Murad Khan Mumtaz

Sufis borrowed the garb of the yogi—both literally and metaphorically—because they identified with the ideals of the yogi. They inhabited the same environment, spoke the same language and in some cases even shared practices… Over time, the idea of the renunciate yogi became so deeply embedded in the Indo-Muslim fold that today, in a post-colonial, post-partition, acutely sectarian and politicized era of an “Islamized” Pakistan at perpetual loggerheads with a “Hindutva” India, the yogi continues to resonate in the popular imagination, evoking a deep sense of nostalgia steeped in both spiritual aspiration and a longing for unfettered love and reunion.

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Originally published as Chapter 2 of Faces of God: Images of Devotion in Indo-Muslim Painting, 1500–1800, Brill, 2023. Republished here with warm thanks.