JOIN USDepicting various aspects of yoga through paintings, sculptures, scrolls, illustrated manuscripts and books is an exhibition, ‘Yoga in Indian Visual Arts’. These exhibits not only represent the postures or asanas that modern audiences are familiar with, but also the philosophy and spiritual underpinnings of yogic practice since millennia – including the unity of matter and soul, meditation, self-awareness, contemplation, good deeds and firm action.
“Yoga is a medium to rise above the visual world and to dive deep into the spiritual experience. Yogic exercises rejuvenate body and mind and are essential for the good health as well as for activating the energy and divine powers lying dormant within a person. This exhibition hopes to highlight all these aspects of Yoga,” says curator Virendra Bangroo.
The 150-odd images are grouped in three different sections: jnana, dhyana and karma, based on the aspect of yoga they represent.
“The Indian tradition of yoga, first codified in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, constitutes one of the world’s earliest and most influential traditions of spiritual practices. It has embraced a variety of practices and orientations, borrowing from and influencing a vast array of Indic religious traditions down through the centuries,” writes Bangroo in the introduction.
The key message of the exhibition, mounted at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) till June 30, is to highlight that yoga is so ingrained in India’s culture that it has manifested in every art form and tradition through the ages in subtle and
conspicuous ways.
The images have been taken from the British Library, British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in the UK as well as the Cleveland Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts, Asia Art Museum and Brooklyn Museum in the USA.