ProtoSiva Seals of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro . The Harappan Civilization is said to have flourished c. 2500-1900 BC Deciphering the Indus Script
"The person on the seal is seated with his legs drawn close to the body with two heels touching, which A L Basham calls, “a posture quite impossible for the average westerner”. This posture, has been identified by Yan as Mulabandhasana, which is difficult even for people who practice Yoga. (See this video and try it). The same posture has been depicted on all five proto-Siva seals found disproving the theory that it was the work of an imaginative artist. Besides this other seals have been found with figures in other yoga postures suggesting that people in the Indus valley were the practitioners of Yoga".
http://varnam.nationalinterest.in/2007/07/the_posture_of_proto_siva/ Click the link for more on this.
These other images of the seals from here
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/bce_500back/indusvalley/yogi/yogi.htmlOf course others argue that the seals don't represent Shiva or Yogi's at all but rather represent ...'plant people'.
Here's the representation again, this time on a tablet from Harappa
 |
| http://www.harappa.com/indus/89.html |
Not one of those postures that I've spent much time working on, below is the only picture I have attempting it, notice how high I am how low, settled and... comfortable Krishnamacharya looks in his above.
Having practiced/attempted it a few times, I'm going with the argument that this is a posture you need to work at and work towards via a lot of other hip opening asana, and over an extended period of time, suggesting that there was a postural practice going on all those thousands of years ago and in the service of meditation.
Looking at the seals and that wonderful picture of K. tempts me to work on the posture again, wonderful pranayama posture. To do so I'll probably go for more daily practice of as well as extended stays in janushirsasana, mahamudra, viracyasana B, badha konasana,....
Going to get me one of Fred's lodge hats too
see too perhaps this alternative view http://www.triyoga.co.uk/blog-yogas-metamorphisis/
2 comments:
I recommend to all reading David Gordon White's book "Sinister Yogis" to provide an alternative balance to the prototypical Siva seal mythos, not to mention a scholarly study of similar seated postures represented throughout history. It's a fascinating book and quite an eye opener.
I find the seals are interesting because they seem to tie in with the Samkhya and Yoga (and Yoga Sutras) period.The question of course is whether they were influenced by those philosophies or were precursors. We have a couple of meditative postures in the yoga Sutras and in Yogayajnavalkya Samhita but these seals suggest a more sophisticated posture. This makes sense to me, surely if a seated posture is important your going to explore the different variations of seated postures but then also standing, before you know it your exploring posture for the sake of it.
But as I said i imagine yoga and asana in particular to have been invented lost, found lost, rediscovered, reinvented, lost and found again and again over the centuries.
I've seen Sinister ogis, the section I looked at seemed a bit disappointing, bit of a cut and paste job but then that might have been a section that was just supporting (fluffing out the book) the main research. Thanks for the reminder though, I'll try and pick up a copy.
I don't tend to take any of this too seriously but it's fun, fascinating stuff.
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.