India's top television yoga guru drew hundreds of followers to a tiny Scottish island, turning it into an unlikely pilgrim centre in the windswept Firth of Clyde.

Swami Ramdev, who has a wide following among millions of middle-class Hindus, brought his teachings to Little Cumbrae, a tiny dot of land off the Scottish coast southwest of Glasgow.

Known as Wee Cumbrae to locals, the barren rocky island has previously been best known for its birdlife.

But the islet has been bought by an Indian couple, Sam and Sunita Podda, who plan to welcome pilgrims to yoga retreats on the island within the next 18 months, according to press reports.

Hundreds of followers from around the world gathered for the orange-robed guru's first appearance on Scottish soil at the weekend.

"Yoga is the universal and scientific philosophy of self-realisation and healing. Our personal life should also be full of austerity and self-control and a complete sense of denunciation," he said, cited by The Guardian newspaper.

He said of Little Cumbrae: "It is like the Himalayas and the banks of the Ganges," adding that the island could become "a centre of great pilgrimage," according to The Times newspaper.

In July, Swami Ramdev reportedly challenged a landmark court ruling in India legalising gay sex, claiming it is a "disease" that can be cured by yoga.

He filed a petition on the grounds that the Delhi High Court "erred" in decriminalising "unnatural sex acts" last week and that homosexuality was an illness which could be treated, according to the Indian Express newspaper.