Bahr al-Hayat
The Bahr al-Hayāt or Ocean of Life is an illustrated Persian book, published c. 1602 by Muhammad Ghawth, which covers topics including asanas used for meditation. It is probably the first illustrated textbook of yoga. Book Origins A lost book named Amrtakunda, the Pool of Nectar, was written India, in either Hindi or Sanskrit. This was supposedly translated into Arabic as Hawd ma' al-hayat, the Pool of the Water of Life, in Bengal in 1210, though the scholar Carl Ernst suggests that the translation was actually made by a Persian scholar, perhaps in the 15th century, a man who then travelled to India and observed Nath yogins practising hatha yoga. The Qadhi of Lakhnauti, Ruknuddin, is said to have converted the famous Kamarupan yogi known as Bhojar Brahman. The Amrtakunda was then given to the Qadhi who then translated into Arabic as Hawdh al-Hayat. He then translated it into Persian as Bahr al-Hayat. However, there are other theories. It is said that in the 16th century, the Indian Sufi master Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliyari translated the Arabic text into Persian, and expanded the text greatly (paralleling, Ernst observes, the change in title from Pool to Ocean). Among other extensions, the account