yoga-paTTa

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA wrote:

> >A fellow-instructor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago--someone
> >who has been practicing ashtangi-yoga far longer than Madonna, I might
> >add--is currently researching the iconography of yoga-straps in Indian art
> >and contemporary meditational practice.  Though I am able to direct him to
> >numerous visual occurences instances of the motif [from the North torana at
> >Sanchi to the 16th c.Caurapanchashika mss. illuminations] neither of us
> >have been able to locate any textual references to this accouterment.
> >
> >Here is Monier-Williams's citation: yoga-paTTa[ka] (HarSa-carita, PadmaP):
> >m. the cloth thrown over the back and knees of a devotee during meditation.

> If you can get hold of a calender depicting Lord Ayyappa you
> can easily know what it is.

I missed the original question, there are also sculptures of Narasimha
and Dakshinamurti with the yogapaTTa, though rare. There is a brief
discussion of the Elements of Hindu Iconography, by T. A. Gopinatha Rao
Vol II, Part I about dakshinamurti with yogapaTTa (page 284-286). I
believe Vol I, part I has all the relevant Sanskrit sources. You may
want to look at all 4 volumes
to see if he has one about Narasimha also.

Rama.