Picture Details
Yogic postures
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.24099.f35Origin:
North, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1800Description:
Click here for more details
This image of a Hindu ascetic suspended upside down from a mango tree is taken from a book illustrating yoga asanas or postures, dating from the early 19th century. The adept, who is called a yogi, practises different austerities including difficult yoga asanas to enhance his control over his mind and body, thus bringing him closer to serenity and oneness with god. In the 2nd century BC, Patanjali, a sage from Varanasi, founded the yoga school of philosophy, and today yoga exercises are a familiar part of the daily routine of most Indians. The yogi has unsurprisingly selected a mango tree as an aid: Indian villages are often near mango groves and the many-branched evergreen trees are easily accessed. The tree is most evocative of the Indian countryside and features in folklore, myth and ceremonial. It symbolises plenty and fertility and its fruit are the delights of an Indian summer.
