59 Indian Yantras
This selection of 59 Indian yantras was collected by a French Impresario in 1974.
He had travelled India widely, looking to engage musicians and dancers for performances in Europe and purchased the yantras as he journeyed.
Though I had not previously made a study of yantras, I was impressed by their strength and delighted to be able to purchase them from him when he returned to France.
A yantra in this case is a visual tool that is used as an aid to meditation or as a centring device in tantra worship.
A symbolic geometric design is drawn and painted using archetypal forms that are common to all existing phenomena. The composition may represent the energy pattern of a deity and the yantra becomes the conduit by which the deity receives devotion.
Great powers of concentration, discipline, patience and accuracy are required to develop these images of spiritual energy which are in turn, revered and worshipped.
Their stated age at the time of purchase was deemed to be between 20 and 50 years. They are painted on, from very fine home-spun linen, to cotton or loosely woven jute.
The size is stated beneath each image.
