Indian Swami Meditation Seat

Three inches off the floor. For a swami, that was enough.

This swami meditation seat comes from India and dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. It is incised wood. A low seat gave a holy man or yogi a clean, set-apart place for long hours of sitting meditation, just above the ground. The dark top takes a kidney shape. A border of incised concentric circles follows its edge, and two clusters of circles and diamonds fill the center. The rim is glossy, and cracks run through the surface. Twenty-four inches wide, 19.5 deep and three high.

The wood was asked only to hold still.