Bahr al-Hayat
{{Short description|1602 illustrated book by Muhammad Ghawth}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Bahr al-Hayāt
| image = File:Kanphata yogi seated in Virasana (sahajasana) position (CBL In 16.10a) (cropped).jpg
| caption = Painting of yoga asana Virasana in Persian manuscript Bahr al-hayat c. 1602
| author = Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari
| published = 1602
| language = Persian
| country = India
}}
The Bahr al-Hayāt or Ocean of Life is an illustrated Persian book, published c. 1602 by Muhammad Ghawth, which covers topics including asanas used for meditation. It is probably the first illustrated textbook of yoga.{{cite web |title=Yoga and the Body |url=http://www.asianart.org/exhibitions_index/yoga-and-the-body |publisher=Asian Art Museum |access-date=1 February 2019 |archive-date=21 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221083535/http://www.asianart.org/exhibitions_index/yoga-and-the-body |url-status=dead }}
Book
=Origins=
A lost book named Amrtakunda, the Pool of Nectar, was written in India, in either Hindi or Sanskrit. This was supposedly translated into Arabic as Hawd ma' al-hayat, the Pool of the Water of Life, in Bengal in 1210, though the scholar Carl Ernst suggests that the translation was actually made by a Persian scholar, perhaps in the 15th century, a man who then travelled to India and observed Nath yogins practising hatha yoga. The Qadhi of Lakhnauti, Ruknuddin, is said to have converted the famous Kamarupan yogi known as Bhojar Brahman. The Amrtakunda was then given to the Qadhi who then translated into Arabic as Hawdh al-Hayat. He then translated it into Persian as Bahr al-Hayat.{{cite book|author=Abdul Karim|chapter=The Iranians|chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Iranians,_The|title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |editor=Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal|publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh|year=2012|edition=Second}}{{cite book|author=Abdul Karim|chapter=Bahr-ul-Hayat|chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Bahr-ul-Hayat|title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh|editor=Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal|publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh|year=2012|edition=Second}}
However, there are other theories. It is said that in the 16th century, the Indian Sufi master Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari translated the Arabic text into Persian, and expanded the text greatly (paralleling, Ernst observes, the change in title from Pool to Ocean). Among other extensions, the account of yoga increased from 5 to 21 asanas.{{sfn|Ernst|2016|pp=121-129}}
=Illustrated handbook of hatha yoga=
The Bahr al-Hayāt is of interest as the first illustrated handbook of hatha yoga. It depicts a yogi performing 22 asanas; it describes and illustrates postures including Gorakshasana; Kukkutasana, the cockerel pose, which it calls Thamba āsana; Kurmasana,{{efn|The account and illustration are of a different pose from the modern Kurmasana.}} the turtle pose; Uttana Kurmasana, which it calls Vajrasana; the yoga headstand; and Garbhasana, the embryo in the womb pose. It mentions also the seated asanas Padmasana and Siddhasana. Among other practices, it describes the khecarī mudrā, the elongation and folding back of the tongue so as to seal the passage to the nose; and anahad, blocking the ears so as to hear the unstruck sound of the eternal.{{efn|The purpose of khechari is to prevent the loss of the bindu fluid, and so to prolong life.}}{{cite web |last1=Mallinson |first1=James |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |title=A Response to Mark Singleton's Yoga Body by James Mallinson |url=https://www.academia.edu/1146607 |access-date=4 January 2019 |date=9 December 2011}} revised from American Academy of Religions conference, San Francisco, 19 November 2011.{{sfn|Mallinson|Singleton|2017|pp=114-116, 252-253, 357-358}}{{sfn|Gwaliyari|Ernst|2013}}
File:Kukkutasana in Bahr al-hayat 16.10.jpg|Kukkutasana
File:Garbhasana in Bahr al-Hayat 16.10.jpg|Garbhasana
=Parallels between yoga and Sufism=
Ghawth presents yoga as in many ways equivalent to Sufism; for example, he equates the 7 Sanskrit mantras that are linked to the 7 chakras with some of the Arabic names of God; the unconscious mantra so ham (सो ऽहम्, "I am That") which is the sound made as one breathes in and out, is equated to the Arabic rabb al-arbab, "the Lord of Lords"; and as one last example of many, the Hindu sage Matsyendranath (his name meaning "Lord of Fishes" in Sanskrit) is equated to Jonah, who is swallowed by a great fish. More directly, Ghawth states that the personal mystic experiences of yogins and Sufis are alike.{{sfn|Ernst|2016|pp=121-129}}
Notes
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References
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Sources
- {{cite book |last1=Gwaliyari |first1=Muhammad Ghawth |author-link=Muhammad Ghawth |last2=Ernst |first2=Carl W. (trans.) |title=Yoga: The Art of Transformation {{!}} Chapter 4 of the Bahr al-hayat, by Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari |date=2013 |orig-year=1602 |url=http://archive.asia.si.edu/explore/yoga/chapter-4-bahr-al-hayat.asp#intro |access-date=2019-02-01 |archive-date=2019-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190913153229/http://archive.asia.si.edu/explore/yoga/chapter-4-bahr-al-hayat.asp#intro |url-status=dead }}
- {{cite book | last1=Mallinson | first1=James |author-link=James Mallinson (author) |last2=Singleton |first2=Mark | title=Roots of Yoga | publisher=Penguin Books | year=2017 | isbn=978-0-241-25304-5 | oclc=928480104 }}
- {{cite book |last=Ernst |first=Carl W. |chapter=Chapter 8: Sufism and Yoga according to Muhammad Ghawth |title=Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzzUDAAAQBAJ&pg=PT121 |year=2016 |publisher=Sage |isbn=978-93-5150-964-6 |pages=121–129 }}
{{Hatha yoga}}
{{Yoga}}
Category:17th-century Persian books