Indian Sculpture and Painting, Illustrated by Typical Masterpieces, with an Explanation of their Motives and Ideals c7.76

c7.76

For the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the appearance of an Indian Yogi in the flesh, I give the illustration of a celebrated Brahmin Yogi of Benares, Swami Bhaskarânanda Saraswati, who at the age of 17 abandoned a large fortune, and exchanged brilliant worldly prospects for the life of an ascetic, practising the principles of Yoga.¹ He lived to an advanced age and is still revered as a Hindu saint. The subject, according to European ideas, hardly seems one to lend itself to a high æsthetic ideal. Yet how beautiful it is when the spiritual, rather than the physical, becomes the type which the artist brings into view!