The Nath sampradaya (Nath Panth)

What the Nath sampradaya is

According to Briggs (1938), in the Punjab, the Himalaya, Bombay and elsewhere these yogis are often called “Nath”, meaning master, and the women “Nathni”; in western India they are also called Dharamnathi after a famous disciple of Gorakhnath, and elsewhere Kanphata and Gorakhnathi. According to Wikipedia it is a sub-tradition of Shaivism in India and Nepal that holds Shiva to be the first lord.

According to Briggs the distinctive marks of the Kanphata sect are the split ears and the large earrings. In the last stage of initiation a specially chosen guru splits the central hollow of both ears, and when the wounds have healed the earrings (mudra) are put in as the sign of the yogi’s faith. The rings are of two shapes: flat ones called “darshan” and round ones called “kundal”. Followers who have not yet reached this stage are called Aughars. By tradition the practice of splitting the ears began with Gorakhnath.

History in brief

The Nath tradition traces its line of gurus from Shiva as Adinath to Matsyendranath and then Gorakhnath. According to Wikipedia, Matsyendranath is named as a siddha in Abhinavagupta’s 10th-century Tantraloka. Historians do not agree on Gorakhnath’s date; weighing all the evidence, Briggs concludes that he lived not later than 1200 CE, probably early in the 11th century, and that he came originally from eastern Bengal.

According to Wikipedia, James Mallinson notes that most of the earliest references to Matsyendra and Goraksha come from the Deccan and peninsular India, and that written references to the Naths as an organised sampradaya date from the 17th century, though Nath yogis appear much earlier in inscriptions, texts and sculpture. The tradition is divided into twelve panths; according to Briggs representatives of the twelve panths meet every twelve years at the Kumbh Mela at Hardwar.

The Nath tradition also shaped the bhakti saints. The guru of the Varkari saint Jnaneshwar of Maharashtra was his elder brother Nivruttinath, who had been initiated by the Nath yogi Gahininath; so the Varkari tradition traces its line through Gahininath to Gorakshanath and Matsyendranath (details on the Varkari sampradaya page). According to Wikipedia saints such as Kabir and Namdev were also influenced by the Nath yogis.

Beliefs and practice

Yoga is at the centre of the Nath yogis’ practice. Shashibhushan Dasgupta names kaya-sadhana as the mark of this tradition: making the body perfect and immutable through yogic processes so as to attain an immortal spiritual life, and he describes the Nath cult as a phase of the older Siddha cult. According to Wikipedia many scholars trace the beginnings of hatha yoga to the Nath yogis, above all Gorakhnath and Matsyendranath, though its origins are disputed; Briggs places texts such as Svatmarama’s Hatha-yoga-pradipika and the Goraksha-shataka in this stream.

The tradition of the nine Naths and the eighty-four Siddhas is well known, but Dasgupta writes that even the lists of the nine Naths do not agree and that all sorts of stories are told of them. According to Wikipedia the earliest known mention of nine Nath gurus is the 15th-century Telugu Navanatha Charitra, and different texts count 4, 9, 18 or 25 gurus.

Besides the mathas of renunciant yogis, the Nath tradition has a large community of householder Naths (Wikipedia). According to Briggs some Gorakhnathis say they receive only the twice-born, but from many regions it is reported that people of every class are made yogis; the novice first serves his guru as an Aughar, and only after the ears are split is he counted a full yogi.

Main centres

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) is named after Gorakhnath, and its Gorakhnath Math is the tradition’s best-known centre; according to Wikipedia thousands of devotees offer khichdi to Gorakhnath there at Makar Sankranti, and the Gorkha district of Nepal is also said to take its name from him. Briggs names Gorakhpur, Devi Patan, Dhinodhar in Kutch and Tilla near Jhelum (now in Pakistan) as major centres in his time.

Where the sources differ

• Gorakhnath’s date: Briggs holds it to be before 1200 CE, probably the early 11th century; according to Wikipedia estimates range from Briggs’s 11th–12th century to Grierson’s 14th century; Briggs also records traditions that would place him in the 7th–8th century.
• Founder: the Wikipedia article names Matsyendranath as founder and tradition credits Gorakhnath with founding the order of renunciant yogis; the Naths themselves hold Shiva (Adinath) to be the first guru. According to Mallinson the name “Nath” came into use later for several groups known before the 18th century as “yogi” or “jogi”.
• The list of the nine Naths: the lists differ. Dasgupta gives one with Gorakshanath, Matsyendranath, Charpatnath, Mangalnath, Ghugonath, Gopinath, Prannath, Suratnath and Chambanath, and other lists have names such as Jalandhara, Nagarjuna, Dattatreya and Jadabharata; according to Wikipedia, Mallinson dates the inclusion of Dattatreya as a Nath guru in the Deccan to the 18th century.

Frequently asked questions