Speaker A
Okay, good evening everyone. Can you hear me? Please wave if you can hear me. Great.
Dr. Vijay Sarde explores early images and iconography of Nāth yogis in Maharashtra, highlighting archaeological and historical insights.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- Maharashtra is a crucial region for understanding the early history and iconography of the Nāth Sampradāya.
- Archaeological and textual evidence together provide insights into the formative years of Nāth yogis from the 12th to 15th centuries.
- Nāth yogi images are found across multiple districts, with Pune, Buldhana, and Ahmednagar having significant finds.
- The iconography includes yogic postures and mudras that indicate early Hatha Yoga practices.
- The study fills a gap in scholarly research on Nāth yogis outside Maharashtra and contributes to the broader history of yoga.
What the video covers
- Introduction by Jim Malinson from SOAS Centre for Yoga Studies about the lecture series and upcoming events.
- Dr. Vijay Sarde presents his research on early images of Nāth yogis in Maharashtra from 12th to 15th century CE.
- The research is based on archaeological investigations, textual research, and fieldwork in Maharashtra.
- Dr. Sarde has published extensively on the Nāth Sampradāya and holds memberships in Indian historical and archaeological societies.
- The lecture covers the distribution of Nāth yogi images across various districts of Maharashtra.
- Iconography of Nāth yogis is compared with other yogis in the Deccan region, showing yogic postures carved on temple pillars.
- Significant sites such as Pune district and temples like Brahmanatha are discussed with detailed imagery.
- The lecture highlights the rarity and importance of these images for understanding the early history of Hatha Yoga and the Nāth tradition.
- The discussion includes legends, mudras, and symbolic depictions related to Nāth yogis and their practices.
- Q&A session addresses scholarly contributions, historical context, and the disappearance of some iconography after the 15th century.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and SOAS Centre for Yoga Studies overview
- 03:51History and formative years of the Nāth Sampradāya
- 08:19Formal introduction of Dr. Vijay Sarde and his research background
- 13:03Early images and iconography of Nāth yogis in Maharashtra
- 18:01Geographical distribution of Nāth yogi images in Maharashtra
- 27:24Detailed analysis of specific images and iconographic features
- 37:50Conclusions on the significance and rarity of Nāth yogi images
- 42:59Q&A session and closing remarks
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
all i'm jim madinson so i'm the uh the chair of the ser center for yoga studies and uh lecturer well i'm now the reader in indology and yoga studies at source um the center for yoga studies is a hub it's a sort of
Speaker A
So, welcome to the SOAS Centre for Yoga Studies online lecture series. We're back today.
Speaker A
philosophy we're restarting after the summer break our lecture series so we've got this lecture this evening which i will tell you more about in a minute uh various the events that are generally detailed on our facebook page uh also on instagram
Speaker A
Let me introduce myself first of all. I'm Jim Malinson. I'm the chair of the SOAS Centre for Yoga Studies and a lecturer. Well, I'm now the reader in Indology and Yoga Studies at SOAS.
Speaker A
this month uh formally although we've got an extension anyway that i and the rest of the team are going to be discussing the findings of the project in a sort of panel format and then taking questions from the audience and
Speaker A
The Centre for Yoga Studies is a hub. It's a sort of a place or a space for scholars, students, and anyone interested in yoga and the academic study of yoga to come together. We're putting on various events. We're in the middle of a seminar series on yoga and philosophy.
Speaker A
well um now during this evening's talk as usual we're going to be taking questions through the slido page which uh in your invitation to this evening's event you would have got a link to that sometimes we've had this once
Speaker A
We're restarting after the summer break our lecture series. So, we've got this lecture this evening, which I will tell you more about in a minute. Various events are generally detailed on our Facebook page, also on Instagram.
Speaker A
your browser it should work and finally if that doesn't work you can put in the code number which is in the email 54302 um this event like all our events is being recorded for our youtube channel and you can view past events on there
Speaker A
We've got a couple of things lined up already for next month. So, the first one, I'm going to be taking part in. It's a panel discussion for the Hatha Yoga Project, which winds up at the end of this month, formally, although we've got an extension.
Speaker A
postgraduate and research institute in pune in maharashtra in india the thesis was entitled archaeological investigations of the ngata samfradaya in maharashtra circa 12th to 15th century ce [Music] now dr sardes also had several articles published about the sampradaya and their sort of material
Speaker A
Anyway, I and the rest of the team are going to be discussing the findings of the project in a sort of panel format and then taking questions from the audience.
Speaker A
he's got life memberships of the indian history and cultural society new delhi and the indian archaeological society in new delhi so that's the formal introduction i just sort of like to say how i became aware of dr saudi's work as two or three years
Speaker A
Then that's on the 7th of October. On the 21st of October, we've got a great professor, Shaman Hatley, who's going to be talking about his work on Yogānese. So, that should definitely be a good event, and I hope R1 will be a good event as well.
Speaker A
course the the history of the sampradaya the kind of formative years of the ngata sampradaya and that was apparent both through textual research uh and also through um field work in india with um daniella bevilla we've been to see
Speaker A
Now, during this evening's talk, as usual, we're going to be taking questions through the Slido page, which in your invitation to this evening's event, you would have got a link to. Sometimes we've had this once before, there may be a problem with the link.
Speaker A
um then whenever it was two or three years ago so i immediately started paying great interest i mentioned all his articles now i think pretty much all of them a lot of them are available on his academia edu page so you can get a wealth of
Speaker A
If you click on it, it might go through to a previous lecture that we've done, things one on pranayama by Elena. So, if that doesn't work, if you copy and paste the link into your browser, it should work.
Speaker A
agreeing to give this lecture also to point out that it's been extremely kind of him because i mean for us it's slightly late it's 7 p.m isn't it but for vijay who's currently in pune in maharashtra it's 11
Speaker A
And finally, if that doesn't work, you can put in the code number, which is in the email, 54302. This event, like all our events, is being recorded for our YouTube channel, and you can view past events on there.
Speaker A
leave 10 or 15 minutes at the end for for questions um which i will i will return for that but over to you vijay thank you very much yes hello everyone uh thank you for introducing me james malinson
Speaker A
Okay, so now it gives me great pleasure to introduce our speaker and his talk this evening. The speaker is Dr. Vijay Sade.
Speaker A
uh various sites of the countries and maharashtra and early images of not yogis so yeah uh we know that is a very throughout the indian subcontinent you have a various sites of north sunday you can find them in this map also from uh afghanistan to
Speaker A
Dr. Sade received his PhD from the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture, and Archaeology at the Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute in Pune, Maharashtra, India. The thesis was entitled Archaeological Investigations of the Nātha Sampradāya in Maharashtra, circa 12th to 15th century CE.
Speaker A
as well yeah this is the map of maharashtra and uh it has uh 36 districts uh during my exploration i have covered a lot of districts and i have collected a lot of data uh about not sampradaya yeah previous
Speaker A
Now, Dr. Sade has also had several articles published about the Sampradāya and their sort of material remains in Maharashtra. They've been published in various national and international journals.
Speaker A
view as you can see mnd spenders except m and despande uh very less scholars have done or concentrated or having a findings about not images yeah these are the districts where we got a lot of images of about
Speaker A
He's contributed 10 entries on the Nātha Sampradāya for the Marathi encyclopedia for the government of Maharashtra, and he's presently working as an independent researcher in the field of archaeology and history.
Speaker A
medieval period and uh about them out of them two chaos are very important uh upon not sampradayas yes this is the ground plane of cave number 29 and we can see here uh on the both side of the door
Speaker A
He's got life memberships of the Indian History and Cultural Society, New Delhi, and the Indian Archaeological Society in New Delhi. So, that's the formal introduction.
Speaker A
and we can see the various depictions of siddhas they have been depicted all over the walls of the cell now we will look at some of the important sites of the pune districts here we can see the map of pune
Speaker A
I just want to say how I became aware of Dr. Sade's work about two or three years ago. It was about halfway through the Hatha Yoga Project, in the course of which it had become extremely clear to me that the Maharashtra region was really important for our understanding of Hatha Yoga's early history and, of course, the history of the Sampradāya, the kind of formative years of the Nātha Sampradāya.
Speaker A
yeah this is the temple of brahmanatha we will see the site parunde uh this is the site paronde here we can see the this is there is a temple of brahmanatha brahman but it is actually very late temple uh
Speaker A
That was apparent both through textual research and also through fieldwork in India with Daniella Bevila. We've been to see some places in the Deccan region that have really exciting early images of Nātha yogis and also yoga practice.
Speaker A
of uh that sketches of fillers and here we can see the lot of images of not yogi not yogis in various portions of uh yoga you can say this type of postures are carved on that pillars some postures are identified however
Speaker A
So, it was really great to discover and to find out about Dr. Sade's work then, whenever it was, two or three years ago. So, I immediately started paying great interest.
Speaker A
can identify those asanas see the close images of some asanas uh here we can see uh some are not identified properly so there is a lot of scope to for future study also yes now another important site of pune
Speaker A
I mentioned all his articles. Now, I think pretty much all of them, a lot of them are available on his Academia.edu page, so you can get a wealth of interesting material there, complete with great photographs of the many temples that he's visited, as we will shortly see.
Speaker A
such as bharava chamunda and vishnu ganesha and other deities are found along with the images of nars centers mainly on the jungle portion of the temple you can see the here ganga portion of the temple and lot of
Speaker A
Before handing over to Dr. Sade, I just want to thank him very, very much for agreeing to give this lecture. Also, to point out that it's been extremely kind of him because, I mean, for us it's slightly late, it's 7 p.m., isn't it? But for Vijay, who's currently in Pune, Maharashtra, it's 11:30 at night.
Speaker A
can see the numbers of uh one four six like that all around there are the images of not yogis this temple has garbage then sabha mandapa and then nandi mandapa see other images of yogis left in the corner
Speaker A
Well, he's a young man. I'm sure he'll be able to cope with this late night. I'm not sure I could. So, I think that's it. I'm going to hand over to Vijay now.
Speaker A
probably of not yogis and it not identified properly and here we can see in this way the portion of janga depicts lots of many various images of not yogis all around the temple so this is another temple of bhuleshwara
Speaker A
Yeah, so we'll leave 10 or 15 minutes at the end for questions, which I will return for. But over to you, Vijay. Thank you very much.
Speaker A
early images of not yogis and their iconography is very similar to other yogi's of dakan region not yogis so some of them are shown in yogic portions we will see the those images this temple assigned to the 12th to 13th century by
Speaker A
Yes, hello everyone. Thank you for introducing me, James Malinson.
Speaker A
yogi and they have shown with then the bags and then the staffs and then the various unless wristlets and then various positions we can uh yes i was talking about uh these images only yes these are some asanas and hand
Speaker A
So, not wasting our time, I will start my PPT presentation. So, actually, as I said, this is part of my PhD thesis, and in this presentation, you will mostly find out or you will see, you will watch various sites of the country in Maharashtra and early images of Nātha yogis.
Speaker A
aranya chatkasana according to jim malinson that this is uh uh similar to pashinimudra but we find uh we found various names of samsung asanas two three names there are two three names also uh in text now uh this is a map of ahmednagar
Speaker A
So, yeah, we know that throughout the Indian subcontinent, you have various sites of Nātha Sampradāya. You can find them in this map also, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh and then Nepal to South India. Various sites are located in India. Some are early sites and some are very late sites.
Speaker A
this is a balalai devi temple in brahmani village and uh this is in ahmednagar district six very aged temples are located uh in this village out of them balalai devi temple and machendrana temple shrine small shrine then mahadeva temple
Speaker A
We can see their density. Some sites are very numerous in Maharashtra as well.
Speaker A
there is also turbat we can see both things means image also and that muslim shines uh also there so this is the plan of uh uh balalai devi tom temple complex we can see here small shrine of machindrana temple and
Speaker A
Yeah, this is the map of Maharashtra, and it has 36 districts. During my exploration, I have covered a lot of districts, and I have collected a lot of data about Nātha Sampradāya.
Speaker A
we can see some images of not yogi's card on temple on pillars here we can see in this image in the slides there are pillars and small carvings of not yogis have been carved all around the pillars uh we have some
Speaker A
Previous work, actually, this work is actually work on the Nātha Sampradāya, something is very less. Actually, a very brief work has been done by scholars, and not about architectural point of view or archaeological or imagery point of view.
Speaker A
this is small shrine of machendranatha it's very close to balalai devi temple and here we can see the image of matsundranatha this is one of the earliest known shrine dedicated to machendranatha and on stylistic grounds the temple can
Speaker A
As you can see, M.N.D. Spandey, except M. N. Despande, very few scholars have done or concentrated or have findings about Nātha images.
Speaker A
image is painted by villagers but actually this basically this team uh timber this image is uh assigned to 14th century along with temple now this is a map of bead bead also is very important this tricks here also we have uh several sites like
Speaker A
Yeah, these are the districts where we got a lot of images of Nātha Sampradāya.
Speaker A
kankaleshwar temple and we can find uh various uh images uh card on janga portion of the temple this is the jungle portion of temple and you can see the images of nata yogis here you can see the image of uh
Speaker A
Now, we'll start from the very famous site of Nātha, Panhalakaji. Panhalakaji is in the coastal area of Maharashtra. We can see the location of Panhalakaji here.
Speaker A
some uh other attires lion clothes coping in karna kundalas and uh you can see their ornaments also some yogis are shown with ornaments various types of ornament we can see uh beautiful ornaments and some are having stringies vessels on uh in their hands this is the
Speaker A
There are 29 caves ranging from early prayer to medieval period, and about them, out of them, two caves are very important upon Nātha Sampradāyas.
Speaker A
uh here also various sites are located we will see uh further in next slides various little information about them this is the putila bharara from syndicate raja and in this borough we can see the various types of images of machine
Speaker A
Yes, this is the ground plan of cave number 29, and we can see here on both sides of the door jamb, we have a lot of images of Nātha yogis.
Speaker A
yeah you can see the images uh this these are the unidentified images of not yogis and you can see the various types of images and there will decrease yeah some not yogini is also there some depictions of native units
Speaker A
There are a lot of seals also, sorry, images of siddhas. We can see here. We can see cave number 29.
Speaker A
iconography of mahudi gate it is in gujarat so we can consider that we can say that these images are of naruto yogis because their iconography is very similar to the baudi uh maori gate of badudra in gujarat see the various postures of nothing is
Speaker A
We can see the various depictions of siddhas. They have been depicted all over the walls of the cell.
Speaker A
this is uh in uh permanent districts just in first part i am just giving some introductory of my fine endings and discoveries after that i will uh given i will show you the characteristics of images and their significance in that sample here we can
Speaker A
Now, we will look at some of the important sites of the Pune district. Here we can see the map of Pune district, and you can see the various sites of Nātha Sampradāya along with the Nane Jundi route.
Speaker A
then this is nagna temple here we can see the some postures some yogis are covered here in various asanas and this temple is assigned to 12th century here also we can see the early image of yogi yes another yogis also we can see here
Speaker A
You can see that the black line is indicating the route, and there are many sites around, some of them having images of Nātha yogis.
Speaker A
not yogis so here i have highlighted some area this is the we can say the core area of nothing is now uh iconography of not yogis so several images related to there have been card on the various temples
Speaker A
Yeah, this is the temple of Brahmanatha. We will see the site Parunde.
Speaker A
evidences there are some traditional legends very popular legends some are given in uh and other manuscripts of contemporary time period then some wall paintings are there in debate also we can see some wall paintings having their names then some symbols and masks like
Speaker A
This is the site Parunde. Here we can see the temple of Brahmanatha, Brahman, but it is actually a very late temple.
Speaker A
main deity in north samtraday actually and several several legends about arenas are popular across the india uh these legions are useful to identify the sculpture of them here that legend is depicted in this culture and this culture this
Speaker A
We can say 100 to 200 years old, but in that temple, in the garbhagriha sanctum or at the hall of the temple, there are four ancient pillars, and those pillars have beautiful carvings of yogasanas.
Speaker A
some scholars they were uh assuming that means uh will be some yogi but from this scale uh from this depiction we can firmly say that uh this adidas is not other than shivans shiva himself this is actually nathan is not a separate yogi
Speaker A
We can see the plan of that sketches of pillars, and here we can see a lot of images of Nātha yogis in various portions of yoga. You can...
Speaker A
these legends are popular in society uh we can get these things from these uh images yes uh much uh these are some uh images of uh not yogi's image this is a earliest image of not sampled and this temple is
Speaker A
assigned to 12th century and here also here we can came across come across several not yogis in asanas that is very interesting we will see uh gets significant position after adheenata and girija in not sampradayan so you know he is considered the first
Speaker A
historical person in north sampradaya he is considered his uh means uh he is also related to many uh cursed like holy organic girls in trick also and then siddha marga also so as we have seen according to the
Speaker A
tradition he had encompassed the knowledge contained uh in it like a fish during the conversation of adhinat and giza for this reason he is always shown with fish uh traditional legends also show his association with fish see some of the some other thing
Speaker A
other images of natalya yogis these images are from usmanova districts and we can see the images having a yoga pattern and fish symbol below the machinery and this is the famous temple of mankeshwar yeah the other depiction of
Speaker A
the yogis here we can see the symbol of uh fish here also here also but these two images are in the same temple so it's create problem actually uh there uh see we can their characteristics fishers features also are different
Speaker A
so we can say that there should be uh separate yogi uh having a fish as a mound but it's actually a assumption we can't sure but there is a miranda in not somehow there so probably this image is of
Speaker A
miranda also some image means on a second image and another yogi is shown with uh gauraksha we have we can see the shrinky in his hand and stuff but we can't we can say we can't say that this image is of
Speaker A
korakshnatha because there is no symbol of cow and uh any uh mark is there see another images from uh maharashtra this is a inscribed image yes overall we can see the temple list where not images are found so overall we can see the images of
Speaker A
machine learning are mainly depicted on shiva shakta and vaishnava temples and some are in chaos and pushkarni also these images are noticed all over maharashtra which indicate his recognition inversely in the area images have considerable variation in size shape
Speaker A
postures and mudras early images appear to be relatively small in size in the later period they appeared comparatively larger so fish is a common character um excuse me here we can see the temple uh 23 images early images are found in
Speaker A
maharashtra and these are the temple list list of temples so in this graph we can see uh the how where machinata have been covered on temple architecture so some images are covered in garbage some are in fillers some are on pillars
Speaker A
even some are uh some images are carved on adisthana and some are on janga and some aromas this uh here in uh this architectural members we can get the images of the machine so uh what we can [Music]
Speaker A
understood about these images what we can understand from these images so we can images are helpful to dating machine ranatha because some temples are dated already and but unfortunately uh that time when these temples are dated uh scholars are not uh uh
Speaker A
given inside information about machendranatha then kol yugini cult and machinata there are many many images of machinata found along with yogini temple yogini temples means instance of shakta shrines so it's also very helpful to indicate their relation between the coal
Speaker A
yogini and nat sampradaya and konkanath and konkan we can say konkan is a coastal land of western india and it extends throughout the western coast of maharashtra goa and karnataka so they are popular uh center sites like kadri qadri is in
Speaker A
karnataka region but it is false in coastal area of western india and that part is included in kokan so machindranatha is mentioned as a siddha known as machanda in abhinav gupta's whose concert is called kunkunamba it is very interesting the god is from
Speaker A
the konkan region and it shows the connection of machindranatha with the kunkan region as we know that khadri one of the important uh center of north sampradaya is associated with the legends of machindra nathan land of women women
Speaker A
several sites are related to machin ranatha and the not yogis in the coastal region like panale kaji uh then we can some sites are in gujarat uh in dubai and then some are in d region then some are in ahmednagar
Speaker A
and uh city so geographically khadri falls in konkan region as the southern most center so we can say probably that konkan is uh identified with machendrana so now uh a total of six images of chauvrenginata has been reported eight
Speaker A
four of them are in maharashtra and two uh images are in gujarat and madhya pradesh respectively so chorangi nada is also known as bhagat in legends and in various states uh references of servanginata is found in the several lists of 84 siddhas also
Speaker A
he is always shown with two additional hands and legs in the iconography uh there is a famous legend about chauvrenginatha and uh we know about that legend uh many of them we are aware about that legend uh the earliest known image of
Speaker A
charanginata most probably of 12th century is noticed from naresha in madhya pradesh see the iconography of gorakshinatha now uh gaurav actually these are the very rare images and some images from the we have some images from banalikaji then pridumala and these images are from
Speaker A
uh that are sindh raja here we can see uh that their iconography he is always shown with danda cows this row of cows here we can see here also we can see the cows then longboat pin we can say
Speaker A
and here we can see cows here also three cows are depicted these images are from uh sindhika raja and uh this image several early images of guraksha are noticed from gujarat odisha so about 14 depictions of goraksha are noticed from outside maharashtra the
Speaker A
iconography of several images is similar to the images found in maharashtra his images from mageshwa these images are from this image is from megiswar and that temple is dated there is one inscription and from that inscription we can say
Speaker A
that this is the earliest image of known image of godakshinatha and it is dateable to 1170 but uh one thing is there uh uh images of machine randa we found from early earlier period means 11th century but uh
Speaker A
text and architect archaeological sources indicating uh his images his presence in 12th century so uh this is the this shows some gap in between machine ranatha and guraksha more research required for this this this image is identified recently
Speaker A
and actually the reference of this image is in lilac 13th century there are uh images uh very uh few images are in maharashtra for some of them in maharashtra and some of them so there are the uh the very famous
Speaker A
legend uh related to kanepnata is being mentioned in detail uh i will tell you here so uh a legend that according to the story kanefnatha once went to the forest of bhudi along with his 14 000 1400 disciples
Speaker A
and then the voices of the pellet drums started echoing around kanikata demanded a coconut from yogini body upon which she replied that if you are powerful yogi then you should plug the coconut yourself kana plucked the coconut miraculously
Speaker A
with his eyes and handed it over to one of the one of his disciples disciple however bahudi stretched her eyesight and returned the same coconut to its original place moreover a sequence ensured ensured in which karna continued to
Speaker A
break the coconut and body kept on returning it to its place eventually bahudi defended defeated kanipnata in several events including sexual practice probably in vajroli mudra in which khanna died this is the legion uh in lilac given in lilac
Speaker A
and this image is the earliest image of kanipnata assigned to 12th century and interestingly this image is carved on jaina temple then some other images also we found in maharashtra his another image also is in panalikaji and some images
Speaker A
are in gujarat see is the often said to have been kapalika and kanopa as his disciple jalandhar natha is referred in lilac as a mentor of govinda chandra and the guru of karna there is probably a panel of kanita
Speaker A
natha with his guru jalandhar natha on kangaleshwar temple it is possible actually because uh yogi uh in shown in this image actually this is uh this yogi he actually the same row this image is uh means uh shown with body organi
Speaker A
so from that we can say this image is also of now other siddhas also are there uh their iconography uh some icons uh images we can found on various temples and kills i'm not going to go into detail in a clean because a lot
Speaker A
of things are also out there so concludingly we can say they are the images of uh various natas uh these are the numbers of images and name of the districts where images are found so we can see how many images are found
Speaker A
in maharashtra this uh in this table now in uh with the help of graph also we can see uh the images of much more than 24 images are found uh so uh district whites also we can see buldhana bid and pune are having more
Speaker A
images of cheap not yogis compared to other districts of maharashtra now northwest are also known for their peculiar appearances there are several differences and similarities amongst their appearances it is also reflected in their images depicted on various temples and caves
Speaker A
now we have these type of indications uh this type of appearances of not yogis and in with the help of these appearances we can identify the naata images now generally uh they are shown with yogapata they are shown with the shrinky then
Speaker A
staffs also are there then peculiar kundalas are there ear rings and these types of current kundalas mostly be found on their uh ear see now hairdressers also make las also are there then sumarini these types of appearances we found on
Speaker A
the images of nat sampradaya now some early sculptures evidences of yoga amongst natives now uh there are some uh yogic postures and that those are related to the not yogis how we can see i will see the 13th century lilac mentions of the
Speaker A
appearances and some yoga sanas also some yogic postures also some mudras also so several images of yogi's posters in the context of nasa are observed on the temples of maharashtra the mankeshwar temple uh at jorge the nagnar temple at andha and mahadev
Speaker A
temple at mankeshwar we have images of natalie's then some mudras are there some cleanings technology techniques are there some kumbhaka's depiction of kumbhakas and some uh depiction of kundalini also we can see on some of the temples see some early images of not yogi uh not
Speaker A
yogi's in various postures this is again the pashini mudra we can say and the other names of this posture are brahmasana panindrasana and nagpanasana this is vajrasana then this yogi is with kubri that's why this is kubriyasan and then kukuta sana
Speaker A
and some of asanas are mentioned in text also see some uh uh yoginis also nothing is also are shown in some posters uh she is shown in padmasana and in dhan mudra that uh this image is from uh nashik districts some
Speaker A
we can say and this some asanas are unidentified this asana is probably vajrasana and this is path now uh somewhere we have seen that is mentioned on 14th century text shiva sammita as well and then uh machine rasana is mentioned in
Speaker A
hadi and is also depicted on the brahmanatha temple so therefore it indicates that machindra asana was prevalent at least from the 13th century so these images are important from this point of view also uh likewise the antiquity of kukutasana
Speaker A
and pachimu tasana goes back to the 12th and 13th centuries respectively padmasana and sindh siddhasthana are the common asanas depicted more than many other asanas on several sites so this is now this is the mudra mudra actually this is indirectly
Speaker A
indicted indicate uh the vajrali mudra why i am saying this because it is not uh directly representing the method of fujirohi mudra nevertheless it depicts the legend when a yogini named bhudi probably in vajroli mudra was defeating kanika according to
Speaker A
legend in lilac went to the jungle of yogini bahadi and gave her challenges to her in sexual intercourse probably practice of vajroli mudra both of them were involved in sexual practice and started to resolve rajas of each other unfortunately bahudi
Speaker A
a worshiper of kamakya acted treacherously and defeated khan if nathan this legend indicates the practice of virtually mudra in 13th century so this is the earliest uh image uh of vajrali mudra we can say indirectly it indicates the vajroli
Speaker A
mudra and practice of prevalent in 13th century now uh um one type of other mudra and one practice amroli so several depictions shows yogis insulting their fallacies in their mouths it is probably indicating amrolimudra in which a sadaka drinks his her urine
Speaker A
there are several references to amroli in lilla charitra now some yogis are depicted probably doing pranayama also so let's see the this image is of pranayama indicating pranayama and this is actually late image from amanda district and we can see
Speaker A
kumbhakas also had pradeepka teaches eight variants varieties of kumbakas breed attention two images showing sitkari here we can see sitka is the chandela depicts depictions of shitakari the earliest mention of shithari is in goresh so in this a sadhaka makes a whistling
Speaker A
sound while inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the nostrils two images of this yogis doing shithari have been shown on the fallon fallon slab of chandew temple in maharashtra now depiction representing uh kundalini yoga so this is the temple of uh somehow
Speaker A
temple 14th century temple but there is a unique image depicted on the swameshwar temple this image is probably representing kundalini yoga a yogi is shown with half bloomed lotus on the head here in the in this image he seated see
Speaker A
this image of yogi see the close view here we can see an image of showing thousand petal lotus on the head of yogi uh and in another image we can say uh here the how kundalini yogi kundalini uh practices shown in this image in
Speaker A
north sampradaya it is said that shiva and shakti reside in the body in the lowest of the nerve center lies like shakti it in its dormant state the yogi allows it and makes it follow the middle null the sushumna and unite with siva
Speaker A
who resides in the highest center the sahasrara the thousand peter petal lotus in the head that same depiction same thing is shown in this image we can see here the uh lotus also on head the sculptor has probably tried to manifest this
Speaker A
aspect in this image the yogi is seated in padmasana and probably this awakened his kundalini so i can conclude in brief that the archaeological assemblage about the north sampradaya is dispersed all over the districts of present maharashtra the indicates this indicates that the
Speaker A
north sampradaya was well established in the 12th century sea it is difficult to say whether or not ever every temple which has an image of not yogis is associated with the not sampradaya most of these types of temples belong to
Speaker A
the shiva and shakta pantheons there is a high possibility that this temple have been worshipped by not yogis along with other shaiva shakta girls it is also observed that written records and oral traditions which are prevalent in the study area
Speaker A
have preserved long tradition of the north it is reflected in the archaeological sources as well the early individual shrines of north sampradaya are very few these are seen from the 13th century onwards at panalikaji vr we can see the individual worship of
Speaker A
machindra natha in the iconography several images of not yogis are observed in the study area the earliest depiction of not yogis are noticed on the 12th century temples such as mankeshwar temples jorge mahadev temples and kangaleshwar temples uh images of
Speaker A
machindra nathan gorakshanatha and kanifa natha are predominantly noticed in the maharashtra 24 images of machindranatha whereas eight images of gorakshanatha and five five or six images of kanibnata uh are in maharashtra antiquity of images of kanifa nata goes
Speaker A
back to 12th century these evidence indicate their recognition and popularity in maharashtra as well it is also notice that districts like buldhana bid ahmednagar and pune have more images of the cheap nata yogis compared to other districts in maharashtra
Speaker A
it is perceived from the images of female ascetics depicted on the temple that the role of the female ascetics was prominent in the north sampradaya every even they were allowed to do naga practices such as yoga because we have some images of not
Speaker A
yoginis on temples hat yoga is one of the important practices in nothing prada several images of yogic postures have been carried on the several temples in maharashtra the reference of several asanas and other practices of yoga depicted on temple and chaos are also
Speaker A
noticed in contemporary literary sources also it seems that yogic practices were prevalent from the early stage of not in maharashtra the evidence related to the naathas also indicates that the sampradaya played an important role in the religious social and cultural
Speaker A
history of maharashtra so thank you i will stop here and uh thank you for uh uh to listen me i would like to thank to jin manson and martha and sauce thank you thank you very much thank you
Speaker A
so much vijay um can you hear me okay my thing's back on is it can you hear me bj yes yes thank you i can't see my picture for some reason that was that was wonderful i could have i i mean
Speaker A
yeah i could have listened to you for hours more and and i enjoyed the images so much but it's sort of tinged with some sadness as i would i'd want i'd want to get on a plane straight out and go and visit and have a
Speaker A
look at look at them myself but we're gonna have to wait for a chance to do that again but um yeah that was a real tour de force i have got a lot of questions but i think i will just rest try to restrict myself
Speaker A
to to one we've also got because we've got quite a lot of questions on the slido page as well so the one question i'm going to ask um i mean you showed i can't remember how many sites in total in maharashtra
Speaker A
do you know off the top of your head how many sites there are there are many sites actually but if you feel if you restrict in 12th century or 11th to 15th century uh most probably um more than 50 sites we can we will uh
Speaker A
okay but you then i mean and as i said in the introduction it's it's come clear from textual sources as well that uh that maharashtra was a very important location for the early night sampradaya but you did mention some sites
Speaker A
outside of maharashtra such as dubois which which i have visited also this fascinating reference to the megheshwara temple in [Music] my question is do you think there are i mean have you restricted in your thesis your phd did you restrict yourself to the
Speaker A
maharashtra region because for any particular reason uh i mean just because you're from there and obviously that's the way you focused your project do you think there may be many more places outside of maharashtra yes yes of course there is a high
Speaker A
possibility actually because of some of the yogi's images i have shown from outside of maharashtra like odisha orisha then mp and then gujarat so there is possibility actually but till that uh very few scholars have done work on these images so from
Speaker A
maharastra uh now uh we have early images early in early images of not yogi's but there is probably a possible possibility of uh images we can found uh outside of maharashtra as well okay yeah thank you i mean i as i said until
Speaker A
i mean your work you mentioned there's been one or two previous scholars who've worked on on these sort of images in maharashtra but outside of maharashtra i don't think anyone's really tried to look for these things so as ever in india there's a huge amount
Speaker A
of data that you know and field work and work still to be done yeah that's so exciting well thank you um okay so i'm gonna now we'll we'll go through the slido list of questions the one at the top currently is from
Speaker A
seth powell who will be joining us i think from california and so hopefully martha can switch us over to him so he can ask his question directly hi everyone can you hear me okay yeah yes hi jim martha vijay thank you
Speaker A
so much for yeah just fantastic uh presentation and such rich images just um quick question to focus uh our attention on the brahmanatha temple in particular those images are so fascinating i wonder if you could just tell us a little bit more about
Speaker A
that site in particular why do you identify those as not the okies and then why second you know why do you think that they're yogic postures versus something else you know some of the identification of asanas you know are from much much
Speaker A
later texts or even more modern postural yoga traditions so i'm curious a little bit about the identification of those asanas and then in particular what is what's the evidence for for not at that site thank you okay nice
Speaker A
question actually yes uh because we can see uh in earlier that uh in my phd thesis i have explained uh in uh minutely why this is uh uh this site is belongs to nata sampradaya because we found that in that this
Speaker A
kumbha mila also 2016 uh many yogis are come there came there come there and they worship there and there uh there is also there is one dargah of gorakshanatha and traditionally we can see that in that reason uh brahmanatha there is also
Speaker A
one monastery of not sombra there just attached that temple there is another uh monastery of belongs and uh traditionally also that uh uh place is uh known for not yogis and lots of sites are there and legends also are there prevalent in
Speaker A
that area so in the because of these evidences these legends we can say that site is belongs to not sombra there and we can see if you see the iconography of that yogis that postures so iconography also similar to
Speaker A
other uh icons of uh deccan region and other area of maharashtra so these are the few uh things hari chandra grad also is very famous side of nassau that is very close from that uh uh that area then now not juni uh passing
Speaker A
from that that area and traditionally also that uh that temple is uh and that reason is uh much of famous for natha sampradaya natha sites that's all there are also many reasons so in this way we can say that i have attached this
Speaker A
image uh this side to nasam prada indeed in this way and another question was that about yoga sanas uh that yogasana is also early because of the way there are analogical study we will do similarly of the images postures
Speaker A
and then architectural artistic study then we will we can recognize that those images are uh yogis yoga images related to yogas and belongs to nathan first means we can say tradition then legends then a vicinity of other north sides
Speaker A
not monastery is there then one of dergah naming goraksha dargah in that village so in this way we can attach that side to not some prada okay and uh what about other question also i think he asked or different like
Speaker A
i said about yoga this much only hello seth fest you have to hear this video uh yeah yeah i think like you jim probably many more questions but i'm i'm happy to leave it at that for now and
Speaker A
let others jump on but uh thank you vijay i'd love to talk further you know about all this so thank you okay um so the next question we've got an anonymous one it's top of the list at the moment
Speaker A
um yeah i had a very easy quick question how old are the pillars on which the yogis are depicted at the brahmanatha temple 13th century scholars also dated 13th century 13th 14th century we can say but uh 13th century uh now confirmed because i
Speaker A
have taken information about other scholars approach other scholars archaeologists and i also that you can say that that pillar belongs to 13th century okay and just out of interest how are those dates uh arrived at is it through stylistic and
Speaker A
uh architectural grounds are there any inscriptions uh some temples have inscriptions some uh stylistic architectural stylistic ground so we can say that uh and that yes there are some texts also some asanas uh the media dimensions is in the later
Speaker A
text means garand san mita and other text but now this is possibility now some text which are given in later text now we have to search we have to find out that these are the historicity and antiquity of some of the
Speaker A
asanas goes back to 13 12th century and we have to search for the another text for that of course now i quite agree just because something just because something is not in a text doesn't mean it wasn't being done
Speaker A
so yeah that's a good point okay we get it we've got lots more questions right uh top of the pile now is vikram so he's got a question if martha could take us to vikram and he can ask it
Speaker A
directly uh hi vijay thanks again for the amazing presentation i just echo what's it had said before um the simple question may be about uh the not yogis wearing a small horn around their neck and i've seen them in 17th century
Speaker A
pictures but i don't maybe i didn't see that level of detail in any of the the statues from 13th century 12th century that you showed when did it start being part of the tradition as well as what is its
Speaker A
significance yes about wearing that uh shrinky and other things you asking about the string is only so now whatever we are seeing in uh that uh in uh today's not sampradaya is actually if you observe the images of
Speaker A
early images of natives we will uh we will we see different views uh different aspect different view of not yogis means at that time we can see the size of hansard horns are different now it is very small size but that time we can see
Speaker A
the big hands and their postures their appearance also we can see different they are not now we can see the noun numbers that uh they are shown with some beaded uh beaded and some different questions but uh that time
Speaker A
means 12th 13th century according to me this tradition probably start after 15 16th century it is whatever whatever in what we can see in modern time uh i think so because in earlier images we can't found now the popular images
Speaker A
are popular imagery of native is in that time there is very totally different and some of the attributes are still they have long tradition that yoga pattern and make la and then some karna kundalas also so that is continue but other
Speaker A
things are uh vanished or we can say disappear after some time after 15th century or 14th century and now modern look is yeah any other yeah okay thanks yeah i was really i was fascinating to see i hadn't noticed before the
Speaker A
the yogi's holding the quite big singing in the hand like that but not wearing around the neck so i think yeah you're on to something there but then later on they start wearing around the neck and then i
Speaker A
guess they have to get smaller because that would be quite uncomfortable to wear those big horns around the neck and you see the same in the muggle images as well in the early ones they have quite big thingy and then they
Speaker A
get smaller so we've got i don't think we'll get through all the questions we might do but let's see next one is from lucy mae constantini so if we can go to her please hi can you hear me yes yes
Speaker A
so uh just to echo what everyone else said that was wonderful and um also made me kind of rather homesick so thank you very much for that um so my question was around uh the image of the adinata and girija and i there was a
Speaker A
third figure and i didn't know who that was maybe i missed it but it reminded me a little bit of the layout you see in the somaskandas in in other parts of south india and i was wondering if you think there's a
Speaker A
relationship uh with text you are asking about text i'm asking about so in temples particularly in tamil nadu you see the layout of the somaskanda like in that way okay but in uh shiva is shown in yogic means you are like yogi you know and
Speaker A
that if you see the legend it that legend is given in lilac also in 13th century one takes to a text is there famous marathi text is there and that legend is famous from 12th 13th century and there is we can see the depiction of
Speaker A
uh machindra natha with fish are you getting me that because of machinery radha is along with shiva that yogi and that legion and he is shown with namaskar mudra when we do namaskar that he is uh that showing that he is
Speaker A
doing namaskar that pranam to his guru that parvati girisha and adinatha so in that way and that other images also along uh card on uh that same here are identified as nata images so that's why we can say
Speaker A
that particular images also belongs to adinata and girija and were that there is no difference i don't know about that actually the too much uh that much but uh uh this is the image of adinata uh because of iconography and
Speaker A
earlier one scholar uh m deshpande also prove that this is image of adenata and girisha in very well in his monograph his small monograph is on that kanali khaji very interesting in that he has mentioned that this is a
Speaker A
iconography image of adinata and girija and machina the third figure is machiendo but maybe something to do with the layout i suppose they could conceivably be parallels but yeah it's definitely not skunder um okay thanks vijay so we have
Speaker A
uh we have a question from gemma d'alessandro but unfortunately she's just had to leave but she will listen to the answer to the question uh on youtube so her question was the postures arsenal's here represented um excluding what we today know as
Speaker A
matsyendrasana do the postures come before or after the iconography and that just a sort of a related point i remember discussing with uh daniella and others in the hatha yoga project we were wondering whether the matsyendrasana is connected
Speaker A
with the fact that he's sitting on a fish so he has to be depicted sideways in order to be seen straight on perhaps it's connected but yeah so the question is do you think that the uh you know what came first
Speaker A
the the postures or the iconography i suppose it's the most closely answered with that you can say because there are a lot of posters and traditions if you see the tradition of asanas so this is easy actually and
Speaker A
there are varieties of asanas and this is possible that iconography should be later and asanas will be first because there are many trends or any practices happen before means so uh in society or in uh introduce or he
Speaker A
you given more trace it may be or because of fish also eastern but what i have shown here that is different actually it is not sure that there is no fish depiction that is uh shown without fish and uh that is doing by some other yogi
Speaker A
so it will be that actually the fish will be that the depiction of machine radar will be next means later and then uh first year will be first according to me but more research will be required as i suppose it's an almost
Speaker A
impossible question to answer isn't it um okay so we've got one uh a question from jackie hargreaves if we could go to her please hi good evening thank you vijay that was wonderful i had a really a question about it was really
Speaker A
interesting to hear about the sculptural depiction of the vidroli scene and this um uh i was just wondering what do you find on penalty this side is there is there a relationship between the penalty the side of the depiction
Speaker A
there of the kanipata and is it yeah of the vidroli legend do you if they're usually a consistency to um the sculptural panels that you see either side of that legend uh i mean that's your uh whatever pardon
Speaker A
me is that uh what you asking exactly i mean sir okay can you repeat question uh yeah so in the in the sculptural panels that you find that particular lecture a legend depicted is there any consistency to um stories
Speaker A
that are told either side of that but yeah uh yes actually in my thesis i have given detailed description about the that site also particular side where and when this uh will be happen means should be happen uh
Speaker A
so i have found that if you observe that image you will find one coconut tree coconut tree so in in india most of the coconut trees are we found we have in south india or in coastal region so most probably that legion happened in
Speaker A
south india and that there is one legend also machendra and it's about uh in bengal so that time kanye mother said that you are guru where he where he where is he he is in kadri mandate in uh
Speaker A
with women women so kadri is in south india so in this way we can say that he he was aware about that area also and that area also known as the area for what we can say the state of yogini or the uh
Speaker A
related to yogini so most probably this legend happened in uh near about maharashtra because now still that we have images from maharashtra only maharashtra and gujarat so it is also very means now we can't can't say that where is actually happen this story or
Speaker A
some relation is there or not but most probably near about maharashtra or in south india somewhere in south india stories legends are there in maharashtra there are a lot of these legends are famous about that about this means there are in their text
Speaker A
also in later text also in the earlier text also okay thanks i mean i think jackie was wondering also i mean the the legends that go with these with with the not yogis in their depictions on the temples
Speaker A
whether there's any kind of a regular pattern and in fact i think our next question sort of feeds into that so if we could go back to seth powell who's got a question related to to that that that
Speaker A
point hi vijay yeah i wanted to ask you about this navanata schema you know because i i'm doing work on visual materials in karnataka more and we start to see i think early 16th century this navanatha depicted visually where you
Speaker A
have nine knots and they're all seated on these animal yeah of course you showed some wonderful images of both matsyenja and goraksha which of course we can identify with fish and cow but the some of these other karnataka sites
Speaker A
the 16th century and later you start to see these not yogi's seated on a scorpion on a snake antelope uh there's some variants so we of course have you know the telugu navanatta charitra but that doesn't describe these
Speaker A
animals associated with them except for fish and cow and so forth so i'm wondering if in maharashtra do you do you see this in any of these sites do you start to see more of these animals uh relating to
Speaker A
these not the yogis or anything you can you can you can share about this yes yes yes i can share many things about that about this actually i have seen that near near bangalore we have depictions but interestingly i have observed some
Speaker A
earlier images means from 12th century 13th to 12th century in gujarat there is one body that i have mentioned in my thesis also resultation in gujarat there are nine yogis are depicted serially and and that staple is there in
Speaker A
gujarat mudera is placed the name of place is there and where there we can find other yogis also so in maharashtra there are many uh means several images are having animals figurines uh animals depictions uh but still it is very difficult to identify them
Speaker A
which yogi is there and when i when we observe list of noun so we can see the variation in that some means uh machendranatha will be common uh that sometimes gaurashita will be common also sometimes in common but other four finals are they
Speaker A
are not commonly found they are locally i think there is local variation local names or local siddhas are included in listers uh whatever available lists are there of navanathas so local famous yogis may be uh that give a
Speaker A
shown in list so that's why this uh animals scorpion and that they have maybe their local animals but their uh iconography of karnataka vijay quite different actually these are the earliest images and we are that karnataka's images are
Speaker A
very later so tradition in last thousand years many changes occurred happened in that sample there so slowly some uh i think so i say actually we have to prove that this actually but i think so many things are com
Speaker A
came in into uh not summer then changes also some so that's why i can say that these that those images are some of those images are not about that however that uh charitable saying something but not saying that the mounts so
Speaker A
maybe those images are local nuts uh apart from machendranath and some gorakshma of the few images yeah any other music almost there's a couple other questions but i'm i'm afraid i'm going to jump in with my own question which leads on from what seth
Speaker A
asked um in the uh this is the last question then you can go to bed sorry we've kept you up very late but um at dubois it's very clear that there's a series of 12 not yogi's and it's the number is 12.
Speaker A
whereas later on traditionally is always said to be 9. and i'm just wondering perhaps yeah sort of carrying on from seth's question have you seen any groupings in maharashtra of 12 or 9 or you know any large clear kind
Speaker A
of organized groupings of yogis but in gujarat yes there is in gujarat and karnataka two three examples these ones in gujarat and karnataka are early as well gujarat one is earlier yeah okay i went daniela and if you find uh seriously observe then we
Speaker A
will get that in those images but very less images of natas okay vijay well thank you that was really fun and as you can tell there's a lot of interest and it's really exciting to you know this fresh work is coming out and you
Speaker A
and you've really reminded us how much more material there is out there you know there's so much more work that can be done and yeah hopefully things will open up and people can go out for more field work and
Speaker A
come and meet you maybe go and check out some of these these sites are with you would be wonderful so what we do now is everyone is going to turn on unmute themselves and we're going to we're going to say thank you
Speaker A
give you a round of applause a round of applause and then you can um go and uh go to bed i'm sure you must be exhausted but thank you so much that was really thanks a lot thank you thank you
Speaker A
thank you
Topics:Nāth yogisMaharashtraHatha YogaarchaeologyiconographyNāth SampradāyaIndian historyyoga studiesmedieval IndiaDeccan region
