Abstract
In its classical formulation as found in Svātmārāma’s Haṭhapradīpikā, haṭhayoga is a Śaiva appropriation of an older extra-Vedic soteriological method. But this appropriation was not accompanied by an imposition of Śaiva philosophy. In general, the texts of haṭhayoga reveal, if not a disdain for, at least an insouciance towards metaphysics. Yoga is a soteriology that works regardless of the yogin’s philosophy. But the various texts that were used to compile the Haṭhapradīpikā (a table identifying these borrowings is given at the end of the article) were not composed in metaphysical vacua. Analysis of their allusions to doctrine shows that the texts from which Svātmārāma borrowed most were products of a Vedantic milieu—bearing testament to Vedānta’s newfound interest in yoga as a complement to jñāna—but that many others were Śaiva non-dual works. Because of the lack of importance given to the niceties of philosophy in haṭhayogic works, these two non-dualities were able to combine happily and thus the Śaiva tenets incorporated within haṭhayoga survived the demise of Śaivism as part of what was to become in the medieval period the dominant soteriological method in scholarly religious discourse in India.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aparokṣānubhūti, Vidyāraṇyakṛtayā Aparokṣadīpikākhyaṭīkayā saṃvalitā, ed. Kamla Devi. Akṣayavaṭa Prakāśana, 1988.
Amanaska see Birch (2013)
Amaraughaprabodha, of Gorakṣanātha, ed. K.Mallik in Mallik 1954.
Amaraughaśāsana, of Gorakṣanātha, ed. Pt. Mukund Rām Śāstrī. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 20. Srinagar, 1918.
Amṛtasiddhi of Virūpākṣanātha. Maharaja Mansingh Pustak Prakash, Jodhpur, Acc. No. 1242.
Alakhbānī or Rushdnāmā of Shaikh Abd-ul-Quddus Gangohi, ed. Saiyid Athar Abbas Rizvi and Shailesh Zaidi. Aligarh: Bharat Prakashan Mandir, 1971.
Ahirbudhnyāsaṃhitā, ed. M. D. Ramanujacharya under the supervision of F. Otto Schrader; revised by V. Krishnamacharya. Madras: Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1966.
Āryamañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti with Amṛtakaṇikā-ṭippanī by Bhikṣu Raviśrījñāna and Amṛtakaṇikodyota-nibandha of Vibhūticandra, ed. B. Lal. Sarnath: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1994.
Uttaragītā, ed. S. V. Oka. Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute Post-Graduate and Research Department Series No. 3. Poona: Bhandarkar Institute Press, 1957.
Kavitāvalī of Tulsīdās, in Śukla, Rāmcandra; Bhagvān Dīn; and Brajratna Dās, eds. 1973 (2030 VS)–1974 (2031 VS). Tulsī Granthāvalī, vols. 1–2. Benares: Nāgrī Pracāriṇī Sabhā.
Kubjikāmatatantra, Kulālikāmnāya version, ed. T. Goudriaan and J.A. Schoterman. Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1988.
Kaulajñānanirṇaya of Matsyendranātha, ed. Prabodh Candra Bagchi in Kaulajñānanirṇaya and Some Minor Texts of the School of Matsyendranātha. Calcutta Sanskrit Series, No. 3. Calcutta: Metropolitan, 1934.
Khecarīvidyā, ed. James Mallinson. The Khecarīvidyā of Ādinātha. A critical edition and annotated translation of an early text of haṭhayoga. London: Routledge, 2007.
Gorakṣaśataka. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS No. R 7874. See also Mallinson (2011b).
Gorakṣasaṃhitā, ed. Janārdana Śāstrī Pāṇḍeya. Sarasvatībhavanagranthamālā Vol. 111. Varanasi: Sampūrṇānandasaṃskṛtaviśvavidyālaye, 2006.
Gorakhbāṇī, ed. P. D. Baḍathvāl. Prayāg: Hindī Sāhity Sammelan, 1960.
Candrāvalokana. Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, MS No. D 4345. (I thank Dominic Goodall and Whitney Cox for their help in transcribing this manuscript.)
Jīvanmuktiviveka. See Goodding 2002.
(Śrī)-Jñāneśvarī of Jñānadeva, ed. G.S. Naṇadīkar. 5 vols. Mumbai: Prakāś Gopāl Naṇadīkar, 2001.
Dattātreyayogaśāstra. Unpublished edition by James Mallinson based on Dattātreyayogaśāstra, ed. Brahmamitra Avasthī, Svāmī Keśavānanda Yoga Saṃsthāna 1982 (B); Man Singh Pustak Prakash Nos.1936 (J1); Wai Prajñā Pāṭhaśālā 6/4-399 (W1), 6163 (W2); Baroda Oriental Institute 4107 (V); Mysore Government Oriental Manuscripts Library 4369 (M); Thanjavur Palace Library B6390 (T). (This edition was read with Professor Alexis Sanderson, Jason Birch, Péter Szantó and Andrea Acri in Oxford in early 2012, all of whom I thank for their valuable emendations and suggestions.)
Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā. Unpublished critical edition by Dominic Goodall in collaboration with Alexis Sanderson and Harunaga Isaacson.
Netratantra with commentary (Uddyota) by Kṣemarāja, ed. Madhusūdan Kaul Śāstrī. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 46. Srinagar, 1926.
Pādmasaṃhitā, ed. S. Padmanabhan and R. N. Sampath. Madras: Pancaratra Parisodhana Parisad, 1974.
Bhāgavatapurāṇam, ed. Vasudeva Śarman. Bombay: Nirnaya Sagar, 1905.
Matsyendrasaṃhitā. See Kiss (2009).
Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, ed. K. M. Banerjea. Calcutta: Bishop’s College Press, 1862.
Laghuyogavāsiṣṭha, ed. Vasudeva Sharma Panasikara. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1985.
Līḷācaritra of Mhāibhaṭa, ed. V. B. Kolte. Muṃbaī: Mahārāṣṭra Rājya Sāhitya Saṃskṛti Maṃḍala, 1978.
Ragales of Harihara. Mahākavi Hampeya Hariharadevakṛta Nūtana Purātanara Ragalegalu, ed. M.S.Sunkapura. Dharwar: Kannada Adhyayana Pitha, Karnataka University, 1976.
Yogabīja, ed. Rām Lāl Śrīvāstav. Gorakhpur: Śrī Gorakhnāth Mandir, 1982.
Yogayājñavalkya, ed. P. C. Divanji. Bombay: Royal Asiatic Society, 1954.
Vasiṣṭhasaṃhitā (Yogakāṇḍa), eds. Swami Digambarji, Pitambar Jha, Gyan Shankar Sahay (first edition); Swami Maheshananda, B. R. Sharma, G. S. Sahay, R. K. Bodhe (revised edition). Lonāvalā: Kaivalyadhām Śrīmanmādhav Yogamandir Samiti, 2005.
Vimānārcanākalpa, ed. Śrīsvāmīhāthīrāmjī. Madras: Venkateshwar Press, 1926.
Vivekamārtaṇḍa of Gorakṣadeva. Oriental Institute of Baroda Library. Acc. No. 4110.
Śāradātilakam of Lakṣmaṇadeśikendra, paṭala 25, ed. G. Bühnemann. See Bühnemann (2011).
Śārṅgadharapaddhati, ed. Peter Peterson. Bombay: Government Central Book Depot, 1888.
Śivasaṃhitā, ed. and tr. J. Mallinson. New York: YogaVidya.com, 2007.
Śivasūtra with the commentary (vimarśinī) of Rājānaka Kṣemarāja, ed. J. C. Chatterji. Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies 1. Shrinagar, 1911.
Śūnyasaṃpādane, eds. S. C. Nandimath, L. M. A. Menezes, R. C. Hiremath, M. S. Sunkapur. 5 Vols. Dharwar: Karnatak University, 1965–1972.
Siddhasiddhāntapaddhati of Gorakṣanātha, ed. M. L. Gharote and G. K. Pai. Lonavla: Lonavla Yoga Institute, 2005.
Skandapurāṇa, ed. Kṛṣṇaprasāda Bhaṭṭarāī (Skandapurāṇasya Ambikākhaṇḍaḥ). Kathmandu: Mahendrasaṃskrṭaviśvavidyālayaḥ, 1988.
Haṭhapradīpikā of Svātmārāma, eds. Svāmī Digambarjī and Dr Pītambar Jhā. Lonavla: Kaivalyadhām S.M.Y.M.Samiti, 1970.
Banerjea, A. K. (1983). Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha. England: Combe Springs Press.
Birch, J. (2013). The Amanaska. King of All Yogas. A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation with a Monographic Introduction. Thesis successfully submitted for degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford.
Bouy, C. (1994). Les Nātha-Yogin et les Upaniṣads. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard.
Briggs, G. W. (1989 [1938]). Gorakhnāth and the Kānphaṭa Yogīs. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Bühler, G. (1892). The Cintra Praśasti of the reign of Sarangadeva. Epigraphia Indica, 1, 271–287.
Bühnemann, G. (2001). The Śāradātilakatantra on yoga: A new edition and translation of chapter 25. Bulletin of SOAS, 74(2), 205?235.
Colas, G. (1988). Le yoga de l’officiant Vaikhanasa. Journal Asiatique, 276(3–4), 245–283.
Colas, G. (2010). Vaiṣṇava Saṃhitās. Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism, 2, 153–167.
Digby, S. (1970). Encounters with Jogīs in Indian Ṣūfī hagiography. Unpublished paper presented at a seminar on Aspects of Religion in South Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Eliade, M. (1973 [1954]). Yoga: Immortality and freedom. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ernst, C. W. (2003). The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda Translations. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 13(2), 1–23.
Ernst, C. W. (2007). Accounts of yogis in Arabic and Persian historical and travel texts. Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 33, 409–426.
Franco, E. (2009). Introduction. In E. Franco in collaboration with D. Einer (Eds.), Yogic perception, meditation and altered states of consciousness (pp. 1–51). Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Goodall, D. (2004). The Parākhyatantra. A scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta. A critical edition and annotated translation. Pondicherry: Publications de l’Institut français d’Indologie No. 98.
Goodding, R. (2002). The treatise on liberation-in-life, critical edition and annotated translation of the Jīvanmuktiviveka of Vidyāraṇya. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Texas.
Halbfass, W. (1988). India and Europe. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Heilijgers-Seelen, D. (1994). The system of five Cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra 14–16. Groningen: Egbert Forsten.
Hori, S. (2005). Additional notes on the unidentified Sanskrit fragments in the Ōtani collection at Ryūkoku University Library. Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, 9, 91–97.
Kiehnle, C. (1997). Songs on Yoga; Texts and Teachings of the Mahārāṣṭrian Nāths. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Kiehnle, C. (2005). The Secret of the Nāths: The Ascent of Kuṇḍalinī according to Jñāneśvarī 6.151-328. Bulletin des Études Indiennes, 22–23, 447–494.
Kiss, C. (2009). Matsyendranātha’s Compendium (Matsyendrasaṃhitā). A critical edition and annotated translation of Matsyendrasaṃhitā 1–13 and 55 with analysis. Unpublished DPhil. Thesis submitted to Oxford University.
Kiss, C. (2011). The Matsyendrasaṃhitā: A Yoginī-centred thirteenth-century Yoga text of the South Indian Śāmbhava Cult. In D. N. Lorenzen and A. Muñoz (Eds.), Yogi Heroes and Poets: Histories and Legends of the Nāths (pp. 143–162). New York: SUNY.
Lévi, S. (1905). Le Népal: Étude Historique d’un Royaume Hindou (Vol. 1). Paris: Ernest Leroux.
Locke, J. K. (1980). Karunamaya. The Cult of Avalokitesvara-Matsyendranath in the Valley of Nepal. Kathmandu: Sahayogi Prakashan.
Mallik, K. (1954). The Siddha Siddhānta Paddhati and other works of Nath Yogis. Poona: Poona Oriental Book House.
Mallinson, J. (2007). The Khecarīvidyā of Ādinātha. A critical edition and annotated translation of an early text of haṭhayoga. London: Routledge.
Mallinson, J. (2011a). Nāth Saṃpradāya. In K. A. Jacobsen (Ed.), Brill Encyclopedia of Hinduism (Vol. 3, pp. 407–428). Leiden: Brill.
Mallinson, J. (2011b). The original Gorakṣaśataka. In D. G. White (Ed.), Yoga in practice (pp. 257–272). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Michaels, A. (1985). On 12th–13th century relations between Nepal and South India. Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, VII, 69–73.
Narharināth, Y. (1953). Kāṣṭhamaṇḍapa. Saṃskṛta-sandeśa, 1(6), 4–10.
Ratié, I. (2011). Le Soi et L’Autre. Leiden: Brill.
Rizvi, S. A. A. (1971). See Alakhbānī.
Sakaki, K. (2005). Yogico-tantric Traditions in the Ḥawd al-Ḥayāt. Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, 7, 135–156.
Saletore, B. A. (1937). The Kānaphāṭa Jogis in Southern History. The Poona Orientalist, 1, 16–22.
Sanderson, A. (2007). Atharvavedins in Tantric Territory: The Aṅgirasakalpa Texts of the Oriya Paippalādins and their Connection with the Trika and the Kālīkula, with critical editions of the Parājapavidhi, the Parāmantravidhi, and the Bhadrakālāmantravidhiprakaraṇa. In A. Griffiths & A. Schmiedchen (Eds.), The Atharvaveda and its Paippalāda Śakhā: Historical and philological papers on a Vedic Tradition (pp. 195–311). Aachen: Shaker Verlag.
Sanderson, A. (2011). Śaivism, Society and the State. Unpublished Paper.
Slusser, M., & Vajracarya, D. (2005). Two Medieval Nepalese buildings: An architectural and cultural study. In M. S. Slusser with contributions by G. V. Vajracharya & M. Fuller (Eds.), Art and culture of Nepal: Selected papers (pp. 429–503). Kathmandu: Mandala Publications. [This article first appeared in Artibus Asiae, 36(3), 169–218 (1974).]
Stearns, C. (1996). The Life and Tibetan Legacy of the Indian Mahāpaṇḍita Vibhūticandra. The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 19(1), 127–171.
Tamot, K. (2009). ‘Devo Gorakṣo’ is not there. Blog post from http://www.nepalmandal.org/archive/200901.
Tulpule, S. G. (1979). Classical Marāṭhī Literature. A history of Indian Literature (Vol. IX, fasc. 4). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrowitz.
Vajrācārya, D. (1975). Śaktiśālī Bhadra Rāmavarddhanaru rā tatkālika Nepāl. 12–36 in Pūrṇimā 7 (vikram samvat 2022 Kārttik).
Vasudeva, S. (2004). The Yoga of the Mālinīvijayottaratantra. Pondicherry: Publications de l’Institut français d’Indologie No. 97.
Vaudeville, C. (1987). The Shaiva–Vaishnava synthesis in Maharashtrian Santism. In K. Schomer & W.H. McLeod (Eds.), The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India (pp. 215–228). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Watson, A. (2010). Rāmakaṇṭha’s concept of unchanging cognition (nityajñāna): Influence from Buddhism, Sāṃkhya and Vedānta. In J. Bronkhorst & K. Preisendanz (Eds.), From Vasubandhu to Caitanya: Studies in Indian Philosophy and Its Textual History (pp. 79–120). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Weightman, S. C. R. (1992). The text of Alakh Bānī. In R. S. McGregor (Ed.), Devotional Literature in South Asia: Current Research 1985–1988 (pp. 172–178). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mallinson, J. Haṭhayoga’s Philosophy: A Fortuitous Union of Non-Dualities. J Indian Philos 42, 225–247 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-013-9217-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-013-9217-0