Meditating in Egypt (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
The new yoga art exhibit at the Sackler Gallery, “Yoga: the Art of Transformation,” was just reviewed in the NYTimes.
Here’s a selection from the article which mentions the intertwining of yoga and Sufism in the Mughal court:
Medieval Indian texts suggest that many people found mendicant yogis alien and off-putting, even menacing. To the Mughal emperors who ruled India from the early 16th to early 18th centuries, they were objects of fascination. Although formally Muslim, some of the rulers were wide-ranging spiritual seekers who surrounded themselves with holy men: Sufi sages, Jesuit missionaries, yogis.
Figures of yogis recur in manuscript paintings produced by the Mughal court. Some of these images are pure escapist fantasy, with handsome yogi princes devoutly tracking down sweethearts in Sufi romances…
