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Stories

  • Article

The yogi as hermit, warrior, criminal and showman

How the modern world changed the life and reputation of the yogi.

  • Article

The meanings of hurt

In the early modern period, gruesome incidents of self-castration and other types of self-injury garnished the literature of the time. Alanna Skuse explores the messages these wounds conveyed.

  • Book extract

The castration effect

Discover how testosterone – or the lack of it – affects the male body, from eunuch slaves to castrato singers, and on to hormone reduction in modern prostate cancer treatment.

All stories (3)

Images

  • Hakīm Haki, philosopher of the Druze sect. Gouache painting by a Persian artist, ca. 1900.
  • Fakir belonging to a sect known for occasional nudity, Calcutta, West Bengal. Coloured etching by François Balthazar Solvyns, 1799.
  • Members of the Jansenist sect having convulsions and spasms as a result of religious fanaticism. Engraving by B. Picart.
  • Members of the Jansenist sect having convulsions and spasms as a result of religious fanaticism. Engraving by B. Picart.
  • Nepal; travelling butcher in the Khumbu, 1986. Well-dressed Sherpas buying yak meat from butcher, near Lukla (altitude 2827 metres). Meat is not generally eaten by Sherpas who are Buddhists, adhering to the oldest, unreformed sect of Tibetan Buddhism known as Kar-gyud-pa. Buddhists make up about 5.3% of Nepal's population whilst 89.5% are Hindu. The cultural heritage of the Sherpas, however, has always remained with Tibet.
  • Dattatreya accompanied by his four dogs among cows. Chromolithograph.
  • Followers of Sri Chaitanya in a procession with flags, drums, dancing and singing. Transfer lithograph.
  • Devotees of Krishna and followers of Sri Caitanya, dancing with drums, flags and narsingh horn. Chromolithograph.
  • Followers of Sri Chaitanya in a procession with flags, drums, dancing and singing. Transfer lithograph.
  • Sri Chaitanya and Gorind Chunder Rai flanked by two devotees. Transfer lithograph.
All images (227)

Catalogue

All works (634)