One of the earliest known Indian medical images, this eighteenth-century painting combines anatomical and hatha yogic conceptions of the body. Its Indian artist adopted the figure’s contours, veins, arteries, and intestinal track from a Persian anatomical tradition, and superimposed the chakras of the subtle body—lotuses drawn in red ink—along the spine. The tortoise, snake, cow, and boar beneath the figure invoke the yogic equivalence of body and cosmos. These animals appear as supports in many Hindu conceptions of the universe.

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Anatomical Body
India, Gujarat
18th century
Ink and color on paper
Wellcome Library, London, Asian Collections MS Indic Delta 74

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