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Religion Compass: A Survey of Current Researches on India’s Nāth Yogīs
Author(s) -
Bouillier Véronique
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
religion compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.113
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1749-8171
DOI - 10.1111/rec3.12041
Subject(s) - asceticism , sanskrit , hinduism , vernacular , scholarship , interpretation (philosophy) , power (physics) , vedas , history , religious studies , sociology , philosophy , literature , theology , art , political science , law , archaeology , linguistics , physics , quantum mechanics
The Nāth or Kānphaṭā Yogīs belong to a Hindu Shaiva ascetic and monastic tradition which had a lot of influence on the religious and literary landscape of precolonial India and is still counted among the important sectarian movements of modern India. This survey offers a brief overview of scholarship on three key areas: first, the relationship to Yoga and the link with Gorakhnāth as the supposed author of Sanskrit treatises on Haṭha Yoga; second, the interpretation of the vernacular literature of the Nāth Yogīs, their legends, their strong relationship to power and their convergence with the bhakti milieu; and third, the Nāth Yogīs as constituting a modern sectarian organization, and recent developments relating to their organisation and rituals.