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Although yoga is now India’s greatest global commodity, it has been practiced on the subcontinent for over two thousand years. This paper looks at a small, yet significant moment in its long, fluid history. It examines how yoga developed into a religious practice that then hardened into the customs and culture of Hindu ascetics (sadhus). When the Mughals, who comprised India’s greatest Islamic empire, came to power, yoga’s two main traditions, ancient and Tantric, began to evolve into the ascetic orders of the Daśanāmī Samnyāsīs, the Nāths, and eventually the Rāmānandīs. The Mughals, like their Islamic predecessors (who will also briefly be discussed in this paper), were fascinated by yoga and its proclaimed possibilities, from its ultimate goal of obtaining enlightenment to even more powerful abilities, such as gaining dominion of the highest gods. Emperors Akbar (r. 1556-1605), Jahangir (r. 1605-1627), and Shah Jahan (r. 1627-1658) not only called for Persian translations of Sanskrit works on yoga, but also verbal and visual documentation of their personal encounters with ascetics. Most importantly, they called for systematic studies of yoga exercises, so they, like Hindu holy men, can access its powers. For scholars, these works, particularly the paintings, continue to serve as learning devices, but in a different way. They shed light on the evolution of yoga, as well as bear witness to the subcontinent’s ever changing societal, political, and religious landscape and how yogis struck a balance between preserving their faith and adjusting to the political, societal, and religious changes around them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]