The Body of the Ascetic

Gallery Exhibition

The Body of the Ascetic

New Delhi: 30th August 2025 – 18th October 2025
Venue: 22A Windsor Place, Janpath, New Delhi
Monday – Saturday, 11:00 am to 7:00 pm

Historically, asceticism in India finds its roots in the Śramaṇa movements—comprising traditions of Buddhism, Jainism, Ajivikas, and Charvakas—which emerged as critiques of the orthodox Brahminical ritualism dominant at the time. These movements shifted the focus from external rituals to inner realization, emphasising direct personal experience as the true path to spiritual knowledge and liberation. In time, these ideals developed into distinct philosophical and religious systems, each interpreting and institutionalising asceticism according to its own doctrines and practices. While Jainism and Buddhism were fundamentally founded on the ideals of renunciation and monastic life, Hinduism integrated ascetic practices into various sectarian traditions, particularly within Shaivism and Vaishnavism. In these traditions, the sanyasi—a renunciate—forsakes all worldly attachments to seek union with the divine. The forms of renunciation varied across traditions. While some emphasized celibacy, poverty and detachment from material possessions, others incorporated more rigorous practices such as prolonged fasting, walking barefoot, and intense self-discipline. But regardless of the form, the underlying goal of the body of the ascetic remained the same: to transcend the physical realm and attain a higher spiritual truth.

Curated by Gayatri Sinha, The Body of the Ascetic explores how asceticism has been represented across diverse spiritual and cultural traditions in the history of the Indian subcontinent. Featuring works that span different media, time periods, and identities, the exhibition presents a nuanced view of the ascetic figure.

Artists

A. H. Müller

A. P. Bagchi

Altaf

Amit Ambalal

Ardeshir Duishajee Tavaria

Basudev Roy

Clare Sheridan

Édouard Boubat

Francis Swain Ward

Horace Van Ruith

Hugo Vilfred Pedersen

Jamini Roy

John Griffiths

Kanwal Krishna

Kshitindranath Majumdar

Ludwig Hans Fischer

Samuel Bourne

Sewak Ram

William Daniell

William Johnson

“Variously known as a yogi, sadhu, nath, sannyasi, bairagi and Aghori in the Hindu tradition, bhikkhu and bhikkhuni in Buddhism, muni and sadhvi in the Jain faith, or as the dervish, sheikh, qalandar, maula or pir in the Islamic faith, the ascetic is a protean figure, whose pursuit of an ascetic way is variously interpreted….He represents life on the margins, which nevertheless influences larger political concerns, in the present as in ancient times.”

– Gayatri Sinha

The Body of the Ascetic