place (New York: Routledge, French Catholic editions of Picart’s print. See
Press, 2004), pp. 324–25; and James Mallinson, 2002). Robert J. Del Bontá, “From Herodotus Onwards:
“Nāth Saṃpradāya” in Encyclopedia of Religions, 5 For a discussion on the formation of pho- Descriptions of Unidentified Jainas” in Jaina Law
volume 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2011). tography and anthropology, see Elizabeth and Society, ed. Peter Fluegel (Abingdon, UK:
20 Hardgrave, A Portrait of the Hindus, pp. 324–25. Edwards, Anthropology and Photography: Routledge, 2013). See also Lynn Hunt, Margaret
Solvyns first published this print in his 250 1860–1920 (New Haven: Yale University Press, C. Jacob, and Wijnand Mijnhardt, The Book That
etchings in Calcutta in 1799. Edward Orme 1992). Changed Europe: Picart and Bernard’s “Religious
pirated the book and published it as Costume 6 The plates had to be sensitized, exposed, and Ceremonies of the World” (Cambridge, MA:
of Hindostan in London in 1807. Solvyns then developed on location before the collodion Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 228–31;
republished it again in Paris, as Les Hindous, dried and became impermeable to the Paola von Wyss-Giacosa, Religionsbilder der
from 1808 to 1812. processing solution For a detailed account frühen Aufklärung (Wabern: Benteli, 2006), p.
21 Hardgrave, A Portrait of the Hindus, pp. 324–25. of photographic processes in the nineteenth 189; and R. W. Lightbown, “Oriental Art and the
The 1808 to 1812 Les Hindous text describes the and twentieth centuries, see Bertrand Orient in Late Renaissance and Baroque Italy,”
women offering the avadhuta a linga kiss, which Lavédrine, Photographs of the Past: Process and Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes,
Solvyns described as “the manner in which this Preservation (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation vol. 32 (1969), pp. 265–79.
homage is paid is so disgusting and indecent, Institute, 2009). 6 Picart, vol. 4, pp. 7–8, the print’s key, and
that delicacy forbids to describe it.” The contro- 7 Disderi’s method could produce eight individ- Tavernier (1679), pp. 419–23.
versy over depicting this is seen in Picart and ually exposed images on a collodion wet-plate 7 Picart, vol. 4, p. 6, and vol. 3, p. 397. For an
his engraving “Diverses Pagodes et Penitences negative. After printing, each image is cut out example of “shoes full of nails,” see the pair of
des Faquirs.” See cats. 22a–g and Robert J. Del and mounted to a card measuring roughly 21/2 × fakir’s sandals in the Wellcome Library collec-
Bontá, “From Herodotus Onwards: Descriptions 4 inches. The larger quarter-plate format known tion (Science Museum A23375).
of Unidentified Jainas” in Jaina Law and Society, as the cabinet card was introduced circa 1863 8 Picart, vol. 3, pp. 396–98 and vol. 4, pp. 4–6;
ed. Peter Fluegel (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, and measures 41/4 × 61/2 inches. Hunt, pp. 226–34; and David Gordon White,
2013). 8 William C. Darrah, Cartes De Visite in Nineteenth Sinister Yogis (Chicago: University of Chicago
22 Balthazar Solvyns, “Proposals for Publishing,” Century Photography (Gettysburg, PA: W. C. Press, 2009), pp. 211–12.
Calcutta Gazette, 1794. See Hardgrave, A Portrait Darrah, 1981), p. 4. 9 Jonathan Duncan, “An Account of Two Fakeers,
of the Hindus, p. 37. 9 Unlike most commercial studios of the period, With their Portraits” in Asiatic Researches 5
23 See Christopher Pinney, Photography and Bourne & Shepherd did market their images as (London: J. Sewell, 1799), pp. 37–52. For a
Anthropology (London: Reaktion, 2011). For individually numbered negatives under the set reproduction of the original watercolor see
example, in his copy of Solvyns (now in the title “Groups of Native Character.” Stuart Cary Welch, Room for Wonder: Indian
Wellcome Collection, 49015), the nine- Painting During the British Period (New York:
teenth-century Calcutta merchant Gabriel Catalogue 22 American Federation of Arts, 1978), pp. 80–81.
Gillett noted how many of each type of servant 1 See cats. 7a–c, Austerities. 10 Similar to the colonial trope of the “bed of nails,”
he employed in his home. 2 During the colonial period, the definition of the image and description of the ascetic with
yogis (Hindu) and fakirs (Muslim) changed and raised arms (ūrdhvabāhu) was repeated in colo-
Catalogue 21 often did not differentiate between sect and nial publications from the seventeenth century
1 Madras Journal of Literature and Science 7 (April– religion. See Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The onward, such as in Tavernier (1679, p. 423) and
September 1858), p.173. Origins of Modern Posture Practice (New York: in another engraving by Picart after Tavernier.
2 The final text is a composite of the writings of J. Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 36. See also Balthazar Solvyns, A Collection …
W. Kaye, John R. Melville, and Captain Meadows 3 Bernard Picart, Cérémonies et coutumes reli- descriptive of the manners, customs and dresses
Taylor. As a result, it is not currently possible to gieuses de tous les peuples du monde ..., 7 vols. of the Hindoos (Calcutta, 1799).
attribute authors to individual entries. Though (Amsterdam: J. F. Bernard, 1723–37). In the 11 Duncan, “An Account of Two Fakeers,” pp. 37–52.
notes by photographic contributors accompa- French edition, volumes 3 (1723) and 4 (1728) 12 In early Indian literature, the “bed of thorns”
nied many of the prints to London, it remains relate to India. The India volumes are some- (kaṇṭaka-śaya) is included in a list of austerities
unknown as to what degree they were consulted times independently labeled volumes 1 and 2 that a group of Ājīvikas practiced as told in the
during the drafting of the text. with a separate title, Cérémonies et coutumes circa first-century BC Naṅguṭṭhajātaka (Jātaka,
314 | ENDNOTES, PP. 235–53

4 vols., ed. V. Faussell [London: Trübner & Co., Museum Anthropology 33, no. 1 (2010), pp. elements in trade routes and revenue gathering.
1877–87], vol. 1, p. 493), and as an austerity prac- 37–48; Carol A. Breckenridge, “Aesthetics and David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago:
ticed by hermits in the Vaikhānasasmārtasūtra, Politics of Colonial Collecting: India at World University of Chicago Press, 2011). See also
circa fourth–eighth century CE (W. Caland, Fairs” in Society for Comparative Study of Society Pinch, Warrior Ascetics, for the rise and demise
Vaikhānasasmārtasūtram [Calcutta: Asiatic and History 31, no. 2 (1989), pp. 195–216. Earlier of warrior asceticism in North India.
Society, 1929]). I thank James Mallinson for European publications also sought to catalogue 6 See Peter Lamont, The Rise of the Indian Rope
these references. Indian people, specifically Hindus; see for Trick (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2008)
13 For the relationship between Bhīṣma and example Solvyns, A Collection… and Robert for more on the rise and fall of the Indian rope
the bed of arrows, see Francesco Brighenti, L. Hardgrave, Portrait of the Hindus: Balthazar trick as reflected through the prism of the news
“Hindu Devotional Ordeals and their Shamanic Solvyns & the European Image of India (New media—the rise as it was reported in the general
Parallels,” Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 19, York: Oxford University Press, 2004). media, the fall as the illusory trick was first
no. 4 (2012), pp. 67–69. 26 See “Yoga, Bodybuilding, and Wrestling: perpetrated and then denounced in the pages of
14 See Solvyns, A Collection…; Charles Gold, Metaphysical Fitness” by Joseph Alter in this the Chicago Tribune.
Oriental Drawings (London: Bunney and Co., volume. 7 See “Yoga: The Art of Transformation” by Debra
1806); Missionary Register for 1819 (London: Diamond in this catalogue.
L. B. Seeley, 1819), pp. 277–82; and The World Catalogue 23 8 The yogic equivalents of these acts would be
in Miniature: Hindoostan, vol. 2, ed. Frederic 1 Neither Gandhi nor the Kumbh Mela will be the abilities to enter into and control other
Schoberl (London: R. Ackermann, 1822), pp. discussed here in any detail, given the selective bodies which David Gordon White writes about
207–12. focus of this catalogue on yoga as the art of in Sinister Yogis, and the “miraculous” yogic
15 Encyclopaedia Londinensis, vol. 10 (London: J. transformation. But for more on Gandhi’s cul- ability to suspend breathing for long periods,
Adlard, 1811), pp. 147–48. tural resonance with yoga and fakirs, including which has in the twentieth century even been
16 Encyclopaedia Londinensis, p. 151. Winston Churchill’s disparaging comment subjected to scientific scrutiny and measure-
17 See also White, Sinister Yogis, p. 201. “half-naked fakir,” see Joseph Alter, Gandhi’s ment. See Joseph Alter, Yoga in Modern India:
18 White, Sinister Yogis, p. 223. White also postu- Body: Sex, Diet and the Politics of Nationalism The Body Between Science and Philosophy
lates that Europeans interacted with itinerant (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
ascetics in public places that drew beggars, 2000). Similarly, the Kumbh Mela is perhaps 2004) on scientific experiments conducted at
which differed from the Mughal experience. For the geographical referent par excellence as the Kaivalyadhama ashram).
example, Sufis would have interacted with reli- the most recognizable social space occupied 9 A variant on this story, in which she is the child of
gious orders such as the Nāth Yogis, and Mughal by fakirs and yogis, both historically and in a French woman and an Indian fakir, appears in
bureaucrats would have brokered with militant contemporary life. No reference to fakirs would the 1937 issue of Look, p. 35.
yogis in monasteries or troops (pp. 200–201). be complete without mentioning it as a powerful 10 For more information, see Vanessa Toulmin,
19 William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian and recurrent visual symbol of yogis gathering “Koringa: From Biknar [sic] to Blackpool”, Cabinet,
Empires (Cambridge: Cambridge University in one place, given the longer history of fakirs no. 26 (summer 2007); http://cabinetmagazine.
Press, 2006), pp. 82–103, 211. in meeting grounds, collective movements, and org/issues/26/toulmin.php.
20 Christopher J. Lucas, ed., James Ricalton’s armed rebellions. See William Pinch, Warrior 11 Magician George Méliès, who became the most
Photographic Travelogue of Imperial India (New Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cambridge, UK: famous of the trick film specialists, was present
York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1990), preface. A Cambridge University Press, 2006). in the audience when the Lumière brothers first
stereograph consists of two slightly dissimi- 2 Since the seventeenth century, a string of presented their motion pictures in Paris in 1895,
lar images that merge into 3D when viewed travelers, sojourners, and colonial traders and tried to buy a camera from them on the
through a stereoscope. and administrators have depicted these spot.
21 James Ricalton, India through the Stereoscope fakirs visually, individually and in groups, in 12 Raja Harischandra is particularly interesting for
(New York: Underwood & Underwood, 1907), p. various journals, travelogues, ethnographic the visual history of yoga because it features the
164. accounts, and colonial compendia of “native sage Vishvamitra (see cat. 7a), the militant yogi
22 For another example of photography and ascet- subjects.” Some early examples include works par excellence, who is part of the long image
ics, including a bed of nails, see John Campbell by Balthazar Solvyns, Emily Eden, Edward history linking warrior ascetics to Hindu nation-
Oman’s The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India Eastwick, Reverend Tennant, and Charles D’Oyly. alists.
(1903), pp. 45–46. Oman similarly wavered in See cat. 20d in this volume and Michael Sappol, 13 The aim of this “cinema of attractions,” as Tom
his judgment of ascetics as devout or deceitful, ed. Hidden Treasure (New York: Blast Books, Gunning has dubbed it, was to dazzle audiences
and placed the ascetic on a bed of nails in the 2012), p. 72. For a fuller, scholarly account, see with showmanship, exotic images, and the won-
latter category of the showman at a fair. For a Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr. A Portrait of the Hindus: ders of the new technology of cinema. Gunning
later iteration of such trickery in song, see the Balthazar Solvyns & the European Image of India uses “attractions” in the sense of carnival
discussion on Johnny Mercer’s The Yogi Who 1760–1820 (New York: Oxford University Press, attractions, in contrast to the classical narrative
Lost His Willpower (cat. 23e). 2004). cinema, which tries to create the illusion of a
23 Bishop J. M. Thoburn, The Christian Conquest of 3 See cats. 22a–g, Bed of Nails. fictional world. For more information, see Tom
India, edited under the auspices of the Young 4 The roots of this revisionism may lie in the Gunning, “The Cinema of Attractions: Early Film,
People’s Missionary Movement (New York: early modern period. Patton E. Burchett has Its Spectator and the Avant-Garde,” in Early
Eaton and Mains, 1906), pp. 121–22. See also demonstrated how the new bhakti attitudes that Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative, ed. Thomas
C. V. Vickrey, The Young People’s Missionary emerged in north India after 1600 “depended on Elsaesser (London: BFI Publishing, 1990).
Movement (New York, 1906). the successful stigmatization and subordination 14 For more on early ethnographic film, see
24 See A. J. D. Campbell’s report in the curato- of key aspects of tantric religiosity” as magic. Alison Griffiths, Wondrous Difference: Cinema,
rial files for IS.196-1949, Victoria and Albert Patton E. Burchett, “Bhakti Religion and Tantric Anthropology, and Turn-of-the-Century Visual
Museum. I thank Rosemary Crill for this infor- Magic in Mughal India: Kacchvahas, Ramanandis, Culture (New York: Columbia University Press,
mation. and Naths, circa 1500–1750” (Diss., Columbia 2002).
25 See Susan S. Bean, “The Unfired Clay Sculpture University, 2012), p. 4 and passim. 15 We are grateful to curatorial assistant Mekala
of Bengal in the Artscape of Modern South Asia” 5 One reason for the increasing numbers of fakirs Krishnan for identifying within the film Dutt’s
in A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture, in public places in the late nineteenth century “signatures”—an exotic temple setting, a distinc-
ed. Rebecca M. Brown and Deborah S. Hutton was the criminalization of militant yogis and tive turban, and transforming of his assistant
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), pp. 604–28; Charlotte fakirs and warrior ascetics, especially in north- into a moth or levitating her on swords—as
H. F. Smith and Michelle Stevenson, “Modeling western India, by colonial administrators who outlined in Sarah Dadswell, “Jugglers, Fakirs,
Cultures: 19th Century Indian Clay Figures” in saw armed yogi orders as disruptive, rebellious and Jaduwallahs: Indian Magicians and the
ENDNOTES, PP. 253–62 | 315

British Stage,” New Theatre Quarterly 23, no. 1 spread of yoga, see Singleton, “Globalized figures shown here and in the book title may be
(February 2007). Modern Yoga.” particularly interesting in this context since the
16 See Dadswell, “Jugglers, Fakirs, and 10 The World’s Parliament of Religions was number seems to have become standardized
Jaduwallahs,” p. 4. The “double o” spelling of convened as part of the World’s Columbian in this period as seven. See cats. 11a–c, Subtle
Hindu is a colonial variant that is now considered Exposition in 1893 in Chicago. As Syman notes Body.
insulting. in The Subtle Body, p. 41, the stated purpose of 6 Mircea Eliade, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom
17 See Rob Linrothe, Holy Madness: Portraits of the exposition was to celebrate the quadricen- (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969),
Tantric Siddhas (New York: Serindia Publications tennial of Columbus’s discovery; its tacit one p. 241.
and Rubin Museum of Art, 2006). The yogi was to outdo the French, whose extravagant 7 Other plates in the book, for example, plate 4
on sword points recalls both the “bed of nails” Exposition Universelle four years prior had (not shown here), make a similar visual state-
motif common among late nineteenth-century astonished the world. While the exposition was ment by juxtaposing an anatomical cross-
ascetics and fakirs (see cats. 22a–g) as well as thus an affirmation of American science and section of the brain with a schematic depiction
Bhishma lying on a bed of swords in the middle industry—an index of technical and material of the thousand-petaled lotus chakra (sahas-
of the Battle of Kurukshetra, another classic progress remarked upon by Vivekananda—the radala padma) as it opens in the head, its vertical
trope in Indian cinema. Parliament of Religions set out to find common stem, the brahmanāḍi, presumably linking it to
18 Non-Indian magicians also falsely claimed ground among the various faiths and to discover the network of nāḍīs (subtle channels) along the
Indian heritage to give their acts the frisson of what religion could offer for pressing social lower body.
authentic mysticism. problems of the day (some caused by the expo- 8 Comparable books and volumes with chakra
19 The music for the 1941 Paramount film You’re sition’s very materialism). body images from the same period include Sir
The One was composed by Jimmy Hugh. 11 Stefanie Syman suggests that this was the J. Woodroffe, The Serpent Power (Madras, 1924),
real secret of Vivekananda’s fame: that “he which shows the classic seated position.
Catalogue 24 simultaneously fulfilled and debunked 9 The English translation of the title L’Homme
1 Elizabeth DeMichelis, A History of Modern Yoga: Orientalist stereotypes, allowing his audiences Terrestre Natural Ténébreux—The Earthly Man
Patanjali and Western Esotericism (London: to romanticize him and India without abandon- with Natural Shadows—is less poetic but points
Continuum, 2004), p. 4, dates her definition of ing too many of their cherished ideals”; The nonetheless to Leadbeater’s fascination with
“Modern Yoga” (in her usage) from this moment. Subtle Body, p. 44. In contrast, as suggested shadows, auras, energy vortexes, and cosmic
Mark Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of by Marie Louise Burke in Swami Vivekananda consciousness. Indeed, many of the other
Modern Posture Practice (New York: Oxford in the West: New Discoveries, 2 vols. (Calcutta: images in The Chakras are not anatomical like
University Press, 2010), p. 4, suggests that Advaita Ashram, 1958), news reports did not fail this one, but abstract, numinous, color-satu-
Vivekananda’s synthesis was quite possibly the to mention that the other Indian delegates to rated depictions of the vortexes, umbras, and
first expression of “transnational Anglophone the Parliament—Pratap Chandra Mazoomdar, auras of higher states of consciousness.
yoga.” Joseph Alter in Yoga in Modern India: The B. B. Nagarkar, and Narasimha Acharya—wore 10 See cats. 11a–c, Subtle Body.
Body between Science and Philosophy (Princeton, what were described as “black clothes hardly to 11 This point is made by Stefanie Syman in The
NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004) traces sci- be distinguished from European dress” (Burke, Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America (New
entific yoga’s lineage to Vivekananda’s antimys- Swami Vivekananda in the West, vol. 1, p. 78). York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2010), p. 56.
ticism, among others. See also “Globalized 12 Thomas Harrison was based in Chicago at 12 The Sanskrit term Kanda derives from bulb or
Modern Yoga” by Mark Singleton in this volume that time at “Central Music Hall, Cor. State & knot; in Kuṇḍalinī yoga it refers to a center of the
as well as Stefanie Syman, The Subtle Body: Randolph Sts,” the identification stamped at astral body from where the yoga nāḍīs spring
The Story of Yoga in America (New York: Farrar the bottom of all his pictures. From listings in and carry the sūkṣma prāṇa (vital energy) to the
Strauss and Giroux, 2011) for this general Chicago city directories, Harrison seems to have different parts of the body.
argument. been in business from about 1873 through 1900, 13 Some scholars trace it back to pioneering
2 See Singleton, “Globalized Modern Yoga,” for and his studio specialized in cabinet-card pho- work by Major Basu, Anatomy of the Tantras
more on transnational Anglophone yoga. The tography, the style of portrait photography that (1888), and Dr. N. C. Paul, A Treatise on the
phrase indicates that the works were published came into vogue around 1867. All the original Yoga Philosophy (1850). See for instance Mark
in English and had transnational reach beyond photographs taken of Swami Vivekananda at Singleton, Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern
Indian shores. Harrison’s studio were cabinet-card portraits. Posture Practice (New York: Oxford University
3 David Gordon White, Sinister Yogis (Chicago: Press, 2010) on the history of medical or health
University of Chicago Press, 2011), p. 369. Catalogue 25 views of the yogic body in India even prior to the
4 Alter has an excellent discussion on this point; 1 This followed the first ever anatomical dissec- early twentieth century.
Yoga in Modern India, p. 7. tion by a native doctor in 1836, as widely written 14 On this point, see “Yoga, Bodybuilding, and
5 As Syman notes in The Subtle Body, p. 24, about by medical historians. See David Arnold, Wrestling: Metaphysical Fitness” by Joseph
despite these theological differences, Vedantists Colonizing The Body (Berkeley: University of Alter in this volume.
and other schools have long exploited the Yoga California Press, 1993). 15 These included natural healthcare luminaries
Sutra for centuries for its practical instruction, 2 As Dominik Wujastyk has described, this Harvey Kellogg and Benedict Lust.
the techniques providing the main avenues for extraordinary painting has recently come into 16 Mark Singleton first suggests this in Yoga Body,
perceiving spiritual truths. the collection of the Wellcome Library from the p. 116. But based on subsequent publications
6 Raja Yoga (1896), p. 18. Raja Yoga is the culmi- Hamburg collection of Jan Wichers. D. Wujastyk, on yoga performances and presentations in
nating text through which this message of yoga “Interpreting the Image of the Human Body,” America—such as those by the Great Oom; see
synthesis was first laid out in detail, although it International Journal of Hindu Studies 13, no. 2 Robert Love, The Great Oom (New York: Viking,
was anticipated by similar ideas in his teachings (2001), p. 210. 2010)—and Singleton’s own revised views on this
and talks. 3 Wujastyk, “Interpreting the Image,” p. 210. matter, there may be sufficient evidence to push
7 Peter van der Veer, Imperial Encounters 4 Wujastyk, “Interpreting the Image,” p. 211. this date back by at least a decade, if not more.
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 5 ̣Saṭcakranirūpaṇacitram translates from the
2001), pp. 73–74. Sanskrit to mean “picture or illustration of Catalogue 26
8 See Syman, The Subtle Body, chap. 4, “Swami six chakras body form,” which is particularly 1 Christopher Pinney, “The nation unpictured:
Vivekananda’s Legacy,” pp. 62–79. interesting for two reasons. One, the word Chromolithography and popular politics in India,”
9 The Theosophical Society’s work in India was citra (picture) in the title signifies that it is a Critical Inquiry 23, no. 3, p. 867.
closely tied to the revival of interest in Vedantic pictorial or illustrated treatise on chakras. And 2 First coined by Elizabeth deMichelis in 2004 in
philosophy and thought in the pre-independence two, the number of chakras depicted both in the A History of Modern Yoga: Patañjali and Western
era. On the Theosophical Society’s role in the illustrations and in the title itself. The six chakra Esotericism (London: Continuum, 2004) as
316 | ENDNOTES, PP. 262–66

an extremely useful but provisional, heuristic 2004); Singleton, Yoga Body; Suzanne
typology, the term “modern postural yoga” may Newcombe, “The Development of Modern
have outlived its use as a working construct. This Yoga: A Survey of the Field,” Religion Compass
author follows Mark Singleton in preferring the 3, no. 6 (2009), pp. 986–1002, for more on sūry-
term “postural yoga” or “yoga in the modern anāmaskār. It is important to point out that Pant
age” to avoid overly dichotomizing modern and did not claim to have invented the sequence;
traditional and to avoid subsuming historical see Alter, Yoga in Modern India, p. 163.
detail, variation, and exception; Mark Singleton, 16 See Joseph Alter, “Yoga at the Fin de Siècle:
Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Muscular Christianity with a Hindu Twist,”
Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, International Journal of the History of Sport 23,
2010), p.19. no. 5 (2006), pp. 759–76. Pant also introduced
3 This is a point first made powerfully by Singleton sūryanāmaskār into schools as a form of native
in chap. 8 of his Yoga Body. See also his essay, education. For more on Sandow, see also “Yoga,
“Globalized Modern Yoga,” in this volume. Bodybuilding, and Wrestling: Metaphysical
4 Two of the better known among these travel- Fitness” by Joseph Alter in this volume.
ogues and popular accounts of yogis are J. C. 17 In the early twentieth century, pioneers like
Oman’s Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India K. V. Iyer, Yogacharya Sundaram, and Ramesh
(1905) and Reverend W. M. Zumbro’s 1913 arti- Balsekar provided examples of syncretic
cle about yogis in National Geographic. Zumbro experiments with the “yogic body beautiful”
is a particularly interesting example for visual and the perfect yogic physique, embodying
genealogy, given that the article reproduces a general preoccupation with the fit body in
with contemporary photographs many of the āsana manuals.
earlier images of yogis from seventeenth- and 18 See Sjoman, Yoga Tradition in a Mysore Palace.
eighteenth-century European travelogues. For For more on this general shift in yogic practice,
more on this point, see David Gordon White, see the essays by Singleton and Alter in this
Sinister Yogis (Chicago: University of Chicago catalogue.
Press, 2010), and also cats. 22a–g, Bed of Nails, 19 I refer to Benedict Anderson’s “imagined com-
and 23a–e, Fakirs, Fakers, and Magic. munities” (1983) drawn together through print
5 Accounts of Jogapradīpikā are described in nationalism. See Benedict Anderson, Imagined
Gudrun Buhnemann, Eighty-Four Āsanas in Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Yoga: A Survey of Traditions (New Delhi: D. K. Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983).
Printworld, 2007), while the Śrītattvanidhi 20 For more on this point, see Singleton, Yoga
is described by Norman Sjoman, The Yoga Body, chap. 9.
Tradition of the Mysore Palace (New Delhi: 21 Sjoman, Yoga Tradition, p. 50.
Abhinav, 1996). For an even earlier historical 22 Note that 1938 is also the year that Leni
example of a medieval illustrated āsana manu- Riefenstahl made Olympia, which in some ways
script, see cat. 9a–j on the Bahr-al-ḣayāt. is perhaps the archetypical film about national-
6 Partha Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial ist physical cultures and the staged presentation
India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, of bodies in public space.
1994), p. 30.
7 This point has been made variously by White,
Sinister Yogis; Sjoman, Yoga Tradition.
8 Singleton, Yoga Body, p. 170.
9 The book includes illustrations of six mudrās
(gestures) and five bandhas (locks), also mod-
eled by Ghamande.
10 Yogasopāna’s potential to reach mass audiences
also allowed Ghamande to pioneer new peda-
gogical models of public dissemination, such
as a proto-correspondence course of haṭha
yoga (Singleton, Yoga Body, p. 173). In sharp
contrast to the secret transmission of knowl-
edge between guru and disciples, Yogasopāna
threw open haṭha yoga to the public and invited
readers into a dialogue.
11 A more detailed account of how Yogasopāna
serves as a work of art can be found in
Singleton’s Yoga Body, chap. 8, “The Medium
and the Message.”
12 Raja Ravi Varma was an Indian modernist artist
who pioneered the use of newly available
chromolithography techniques to make cheap
naturalistic reproductions of scenes from Hindu
epics.
13 For more on the Mysore Palace’s influence on
yoga, see the discussion about cat. 26i.
14 Subsequent editions were revised by Raja
Pratinidhi Pant’s son, Apa Pant.
15 See Joseph Alter, Yoga in Modern India
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
ENDNOTES, PP. 266–91 | 317

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Contributors
Molly Emma Aitken (MEA) is associate professor of Debra Diamond (DD), PhD, is associate curator of B. N. Goswamy (BNG) is professor emeritus of art
art history at the City College of New York. She has South and Southeast Asian art at the Freer|Sackler history at Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, and
written and curated on South Asian court paintings, and the curator of Yoga: The Art of Transformation. is currently Rabindranath Tagore Fellow for Cultural
folk art, and jewelry. In her award-winning The Her exhibition catalogue for Garden and Cosmos Research. He has published extensively; his many
Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting, she (2008) received two major awards for scholarship: works include the groundbreaking Pahari Masters:
takes a wide range of interpretive approaches to the College Art Association’s Alfred H. Barr award Court Painters of Northern India and Nainsukh of
seventeenth- to nineteenth-century paintings from and the Smithsonian Secretary’s Award for Research. Guler: A Great Indian Painter from a Small Hill State.
India’s Rajput courts. She has published on yoga imagery, new methods in Most recently, with Milo C. Beach and Eberhard
Indian art history, contemporary Asian art, and various Fischer, he put together the two-volume Masters of
Joseph S. Alter, PhD, is professor of anthropology aspects of the Freer|Sackler collections. Indian Painting, 1100–1900 that accompanied the
at the University of Pittsburgh and a sociocultural exhibition Wonder of the Age at the Metropolitan
anthropologist in the area of South Asia. His book, Carl W. Ernst, PhD, is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Museum of Art, New York.
the award-winning Yoga in Modern India: The Body Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the
Between Science and Philosophy (2004), explores the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Navina Haidar (NH) is curator in the Department
historical development of yoga as a modern, middle- codirector of the Carolina Center for the Study of the of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
class form of public health in twentieth-century Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. His publications York. She is the coauthor of Masterpieces from the
urban India. include Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum
Asia and Beyond (with Bruce B. Lawrence, 2002) of Art and Sultans of the South: Arts of India’s Deccan
Christopher Key Chapple (CKC), PhD, is Doshi and Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Courts, 1323–1687 (both 2011).
Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at Contemporary World (2003), which has received
Loyola Marymount University, where he directs several international awards. Amy S. Landau (AL), PhD, is associate curator
the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies program. of Islamic art and manuscripts at the Walters Art
He is the author of several books, including Jessica J. Farquhar (JF) is a PhD candidate in Museum, Baltimore. Her work explores shifts in the
Reconciling Yogas (with a translation of Haribhadra’s art history at the University of California, Los visual culture of early modern Iran, with particular
Yogadrstisamuccaya, 2003) and Yoga and the Angeles. Her research interests include nineteenth- emphasis on interaction between Safavid Persia and
Luminous (with a translation of the Patanjali’s Yoga century photography, early Buddhist art, and Europe and the Armenian merchant community
Sutras, 2008). the historiography of South Asian studies in the of New Julfa.
Western academic tradition. She is currently writing
Robert DeCaroli (RDC), PhD, is associate professor her dissertation, “Beyond Binding: 19th-century James Mallinson (JM), PhD, is a Sanskritist from
of South and Southeast Asian art history at George photographic technology in the many afterlives of Oxford University whose work focuses on the history
Mason University and a specialist in the art of early ‘The People of India’ (1861–1900).” of yoga and yogis. His publications include The
Buddhism. He is the author of Haunting the Buddha: Ocean of the Rivers of Story by Somadeva (2007)
Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of and The Khecarīvidyā of Ādinātha (2007). He and
Buddhism (2004). Mark Singleton are collaborating on Roots of
Yoga, a collection of translated Sanskrit yoga texts
(forthcoming).

Sita Reddy (SR), PhD, is a research associate at Tom Vick (TV) is curator of film at the Freer Freer|Sackler Staff
the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural and Sackler Galleries. He is a consultant for the Jane Lusaka, editor-in-chief
Heritage. A sociologist of medicine and a museologist International Film Festival Rotterdam and has Joelle Seligson, editor
by training, she writes, teaches, and curates on served on the juries of the Korean Film Festival in Mekala Krishnan, Elizabeth S. Stein,
topics ranging from the museum repatriation of art, Los Angeles, the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, photo permissions
antiquities, and music to heritage disputes around and Filmfest DC. He has contributed essays to World Neil Greentree, John Tsantes, imaging
traditional South Asian medical knowledge systems, Cinema Directory: Japan, Film Festival Yearbook, and photo services
such as Ayurveda and yoga. She is currently writing Asian Geographic, and other publications. His book Najiba Choudhury, proofreader
a book on the social iconography of fakirs and yogis Asian Cinema: A Field Guide was published in 2008. Nancy Eickel, index
through the ages. He is currently working on a book about Japanese Howard Kaplan, museum writer
filmmaker Seijun Suzuki. Adina Brosnan McGee, Nancy Hacskaylo,
Tamara I. Sears (TS), PhD, is assistant professor production assistance
of art history at Yale University and the author of David Gordon White, PhD, is the J. F. Rowny
Worldly Gurus and Spiritual Kings (forthcoming Professor of Religious Studies at the University
2014). She is working on a second book that looks at of California, Santa Barbara. His award-winning
architecture and landscape as archives for mapping publications include Yoga in Practice (2011), Kiss of
mobility and the transmission of cultural practices the Yoginī: “Tantric Sex” in its South Asian Contexts
in medieval India. (2003), Tantra in Practice (2000), and The Alchemical
Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India (1996).
Holly Shaffer (HS) is a doctoral candidate in the
Department of the History of Art, Yale University.
Her research interests include intercultural artistic
production, collecting practices, and the circulation
of prints in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
South Asia and Europe. She is currently writing her
doctoral dissertation, “‘Men and Gods, and Things’:
Maratha Art and Moor’s ‘Hindu Pantheon’ (1810),”
under the direction of Dr. Timothy Barringer and
Dr. Tamara Sears.
Mark Singleton, PhD, teaches at St. John’s College,

Santa Fe. He is the author of Yoga Body: The
Origins of Modern Posture Practice (2010) and the
coeditor of Yoga in the Modern World, Contemporary
Perspectives (2008) and Gurus of Modern Yoga (2013).
He is currently preparing a collection of translated
Sanskrit yoga texts titled Roots of Yoga (with James
Mallinson, forthcoming).
CONTRIBUTORS | 321
Credits
Note: Credits for the Catalogue section are listed in the Exhibition Checklist.
Photos of Freer|Sackler objects by Neil Greentree, Robert Harrell, and John Tsantes.
On the cover: Vishnu Vishvarupa (detail), India, Essays Fig. 9 (p. 32) Five Holy Men, folio from the Saint
Rajasthan, Jaipur, ca. 1800–1820, Victoria and Albert Petersburg Album. Attributed to Govardhan. India,
Museum, London, Given by Mrs. Gerald Clark, Yoga: The Art of Transformation Mughal dynasty, ca. 1625–30. Opaque watercolor
IS.33-2006 (cat. 10b). Debra Diamond and gold on paper; 49 × 33 cm (page), 24.1 × 15.2 cm
(painting). Formerly collection of Stuart Cary Welch;
Fig. 1 (pp. 24, 25) Three Aspects of the Absolute, folio 1
Frontispiece details: Kedar Ragini, Metropolitan current whereabouts unknown.
from the Nath Charit. By Bulaki, 1823. India, Jodhpur.
Museum of Art, 1978.540.2 (cat. 18e); Three
Opaque watercolor, gold and tin alloy on paper,
Aspects of the Absolute, Mehrangarh Museum
47 × 123 cm. Merhangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2399. Yoga in Transformation
Trust, RJS 2399 (cat. 4a); Jālandharnāth at Jalore,
David Gordon White
Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 4126 (see below); Fig. 2 (p. 26) Jina, probably Shreyamsanatha. India,
Satcakranirupanacitram, Wellcome Library, P.B. southern Rajasthan, dated 1160. White marble with Fig. 1 (p. 37) “Yogi” seal. Indus civilization, ca.
Sanskrit 391 (cat. 25b); The Knots of the Subtle Body, traces of polychromy, 59.7 × 48.3 × 21.6 cm. Virginia 2600–1900 BCE. Steatite, 3.8 cm (h). National
Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.27 (cat. 11a); Gaur Museum of Fine Arts, 2000.98. Museum of India.
Malhara Ragini, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, MIK
Fig. 3 (pp. 22, 26) Meditating Sikh Ascetic. India, Fig. 2 (p. 37) Seated Buddha. Afghanistan or Pakistan,
I 5523 (cat. 18i); Saindhavi Ragini, wife of Bhairon,
Jammu and Kashmir, probably Mankot, ca. 1730. Gandhara, probably Hadda, 1st century–320. Stucco,
Chester Beatty Library, In 65.7 (cat. 18h); Lakshman
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; 19.5 × 12.9 cm 36.9 cm (h). Cleveland Museum of Art, Edward L.
Das, Collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins (cat.
(page), 17.4 × 11.2 cm (painting). Catherine and Ralph Whittemore Fund, 1967.39.
20a); Kumbhaka, Chester Beatty Library, In 16.25a
Benkaim Collection. Photo: John Tsantes.
(cat. 9h); The Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped by the Fig. 3 (p. 37) Head of a Rishi. India, Mathura, 2nd
Sage Chyavana, Freer Gallery of Art, F1997.8 (cat. 8c). Fig. 4 (p. 26) Siddhapratima Yantra (detail). Western century. Stone, 27.7 × 24 cm. The Cleveland Museum
India, 1333. Bronze, copper alloy with traces of of Art, Edward L. Whittemore Fund, 1971.41.
On copyright and sponsor pages: Jālandharnāth at gilding and silver inlay, 21.9 × 13.1 × 8.9 cm. Freer
Fig. 4 (pp. 34, 38) Yogin with Six Chakras. India,
Jalore (detail). By Amardas Bhatti. India, Rajasthan, Gallery of Art, F1997.33.
Himachal Pradesh, Kangra, late 18th century. Opaque
Marwar, Jodhpur, ca. 1805–10. Opaque water color
Fig. 5 (p. 28) Great Stupa at Sanchi. India, Madhya watercolor and gold on paper, 48 × 27.5 cm. National
and gold on paper; 39 × 29 cm. Mehrangarh Museum
Pradesh, Sanchi, ca. 50–25 BCE. Sandstone, Photo Museum of India, Ajit Mookerjee Collection, 82.485.
Trust, RJS 4126. Photo: Neil Greentree (see also
courtesy John C. Huntington. Courtesy of Art Gallery of New South Wales.
fig. 6, p. 74).
Fig. 6 (p. 29) The Seven Great Sages. Attributed to Fig. 5 (p. 39) King Suraghu Visits Mandavya, folio
On contents page: Rama Enters the Forest of the the Master at the Court of Mankot. India, Jammu and from the Yoga Vasishta. India, Uttar Pradesh,
Sages (detail), from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas Kashmir, Mankot, 1675–1700. Opaque watercolor on Allahabad, Mughal dynasty, 1602. Opaque watercolor
(1532–1623). India, Rajasthan, Jodhpur, ca. 1775. paper; 21.1 × 20.7 cm (page), 18.9 × 19 cm (painting). and gold on paper, 27 × 18.5 cm. Chester Beatty
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 62.7 × 134.5 Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh, Library, In 5.178V.
cm. Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 2524 (cat. 17a). 1343.
Fig. 6 (p. 40) The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva
Fig. 7 (p. 30) Yogini. India, Tamil Nadu, Kanchi, (detail). Attributed to Payag (Indian, active ca.
ca. 900–975. Metagabbro, 116 × 76 × 43.2 cm. Arthur 1591–1658). India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1630–35.
M. Sackler Gallery, S1987.905. Opaque watercolor and gold and ink on paper,
18.5 × 26.5 cm. Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift,
Fig. 8 (p. 31) Koringa. Reco Brothers Circus poster,
2011, 2011.409. The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art
England, 1946. Collection of Mark Copland/The
Resource, NY.
Insect Circus (mark@copeland48.freeserve.co.uk).

Fig. 7 (p. 41) Tantric Feast. India, Himachal Pradesh, Fig. 2 (p. 71) The Yogis at Gurkhattri in 1505, from Fig. 4 (p. 89) Yogi Selvarajan Yesudian, Bodybuilding
Nurpur, ca. 1790. Opaque watercolor and gold Vaki’at-i Baburi (The Memoirs of Babur). By Gobind. and Muscle Control Poses, images 67, 72–74
on paper, 22.54 × 15.66 cm. Los Angeles County India, Mughal dynasty, 1590–93. Opaque watercolor. between pages 112 and 113, in Selvarajan Yesudian
Museum of Art, M.77.63.1. © The British Library Board, Or. 3714, f. 197r. and Elisabeth Haich, Sport et Yoga, 8th ed. (Lausanne,
Switzerland: Editions Foma, 1958).
Fig. 8 (p. 43) A Royal Ascetic. India, Karnataka, Fig. 3 (p. 71) Babur’s Visit to Gurkhattri in 1519. By
possibly Bijapur, ca. 1660. Opaque watercolor and Kesu Khurd. India, Mughal dynasty, 1590–93. Opaque Fig. 5 (p. 89) Yogi Selvarajan Yesudian, “Exercises
gold on paper, 19 × 14.3 cm. © The British Library watercolor. © The British Library Board, Or. 3714, vol. pour élèves avancés,” images 63 and 64 between
Board, Richard Johnson Collection, J.19,2. 3 f. 320. pages 112 and 113, in Selvarajan Yesudian and
Elisabeth Haich, Sport et Yoga, 8th ed. (Lausanne,
Fig. 4 (p. 72) A Party of Kanphat Yogis Resting around
Switzerland: Editions Foma, 1958).
From Guru to God: Yogic Prowess and Places of a Fire. India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1700. Tinted drawing
Practice in Early-Medieval India with gold; on an album leaf with inner border of Fig. 6 (p. 90) British muscle man Eugene Sandow
Tamara I. Sears marbled paper and an outer border of leaf-motifs posing as the Farnese Hercules, 1897. Photo: Time
in blue and gold; 22.4 × 13 cm (folio), 36.1 × 24 cm Life Pictures/Mansell/Getty Images #50615023.
Fig. 1 (p. 46) Descent of the Ganges. India, Tamil
(page). © The British Library Board, India Office,
Nadu, Mamallapuram, ca. 7th century. Stone, Fig. 7 (p. 91) Buddha Bose, a student of yoga master
J.22,15.
29 m × 13 m. Photo: Emma Natalya Stein. Bishnu Ghosh, shows his skills at a yoga exercise
Fig. 5 (p. 73) Balak Nath Kothari wearing antelope demonstration, London, ca.1930s. Photo: FPG/Getty
Fig. 2 (p. 49) Nara and Narayana, Vishnu Temple,
horn kanphata earring, Jvalamukhi, November 8, Images #109773972.
relief from the east side. India, Uttar Pradesh,
2012. Photo: James Mallinson.
Deogarh, ca. 500 AD. Photo: Borromeo, Art Resource. Fig. 8 (p. 92) A yogi practicing yoga in Benares
Fig. 6. (p. 74) Jālandharnāth at Jalore (detail). By (Varanasi), Uttar Pradesh, India. Photo: Frederick Ayer
Figs. 3a–d (pp. 50, 51) Plan and views of Shaiva
Amardas Bhatti. India, Rajasthan, Marwar, Jodhpur, III. Getty Images #128586602.
Monastery. India, Madhya Pradesh, Chandrehe,
ca. 1805–10. Opaque water color and gold on paper;
ca. 973. Photos: Tamara I. Sears.
39 × 29 cm. Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 4126.
Globalized Modern Yoga
Fig. 4 (pp. 52–53) Guru and Disciples, Lakshmana Photo: Neil Greentree.
Mark Singleton
Temple. India, Madhya Pradesh, Khajuraho, ca. 954.
Fig. 7 (p. 75) Aughar and Kanphata Yogi, from Tashrih Fig. 1 (p. 94) Yoga on the National Mall, Washington,
Sandstone. Photo: Tamara I. Sears.
al-aqvam, p. 399. India, Delhi or Haryana, 1825. DC, May 2013. Photo: Neil Greentree.
Figs. 5 and 6 (p. 54) Lakulisha in a central wall niche. Manuscript, watercolor; 31.5 × 22cm (folio). © The
Fig. 2 (p. 96) Swami Vivekananda on the platform of
India, Madhya Pradesh, Batesara, ca. 8th century. British Library Board, Add.27255, f. 399b.
the Parliament of the World’s Religions, September
Photos: Tamara I. Sears.
Fig. 8. (p. 76) Naga Sannyasis at the 1995 Allahabad 11, 1893. Vedanta Society, San Francisco, V16.
Ardh Kumbh Mela. Photo: James Mallinson.
Fig. 3 (p. 97) Madame Blavatsky, 1870. Photo: Henry
Muslim Interpreters of Yoga
Fig. 9 (p. 77) Akbar Watches a Battle between Two Guttman. Getty Images, Hulton Archive #3324124.
Carl W. Ernst
Rival Groups of Sannyasis at Thaneshwar (detail of
Fig. 4 (p. 97) Paramahansa Yogananda, founder
Fig. 1 (p. 60) Jahangir converses with Gosain Jadrup, right folio). India, possibly Pakistan, Mughal dynasty,
of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Getty Images,
from the Jahangirnama. Attributed to Payag (Indian, 1590–95. By Basawan and Tara the Elder. Opaque
#51101235.
active ca. 1591–1658). India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1620. watercolor and gold on paper, 32.9 × 18.7 cm. Victoria
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Musée du and Albert Museum, IS.2:61-1896. Fig. 5 (p. 98) Aleister Crowley as Paramahamsa
Louvre, Paris, Inv. OA7171. Photo: Daniel Arnaudet. Shivaji. Ordo Templi Orientalis, New York.
Fig. 10 (p. 79) Mughals Visit an Encampment of
© RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY.
“Sadhus,” from the St. Petersburg Album. Attributed Fig. 6 (p. 99) Sri T. Krishnamacharya (1888–1989),
Fig. 2 (p. 61) The King and Karkati Discuss Brahman, to Mir Sayyid Ali. India, Mughal dynasty, ca. 1635. Chennai, India,1988. Courtesy Ganesh Mohan.
from the Yog Vasishta. By Iman Quli. India, Allahabad, Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 46 × 29.5 cm.
Fig. 7 (p. 99) Indian yoga master B. K. S. Iyengar
1602. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, 27 × 18.5 St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, f. 47r.
demonstrates four postures, 1930s. Scenes from
cm. Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, In 05.73a/r.
Fig. 11 (p. 80) Ramanandi Yogiraj Jagannath Das T. Krishnamacharya Asanas. India, Mysore, 1938.
Fig. 3 (pp. 58, 62) The feast of the yogis from at the 2010 Haridwar Kumbh Mela. Photo: James Sponsored by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wodiyar. Digital
the Mrigavati. India, Allahabad, 1603–4. Opaque Mallinson. copy of a lost black-and-white film, 57 min. Courtesy
watercolor and gold on paper, 28.3 × 17 cm. Chester of Dan McGuire.
Beatty Library, In 37.66r.
Yoga, Bodybuilding, and Wrestling: Fig. 8 (p. 99) Swami Muktananda Arrives in Santa
Fig. 4 (p. 63) Yogini by a Stream, from the Clive Metaphysical Fitness Monica, California, 1980. Photo: George Rose. Getty
Album. India, Bijapur, ca. 1605–40. Opaque Joseph S. Alter Images, #83693441.
watercolor and gold on paper, 21.4 × 16.2 cm.
Fig. 1 (p. 84) Five athletes, symbolizing a musical Fig. 9 (p. 99) Peace Pilot (Vishnudevananda), Palam
© Victoria and Albert Museum, IS.133.56-1964.
mode (Deshakha raga). India, Deccan plateau, Airport, New Delhi, India, October 26, 1971, Keystone,
Fig. 5 (p. 65) Tratak posture, from the Bahr al-hayat, ca. 1880–1900. Opaque watercolor on paper, Getty Images #3269553.
page 44. AH 11 Rabi al-awwal, 1130 (February 28.3 × 8.5 cm. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco,
Fig. 10 (p. 100) Yoga Curl (Marilyn Monroe), 1948,
12, 1718). University of North Carolina Rare Book B 87D19.
John Kobal Foundation. Getty Images #3169150.
Collection, PK3791.A46 1718.
Fig. 2 (p. 86) Paramahansa Yogananda, Founder
Fig. 11 (p. 101) The Beatles and the Maharishi,
of the Self-Realization Fellowship, Getty Images
Rishikesh, Dehradun, India, March 1, 1968, Hulton
Yogis in Mughal India #51101235.
Archive, Getty Images # 73874340.
James Mallinson
Fig. 3 (p. 88) Yoga asanas, from The Yoga Body
Fig. 12 (p. 102) Heat Wave Hits New York City on the
Fig. 1 (p. 68) Folio from the Gulshan Album (detail). Illustrated by M. R. Jambunathan. India, Karnataka,
First Day of Summer by John Moore, June 20, 2012,
India, Mughal dynasty, early 17th century. Opaque Bangalore, 1941. Published book, 18.4 × 24.8 cm
Getty Images # 146597674.
watercolor and gold on paper; approx. 42 × 26 cm. (open). Library of Congress, RA781.7.J35.
Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, folio 6b.
CREDITS | 323
Index
Note: Illustrations appear on page numbers in italics.
A Assam, 62 Bhaktis, 40
“An Abd’hoot,” cat. 20d, 234, 235 Atkinson, William Walker, see Ramacharaka Bhaktivedanta, Swami A. C., 100
Abhinavagupta, 24, 27, 32 Atreya, Dr. Shanti Prakash, 85, 90, 92 Bharadvaja, 28
Abu’l Fazl, 64, 77, 172, 222 austerities, 23, 28, 48, 50, 52, 55, 138, 141–57, Bhikarinath, 183
Acharanga Sutra, 131, 132 203, 219, 227 Bhishma, 253
Advaita Vedanta, 24, 78, 176 Autobiography of a Yogi, 97 Bhringisha, 176
Agamas, 106, 110 Ayodhya, 202 Bhupali Ragini, cat. 18g, 220, 220
Aich, Monohar, 90 Ayurveda, 87 Bijapur, 30, 62, 117, 124, 125
A’in-i Akbari, 64 Bikram Yoga, 90, 101
Ajita, 132 Blavatsky, Madame Helena Petrovna, 97
Ajivikas, 141 B Bodhgaya, 115
akash-munis (sky-sages), 142 Babur, 70, 180–81 Brahma, 113, 166
Akbar, 70, 76, 117, 157, 172, 180–81, 203, Babur and His Retinue Visiting Gor Khatri, brahman, 27, 36, 160, 166, 176
206, 209, 222, 227 cat. 14d, 180, 184 Brahmo Samaj, 95–96
Akbarnama, 77, 78, 172, 173 Baburnama, 70, 73 British East India Company, 44, 64–65, 172,
akshamala (rosary), 55 Badari, 48 230, 232, 253, 258
Albanese, Catherine, 97 Bahr al-hayat (Ocean of Life), Persian translation, Buddha, 55, 115, 138, 141, 157
al-Biruni, 59 150, 157; cat. 9a–j, 150, 157, 159 Buddhism, 24, 27, 36, 38, 138; practices, 59, 176
Ali ‘Adil Shah II, 124 Balnath Tilla, 73 Buddhist Tantras, 118, 138, 141
Allahabad, 157, 159, 176 Balsekar, Ramesh, 90 Bulaki, 24, 129, 130
Alter, Joseph S., 32 bandha (lock), 38
Amar Singh II, Rana, 181, 183 Baroda, 87
Amuli, Sharaf al-Din, 62 Basawan, 172–73 C
anjali mudra (gesture of devotion), 50, 54, 115 Base of a Seated Buddha with Figures of Ascetics, Campbell, Joseph, 97
Anusara Yoga, 35 cat. 6c, 140, 141 Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les
anusmrti (recollection), 38 Battle at Thaneshwar, cat. 12, 172, 173–75 peuples du monde representées (Ceremonies
aparigraha (power of nonpossession), 135 Beatles, 100 and Religious Customs of the Various Nations
Appar, 106 bed of nails, 253–57, 254–56 of the Known World), 253
Arabic translations, 59, 64, 66, 157 Bernard, Jean-Frédéric, 253 Chain of Yogis (Silsila-i jugiyan), 66
Arjuna, 48, 55, 160 Bernard, Renée, see Koringa chakras, 27, 61, 62, 70, 118, 166–67; in medicine,
asanas (seated postures), 36, 52, 64, 86, 132, 138, Bernard, Theos, 290 275, 277, 279
142, 203; development of, 87, 88–90, 92, 98, Besant, Annie, 277 The Chakras, cat. 25c, 277, 279
101, 150–59, 277, 284, 287, 290–91 Bhadrakali, 148 The Chakras of the Subtle Body, cat. 11b, 166, 167,
ascetics, 27, 28, 50, 55, 59, 61; depictions of, 65, 69, Bhagavad Gita, 36, 40, 86, 146, 160, 164, 180 168–69
70, 73, 75–76, 78, 141, 232, 235, 238, 241, 245, Bhagavadajjukiya (The Hermit and the Harlot), 50 chamatkar (astonishment), 32
253, 256, 258; militant, 172–73, 203, 256, 258; Bhagavata Puraṇa, 146 Chandranatha, 73
practice, 50, 138 Bhagiratha, 48, 50 Chandrashekhar, Professor J., 90
Ascetics before the Shine of the Goddess, cat. 15b, Bhairava, 27, 106, 110, 235 Chandrehe, 50, 52, 53, 54–55
190, 192 Bhairava, cat. 1c, 110, 110 char sampraday (“four traditions” of Vaishnavism), 78
Ascetics Performing Tapas, cat. 20c, 232–33, 235 Bhairava Raga, cat. 18b, 214, 215, 219 charya (proper conduct), 52
ashram, 180 Bhairava Tantras, 106 chatudandasana (plank pose), 290
ashtanga (eightfold yoga), 36 Bhairavi Devi, 40, 42, 190, 196 chatushpada (“four feet”), 52
Ashtanga Vinyasa, 89, 98, 101; yoga, 35, 36, 96 bhakti (devotional orders), 78, 146, 160, 219, 256 chela (disciple), 142

Chishti, Muìn al-Din, 62; Sufi order, 62 Ganges River, 47, 48, 53 Hoysala dynasty, 106, 110
Chola dynasty, 106, 118, 135, 146 Garbo, Greta, 98 Hunhar, 196
Choudhury, Bikram, 90, 101 Gardens of Religions (Riyaz al-mazahib), 66 Huxley, Aldous, 97
The Christian Conquest of India, 257 Gaur Malhara Ragini, cat. 18i, 6, 219
Christian Science, 97, 98 Gautama, Siddhartha, 138
Chyavana, 148 Ghamande, Yogi, 285 I
Colebrooke, Henry Thomas, 44 Gheranda Samhita, 268, 285 Ibn ‘Arabi, 64
The Complete Book of Yoga, 100 Gherwal, Yogi, 290 Ibn Battuta, 59
Crowley, Aleister (Paramahamsa Shivaji), 98 Ghose, Sri Aurobindo, 97 Ibn Sina, 61
Ghosh, Bishnu Charan, 85, 89, 90 Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah, 124, 125
Giris, 77, 172 Illuminationism, 61
D Glyn, John, 66 India Through the Stereoscope, 257
dandas (yogic exercise), 92 The Goddess Bhadrakali Worshipped by the Sage Indra, 142, 164
Das, Keshav, 176 Chyavana, cat. 8c, 10, 146, 148, 149 Integral Yoga Institute, 100
Dasharatha, 141 The Goddess Bhairavi Devi with Shiva, cat. 16, 196, International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta centers, 100
Dasnami (ten-named), 30, 173; sampradaya, 117; 197–99 International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Sannyasis, 70, 73, 75, 76–78 Gorakhnath (or Goraksha), 38, 40, 44, 70, 73 (Hare Krishna movement), 100
Datta, Narendranath, see Vivekananda Gosain Jadrup, 59 Introduction of Yoga Philosophy, 268
Dattatreya, 78 Gosainji Kirpal Girji, 117 Iyengar, B. K. S., 89, 90, 98, 101, 159, 290, 291
Dehejia, Vidya, 27 Gosain Kirpa Girji Receives Sheeshvalji and His Son, Iyer, K. V., 90
della Valle, Pietro, 62 cat. 2c, 116, 117
Desai, Amrit, 100 Govardhan, 28, 30, 157, 227
Desai, Manibhai Haribhai, 88 Great London Exhibition of 1862, 238 J
Desikachar, T. K. V., 98 Group of Yogis, cat. 21s, 228, 245, 248 Jahangir, 59, 117, 157, 159, 176, 209, 222, 223, 227
Devi, 75 Gujarat, 87, 88, 157 Jain, 24, 27, 32, 36, 38, 69; yoga, 40, 131–37
Devi, Indra, 98, 290 Gulshan Album, cat. 19a–b, 223, 223–25, 227 Jain Ascetic Walking, cat. 5f, 137, 137
dharana (meditation), 36, 146 Gune, Jagannath, see Kuvalayananda Jalandharnath, 128, 129, 166
dharmachakra mudra (gesture of teaching), 54, 55 Gurgi, 52 Jalandharnath at Jalore, 3, 74
dhatu (transubstantiation), 92 Gurkha dynasty, 44 Jalapada, 206
dhauti (self-purification), 87 Gurkhattri, 70, 180, 181 Jambudvipa, 135
dhyana (fixing the mind), 36, 146 guru, 30, 47, 53–55, 70, 78, 87, 96, 100, 101, 142, 183; Jambunathan, M. R., 289
Divine Life Society, 97 depictions of, 24, 114–17, 180, 182, 227; false jata (matted locks of hair), 28, 48, 125
Duncan, Jonathan, 253, 256 guru, 50 jatamukuta (tall, braided hair), 115, 176
Dutis, 38 Guru Vidyashiva, cat. 2a, 114 Jensen, Albrecht, 290
Dutt, A. N., 262 Gwaliyari, Muhammad Ghawth, 64, 157, 159 Jesuits, 73
Dwivedi, Manilal, 268 Jina (great liberated soul), 27
Jina (Cleveland), cat. 5b, 132, 135
H Jina (VMFA), cat. 5d, 26, 134, 135
E Hamsasvarupa, Swami, 277 jnana (knowledge), 52
Eddy, Mary Baker, 97 Hanuman, 146 Jnanadeva, 164
Edison, Thomas, 262 Hanuman as Yogi, cat. 8b, 146, 148 Jodhpur, 27, 44, 75, 129, 159, 166
Equivalence of Self and Universe, cat. 10d, 164, 165 Hare Krishna movement, 100 Jogapradipika, 159
Ernst, Carl W., 32 Harrison, Thomas, 272, 273 Jois, Sri K. Pattabhi, 89, 90, 98, 101
Harwan, 141 Jones, Sir William, 61
Hathapradipika (Light on Hatha), 27 Joshi, Purushottam Sadasiv, 287
F hatha yoga, 36, 38, 78, 98, 101, 128, 146, 150, 160,
fakir, 30, 42, 61, 257, 258–62 166, 289–90; practice of, 27, 28, 61, 69, 76, 151,
Fakire und Fakirtum im Alten und Modernern Indien, 157, 166, 173, 266–68, 279, 284; texts about, 64, K
cat. 26a, 284, 285 69–70, 73, 86, 151, 164, 266, 283–91; yogis and, Kailash, Mount, 190
Farabi, 61 118, 258, 268, 283 Kala Bhairava, cat. 20b, 231, 235
Fasting Buddha, cat. 6b, 138, 139 Hatha Yoga, 290 Kalachuri, 52
The Feast of the Yogis, cat. 17h, 209, 213 Hawd ma’ al-hayat (The Pool of Life), 66 Kamak Devi (Kamakhya), 62
Female Guru and Disciple, cat. 14b, 180, 182 Head of a Fasting Buddha, cat. 6a, 138, 138 Kamaru panchasika, 62
The Fifty Verses of Kamarupa (Kamaru panchasika), Hemacandra, 132 Kamarupa, 62
62 Hemingway, Ernest, 98 The Kamarupa Seed Syllables (Kamru bijaksa), 62
Five-Faced Shiva, cat. 1d, 111, 113 Himalayan Pilgrimage of the Five Siddhas, cat. 15a, Kanchipuram, 30, 50, 118
Five Sages in Barren Icy Heights, cat. 15d, 192, 178, 190, 191 Kandesh Education Society, 87
194–95 Hindoo Fakir, cat. 23d, 262 kanphata (“split-eared”), 73, 75
Flow Yoga, 101 Hindu, 24, 27, 30, 36, 38, 55, 61, 62, 64, 97, 126; Kapalika (“skull-bearer”), 73, 206
Forms of Vishnu, cat. 10c, 160, 163 ascetics, 28, 44, 59, 70, 73, 227; deities, 30, Kapalikas, 50, 113
Fraser, James Baillie, 232 32, 47, 115, 146, 160, 166, 196, 202, 214, 222; Kapila, 50, 78
Fraser, William, 232 practices, 59, 73, 95, 118; reform, 95, 97, karma, 131–32, 135, 137
266–68; traditions, 28, 59, 64, 87, 106, 118, Karnataka, 106
129, 142, 160, 172, 181, 206; yogis, 27, 30, Kashmir, 52, 141, 166, 176, 206
G 115, 118, 173, 180, 209 Kashmiri Shaivism, 24
Gajasura, 113 “Hindu Fakir on a Bed of Spikes, Calcutta,” cat. 22c, Kathaka Upanishad, 36
Gandhara, 138, 141 245, 254, 257 Kathasaritsagara (Oceans of Rivers of Stories), 206
Gandhi, Mahatma, 137 Hitopadesha, 50 Kaula Shaivism, 117, 118
Ganesha (Ganapati), 144, 166 Hittleman, Richard, 100 kavya (Sanskrit poetry), 206
Ganga, 48 Houghton, Walter, 273 Kaye, John William, 240
INDEX | 325
Kayotsagara, 135 math, matha (Hindu monastery), 50, 55, 180 P
Kedar Ragini (Freer), cat. 18a, 217, 220 Mathuranath, 66 padmasana (lotus posture), 27, 115, 132, 146, 284
Kedar Ragini (Metropolitan), cat. 18e, 1, 216, 220 Matsyendra, 151 Pala rulers, 115
Kedara Kalpa, cat. 15, 190, 193 Matsyendranath, 117 Pallava kings, 47; court, 50
Kellogg, W. A., 290 Matsyendranath, cat. 2b, 115, 117 panchagni tapas (five fires), 48
Kerala, 146 matsyendrasana (lord of the fish pose), cat. 26b, Pant, Pratinidhi, 287, 289
Kesriya, Ramchandra, 92 285, 286 Parliament of the World’s Religions, Chicago (1893),
kevala, see moksha Mattamayuras (Drunken Peacocks), 52 96, 268–69, 273
khechari (sky traveler), 118 Mattavilasa (Drunken Games), 50 Parvati, 78, 144, 180, 190, 222
kirtimukha (face of glory), 115 Maury, G. Bonet, 269 Pashupata sect, 55
The Knots of the Subtle Body, cat. 11a, 5, 166, 167 Mauryan dynasty, 141 Patanjali, 36, 59, 86, 87, 92, 96, 146, 150, 266
Koringa (Renée Bernard), cat. 23b–c, 30, 31, 259, mayurasana (peacock pose), 151 Paul, N. C., 97
260–61, 261 medical yoga, cat. 25a–h, 275–83 Payag, 196, 227
Kripalu, 100 Meditating Sikh Ascetic, 22, 26, 27 The People of India, 238, 240
Kripalvandanda, Swami, 100 meditation, 23, 28, 35, 36, 48, 52, 55, 61, 62, 72, 85, Perkasnund, 253
Krishna, 36, 75, 146, 219, 222 146, 148, 166, 222; Jains and, 131, 132, 135, 137 Persian, translations, 61, 62, 64, 66, 125, 142, 176,
Krishnamacharya, Sri Tirumalai, 85, 87, 89, 90, 98, Megha Malar Ragini, cat. 18c, 219, 219 232; texts, 59, 62, 70, 157, 159, 181, 203, 206,
101, 285, 287, 290–91, 290–91 Méliès, George, 261 227, 230, 235, 275
Krishna Vishvarupa, cat. 10a, 160, 161 Mercer, Johnny, 262 Phalke, Dadasahib, 261
kriya (action), 52, 87 Misbah the Grocer Brings the Spy Parran to His House, photography, colonial, cat. 21, 236–45, 237–49;
Kriya Yoga, 35 cat. 17c, 203, 208 modern, 284–89
kshetrapalas (guardian deities), 106 mlecchas (barbarians), 70 Picart, Bernard, 253
kukkutasana (cock posture), 151 Mohenjo-Daro, 35 Pool of Nectar, 64
Kumbh Mela festivals, 75, 76 moksha (solitary blessedness), 132, 135, 190 Pool of the Water of Life, 64
Kumbhaka, cat. 9h, 156 Monroe, Marilyn, 98 Popular Yoga: Asanas, 279
Kundalini (yogic life force), 38, 70, 128, 164, 166, Monserrate, 73 Power Yoga, 101
167, 277, 279 Mrigavati (Magic Doe-Woman), 61, 206, 209 Prabodhashiva, 50, 52, 53, 55
Kurrum Dos, cat. 21e, 238, 240 mudra (hand gesture), 38, 124, 142, 151 Prahlada, 146
Kuvalayananda, Swami, 32, 85, 87–90, 98, 275, Mughals, 28, 42, 59, 61, 64, 66, 69–80, 117, 157, 159, pranayama (controlled breathing), 36, 87, 88–89, 92,
279, 285, 290 172, 176, 180, 196, 222, 223 132, 291
Muktananda, Swami, 100 Prasad, Rama, 97
Muller, Max, 268 Prashantashiva, 50, 52, 55
L munis, 23 pratyahara (withdrawing the senses), 36
Lakshman Das, cat. 20a, 8, 230, 232 Muslim connections with yoga, 59–66, 124, 206, 222 pratyaksha (ultimate reality), 129
Lakshmana, 202 Mysore, 89, 159; palace, 291 Preksha Dhyana, 137
Lakshmi, 167 The Mysterious Kundalini, 279 Prince and Ascetics, cat. 19c, 226–27, 227
Lakulisha, 55, 115 The Prince Begins His Journey, cat. 17e, 209, 210
Leadbeater, Charles W., 277, 279 The Prince in Danger, cat. 17g, 209, 212
Light on Hatha (Hathapradipika), 27, 150–51, 157 N Puranas, 55, 142
Light on Yoga, 159 nads (formerly singis), 70, 75 Puris, 77, 78, 172
Loo, C. T., 30 nadis (breath channels), 36 Purkhu of Kangra, 193
Nagarjuni, 141
Nagaur, 117
M Naidu, Kodi Ramamurty, 89 Q
Madhavadasji, Paramahansa, 87, 88 Nandi, 106, 144 Qutban Suhravardi, 206
Madhya Pradesh, 50 Nara, 47, 48, 55
Madras Photographic Society, 238 Narasimha, 146
Mahabharata, 36, 48, 157, 160, 202, 253 Narasimhacarya, cat. 24b, 267, 269 R
Mahamudras, 38 Narayana, 47, 48, 78 Radha, 222
Mahapragya, Acharya, 137 Nath Charit, cat. 4a–c, 128–30, 128–30 Ragamala, 214–22
Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar Visiting Savina Naths, 30, 40, 44, 70, 73, 75, 78, 80, 113, 166, 181, Raichandbai, 137
Khera Math, cat. 14e, 183, 185–87 209, 227; siddhas, 128–30 The Raj Kunwar on a Small Raft, cat. 17f, 209, 211
Maharana Sangram Singh II Visiting Gosain Nauli kriya, 90 Raja Harischandra, 261
Nilakanthji after a Tiger Hunt, cat. 14f, 183, neo-Hinduism, 95, 96 Raja Yoga, 35
188–89 Nepal, 44 Raja Yoga, 96, 266, 279
Maharashtra, 87, 88, 160 Netra Tantra, 42 Rama, 75, 78, 146, 202
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 100 New Age movement, 100, 277 Rama Enters the Forest of the Sages, cat. 17a, 202,
Mahavidyas, 196 New Thought movement, 97, 98, 290 203, 203–5; cat. 17b, 202, 203, 206–7
Maitri Upanishad, 40 Nicholas, John, cat. 21a–d, 236, 238 Ramacharaka, Swami, 97, 290
Mallinson, James, 32, 173 niyama, 38, 142 Ramakrishna, Sri, 96
Malsar, 88 Nurpur, 113 Ramanandis, 75, 78, 146
Mamallapuram, 47, 50, 53, 55 Ramayana, 142, 146, 202
Mandhata, Raja, 166 Rambha, 142
Mandi court, 110, 113, 142 O Ramcharitmanas, 202, 203
Manikrao, Rajratna, 87 Ocean of Life, 64 Rele, Dr. Vasant, 279
Mankot, 27, 28 Olcott, Colonel Henry Steel, 97 renunciants, 28, 55, 117, 141, 190
mantras, 28, 42, 61, 64 ojas (supernatural vitality), 85, 90, 92 Ricalton, James, 257
Marathas, 172 Rig Veda, 35, 138, 160
Marwa, 117 Riyaz al-mazahib (The Gardens of Religions), 66
Massage and Exercise Combined, cat. 26e, 288, 290 Roy, Manotosh, 90

Roy, Rammohan, 95 Shiva, 27, 40, 42, 47, 50, 52, 53, 55, 128, 130, 142, Three Women Present a Young Girl to Aged Ascetics,
Rudra (Shiva), 166 144, 160, 165, 180, 183, 190, 220, 222; depictions cat. 14c, 180, 183
ruhaniya (spiritual being), 124 of, 48, 106–13, 107–12, 176, 196, 214, 215; Thurston, Howard, cat. 23a, 258–59
followers of, 42, 75–78, 172, 173, 203 tilak (forehead mark), 142, 173
Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailash (NGV), cat. 7c, Tile with Impressed Figures of Emaciated Ascetics
S 142, 144, 145 and Couples Behind Balconies, cat. 6d, 140, 141
Sacred Books of the East, 268 Shiva as Bhairava (British Museum), cat. 1a, 106, 107 tirthankara (Jain teacher), 131
Sacred Books of the Hindus, 268 Shiva Bhairava (Cleveland), cat. 1b, 106, 108–109 transcendentalism, 95, 96, 97
Sadashiva, 106, 110, 112, 113 Shiva Blesses Yogis on Kailash (Rietberg), cat. 14a, Trika, 176
Sadashiva, cat. 1e, 112, 113 180, 181 Tucker, Orrin, 258, 262
sadhaka (Tantric practitioner), 148, 190 Shivananda, Swami, 76 Tughluq, Sultan Muhammad ibn, 59
sadhu (Hindu ascetic), 30 shramanas (exertions), 23, 142 Tulsi, Acharya, 137
sadhvis (female sadhus), 30 Shringeri monastery, 78 Tulsidas, 202
Sage Bhringisha and Shiva, cat. 13, 176, 177 Shrividya Tantric Shaivism, 78 Tun, Chit, 90
sages, 28, 47, 48, 52, 54, 55, 117, 142, 160, 181, 202; shunya (absolute emptiness), 166 Two Ascetics, cat. 7b, 142, 144
images of, 115, 146, 203 siddha (adept, perfected one), 27, 30, 52, 128–30, Tyagis, 80
Saha, cat. 3e, 124, 125 135, 164
sahridaya (emotional capacity), 27 Siddha Pratima Yantra, cat. 5e, 26, 135, 136
Saindhavi Ragini, wife of Bhairon, cat. 18h, 7, 220, 221 Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, 164, 166–67 U
Salim, Prince, see Jahangir Siddha Yoga, 100 Udasi (Sikh yogi), 27
salokya (residence in region of God), 52 siddhasana, 166 Unitarianism, 95, 96, 97
samadhi (perfect contemplation), 36, 87, 146 siddhis (powerful magical abilities), 47, 142, 206 Upanishad, 36
Samaveda, 164 Sikh, 24 urdhvabahu (raised-arm penance), 48, 77, 78,
samipya (nearness to God), 52 simhasana (lion pose), 284 183, 253
samkhya, 36, 90, 92 Singh, Jagat, 196 urdhvapundras (Vaishnava forehead markings), 77
sampradaya (religious order), 115 Singh, Maharaja Man, 75, 128, 129, 166 Uttar Pradesh, 87, 118
samsara (cycle of rebirth and suffering), 131 Singh, Sital, 66
Sanchi, Great Stupa at, 28 Singh, Vijai, 202, 203
Sandow, Eugene, 90, 289 singis (horns), 70, 73 V
Sangram Singh II, Maharana, 181, 183 Singleton, Mark, 32, 266, 285 Vairagi, 232
sannyasa (renunciation), 80 Siva Samhita, 268 Vaishnavas, 75, 76, 77–78, 80, 113, 146, 151, 172, 173,
Sannyasis (renouncers, ascetics), 70, 77, 78, 80, 203 Sivananda, Swami, 97, 100 203, 227, 232, 235
Sannyasi and Fakir Rebellion, 42, 256 Skinner, Colonel James, 75, 232 Vallabhacarya, Sri, 196
Sanskrit texts, 38, 59, 61, 64, 70, 73, 142, 150, 157, Smith, Huston, 97 varada mudra (boon-granting gesture), 48
164, 176, 181, 190, 202, 206, 232, 277 Solvyns, Balthazar, 235 Varanasi, 50, 52, 53, 66
Sant tradition, 70 Son River, 50, 52, 53 Varma, Raja Ravi, 287
saptarishi (seven sages), 28 Sorcar, P. C., 90 Vasishta, 28, 176
Sarang Raga, cat. 18d, 218 Sritattvanidhi, 159 Vasu, Sirisa C., 268
sarupya (form of God), 52 Standing Jina, cat. 5c, 133, 135 Vedanta Society, 268–69, 272
Sarvajnanottara Agama, 53 Stars of the Sciences, 124, 125 Vedantic teachings, 61
Satcakranirupanacitram, cat. 25b, 4, 277, 278 Stories of the Naths (Nath Charit), 128 Vedas, 28
Satchidananda, Swami, 100 String of Jewels of Hatha (Hatharatnavali), 157 vibhuti (supernatural powers), 38
Satya Sai Baba, 115 subtle yoga, 42 vidyadharas (attendant demigods), 115, 206
Satyananda Sarasvati, 76 Sufi, 24, 64, 157, 176, 203, 206, 209, 222, 258; and Vidyashiva, 115, 117
Savina Khera Math, 181, 183 yoga, 61–62, 70, 206 Vinyasa Yoga, 35, 101
sayujya (godlike being), 52 Suhrawardi, 61 vinyasas (flowing, repetitive postures), 284, 291
Schmidt, Richard, 284, 285 sukshma sharira (subtle body), 166, 275, 277 Virahanka, Haribhadra, 132
Scroll with Chakras, cat. 11c, 166, 170–71 surya namaskar (sun salutation), 284 Vishnu, 36, 47, 48, 50, 75, 146, 148, 151, 160, 164, 166
Sears, Tamara I., 32 Surya Namaskars, cat. 26c, 287, 289 Vishnu Vishvarupa, cat. 10b, 160, 162
Seated Jina Ajita, cat. 5a, 131, 132 suryopasthana tapas (penance of gazing into sun), 48 Vishnudevananda, Swami, 100, 290
Self-Realization Fellowship, 90, 97 Swanson, Gloria, 98 Vishvamitra, 142
Sen, Keshubchandra, 96 Vishvamitra Practices His Austerities, cat. 7a, 142, 143
Sen, Raja Sidh, 110, 113, 142 vishvarupa, 160
shadanga (sixfold yoga), 36 T vitarka mudra (imparting knowledge gesture), 130
Shah Jahan, 196, 223, 227 The Tale of Devadatta, cat. 17d, 206, 209 Vivekananda, Swami, cat. 24a–m, 44, 87, 96, 97, 98,
Shaiva, 75–76, 78, 106, 113, 115, 117 Tamil Nadu, 30, 106, 118, 132, 135, 146, 235 266–73, 264, 267, 269–74, 279
Shaiva Agamas, 52, 106 Tantras, 27, 30, 38, 42, 52, 106, 118, 160; Tantric sects, vyalas (mythical lions), 115
Shaiva, monastery, 50; Naths, 203; Sannyasi, 142, 181 52; texts, 110, 150; Tantric traditions, 32, 70, 75, Vyayam Mandir, 87
Shaiva Siddhanta, 52–53, 110, 113 78, 180; Tantric yogis, 40, 42, 44, 70, 110, 206
shakti, 92 tapas (inner heat), 47, 138, 141, 142, 157, 235, 253
Shankara, 78 tapkar asana (heat-producer posture), 142, 157 W
Shankaracharya, 78 tarka (rational inquiry), 36 Wassan, Yogi, 290
shanta rasa (aesthetic emotion of quiescence), 27 Tashrih-i-Mansuri, 275, 277 Watson, Forbes, 240
Shatapatha Brahmana, 138 Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, 253 White, David Gordon, 32, 86, 266
shavasana (corpse pose), 151 Teerth, Swami Shivanand, 90 Wish-Fulfilling Gem of Yoga (Yogachintamani), 157
Sheeshvalji, 116, 117 The Ten-Point Way to Health, 287, 289 Wodiyar, Krishnaraja, 290
Shesha, 160 Thaneshwar, 78, 172, 173 Worship of Shiva, cat. 15c, 192, 193
shikshadana scenes, 54 Theosophical Society, 97, 268, 277 Wujastyk, Dominik, 275, 277
shishya (disciple), 117 Three Aspects of the Absolute, cat. 5a, 2, 24, 25, 27
INDEX | 327
Y
yajnopavita (sacred thread), 48
Yakiniputra, Haribhadra, 132
yantra, 28, 118, 124
yatis, 23
Yesudian, Selvarajan, 90
Yoga, and body, 27–28, 70, 85–87; and colonialism,
24, 30, 64, 66, 85–87; and health, 23, 85, 87– 89,
98, 100; means and goals of, 23, 35, 85–87, 92,
97; medicine and science, 275–83; metaphysics
of, 23, 86, 100, 128, 176; metaphysical fitness of,
85–92; modern, 42, 85–92, 95–102, 266–91;
Mughal interest in, 69–80, 181, 196, 212, 222;
Muslim interpreters of, 59–66, 212; origins of,
23, 24, 32, 35–36, 70; and perception, 27, 86,
87, 92, 176; philosophy of, 23, 24, 27, 61, 66, 90;
and physical education, 87–90, 98, 283, 289;
practice of, 50–55, 86, 164, 180; practitioners
of, 23, 24, 27, 28, 30, 35–38, 48, 55, 62, 76,
166, 176, 180; and religion, 24, 50–55, 59;
transnational adaptations of, 24, 95–102;
transnational imagination of, 230–63; traditions
of, 35, 36
Yoga Asanas, Simplified, 283
The Yoga Body Illustrated, cat. 26f, 288, 289–90
Yoga Institute, 88–89, 283
Yoga Journal, 102
Yoga Mimansa, cats. 25f–g, 26g–h, 275, 279, 282,
289, 290
Yoga Narasimha, Vishnu in His Man-Lion Avatar
(Cleveland), cat. 8a, 146, 147
Yoga Personal Hygiene, cat. 25h, 283, 283
Yoga Society of Pennsylvania (Kripalu), 100
Yoga Sutras, 36, 40, 42, 44, 59, 86, 96, 97, 142, 146,
150, 157, 176, 266–67
Yoga Vasishta (Teachings of the Sage Vasishta),
40, 61, 176
Yogananda, Paramahansa, 85, 90, 97
yogapatta (yoga strap), 28, 48, 70, 142, 146, 214
Yogasopana Purvacatushka , 285, 287
Yogendra, Sri, also see Desai, 85, 88–89, 90, 98,
275, 279, 283, 290
Yogeshvara, 180
Yogini (Sackler), cat. 3a, 118, 119
Yogini (Detroit), cat. 3b, 118, 120
Yogini (Minneapolis), cat. 3c, 118, 121
Yogini (San Antonio), cat. 3d, 118, 122–23, 124
Yogini with Mynah, cat. 3f, 124, 125, 126–27
Yogini in Meditation, cat. 18f, 220, 222
yoginis, 30, 38, 40, 42, 62; depictions of, 118–25,
119–27, 183, 220
yogins, 52, 98
yogis, 28, 30, 40, 42, 44, 47, 50, 59, 61; depictions of,
64, 66, 69, 115–17, 166, 180, 181, 202, 230, 284,
291; in Mughal India, 69–80, 172
Yogoda, 90
Young People’s Missionary Movement, 257
You’re the One, 262
Yuvarajadeva I, 52

$55.00 USA / $62.00 cad
yoga
yoga
yoga
The Art of
Transformation

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Many of us today practice yoga for spiritual insight and better

health, but few know of yoga’s extraordinary visual history.
Yoga: The Art of Transformation, the first publication of its
kind, invites readers to explore 2,000 years of yoga’s visual
record, from depictions of beneficent deities and Tantric yogini
Transformation
The Art of
goddesses to militant ascetics and romantic heroes. Beautiful
works of art—including temple sculptures, masterpieces of
Mughal painting, and the first illustrated asana treatise—depict
the aesthetic aspects of a practice that has transformed over
Transformation
The Art of
time and across communities. While many objects emerged out
of Hindu contexts or depict Hindu practitioners, others reveal
that yoga was never the domain of any single religion, and
indeed yogic identity crossed “sacred” and “secular” bound-
aries. Photographs, postcards, early films, and other materials
shed light on the enormous shifts in yoga’s reception in the
nineteenth century, as well as on the creation of modern yoga.
Written for diverse audiences by scholars of art history,
philology, religion, and sociology, the catalogue provides
deeper contexts for key artworks and objects that convey yoga’s
transformations over time. Five essays act as a chronology,
tracing the practice from its ancient roots to early modern man-
ifestations. Two essays focus on yoga’s more recent evolution
into the discourses of spirituality, fitness, and medicine in late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India, which helped
shape today’s global yoga boom. Following the essays, themat-
ically grouped catalogue entries explore key yogic practices,
identities, and cultural perceptions within the visual record.
Together these texts demonstrate the potential of visual culture

to illuminate yoga’s profound and unexpected manifestations
in culture, art, and history.
Unique among scholarly art catalogues in that it
speaks to the international yoga community, Yoga: The Art of
Transformation will delight both yogic practitioners and lovers
of Indian art.
With 200 color and black-and-white illustrations

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Edited by Debra Diamond

Many of us today practice yoga for spiritual insight and better

Edited by Debra Diamond

With 200 color and black-and-white illustrations

Printed in Milan, Italy

Main size: 19-103 pt white

yoga The Art of

David Gordon White

Molly Emma Aitken

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,

12 | YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION

This publication is made possible

Yoga: The Art of Transformation is organized

Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne

18 Acknowledgments Debra Diamond

304 Endnotes to the Catalogue

202 Yogis in the Literary Imagination

16 | YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION

18 | YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION

Jammu and Kashmir

20 | YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLITERATION | 21

Yoga: The Art of Transformation

Yoga emerged in India as a means to transcend suffering. Over generations, countless

YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 23

Melting, Expansion, and Radiance

Representing the Yogic Body

YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 27

Identifying Yogic Practitioners

YOGA: THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 33

A vibrant and highly creative segment of global society—identifiable by their distinc-

The Yoga Sutras and Allied Traditions

36 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

Tantric Yoga and Hatha Yoga

38 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

40 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

Yoga and Yogis in the Modern World

42 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

44 | DAVID GORDON WHITE

YOGA : THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION | 45

From Guru to God: Yogic

Mythological Landscapes and the Poetics of Practice

FROM GURU TO GOD | 47

Establishing Real Places for Yogic Practice

FROM GURU TO GOD | 53

Portraying Divine Teachers

FROM GURU TO GOD | 55

21. Thomas Donaldson has also identified a great

22. Glenn E. Yocum, “A Non-Brāhmaṇ Tamil Śaiva

23. Yocum, “A Non-Brāhmaṇ Tamil Śaiva Mutt,”

24. For more on Lakulīśa, see D. R. Bhandarkar, “An

FROM GURU TO GOD | 57

Muslim Interpreters of Yoga

MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF YOGA | 59

MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF YOGA | 61

MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF YOGA | 63

MUSLIM INTERPRETERS OF YOGA | 67

Yogis in Mughal India

The Ascetic Archetype

YOGIS IN MUGHAL INDIA | 69

YOGIS IN MUGHAL INDIA | 73

Yogi Followers of Shiva and Vishnu