You have seen them, even in the busy digital age, cutting a shock of orange amid the crowds. At times powerful, political, and other times mythical and elusive, the sadhu or sannyasi is an ‘enigmatic figure’, shares curator Gayatri Sinha. The ongoing exhibition at DAG, The Body of The Ascetic, captures the visual representations of this asceticism, situated within the broader religious fabric of the Indian subcontinent, through the ages.

“This exhibition seeks to mine the depth of the DAG collection to represent the figure of the ascetic over the last three hundred years in different facets, as he appears as mystic, wanderer and performance artist,” Sinha explains. From the Colonial perspectives of Marius Bauer and William Daniell to the familiar perspectives of MV Dhurandhar, MAR Chughtai, or the contemporary perspectives of FN Souza, the narrative shifts and changes with time.