ntroduction:
The earliest textual descriptions of yogic techniques date to the last
few centuries BCE and show their practitioners to have been ascetics who
had turned their backs on ordinary society. These renouncers have been considered practitioners of yoga par excellence throughout Indian history. While ascetics, including some seated in meditative yoga postures, have been represented in Indian statuary
since that early period, the first detailed depictions of Indian
ascetics are not found until circa 1560 in paintings produced under the
patronage of Mughal Emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) and his
successors. These wonderfully naturalistic and precise images illuminate not only Mughal manuscripts and albums but also our understanding of the history of yogis and their sects. Scholars have argued for these paintings’ value as historical documents;
their usefulness in establishing the history of Indian ascetic orders
bears this out. The consistency of their depictions and the astonishing
detail they reveal allow us to flesh out—and, sometimes, rewrite—the
incomplete and partisan history that can be surmised from Sanskrit and
vernacular texts, travelers’ reports, hagiography, and ethnography