Standing yogi from a yoga manuscript of the Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati (Handbook of the Doctrines of the Perfected Ones)

Indian paintings range in size from the intimate to the monumental. This arresting painting was once in a large-format horizontal manuscript, whose pages were originally three times the size seen here. The yogi’s garments identify him as belonging to the Nath order, which emerged as prominent in Jodhpur in the 1800s. This text on metaphysical yogic principles and other yoga treatises had never before been illustrated.

Such monumental paintings are unique to Jodhpur during the rule of Maharaja Man Singh (ruled 1803–1843). More than five hundred paintings of this scale, mostly from religious epics and yoga texts, are known. The majority remain in the royal Jodhpur collection and a few, like this one, were cut down and ended up on the international art market.