Research on sectarian movements in India can becharacterized as following three approaches: atextualist approach, focusing on the religious textsattributed to the sect or dealing with historicaldocuments that concern the beginning and developmentof the sect, such as genealogies or inscriptions; a“spiritualist” approach, focused on individualnarratives of mystical journeys, spiritual quests,and accomplishments; and a third, moreanthropological approach that studies thefunctioning of the sect, its organizationalspecificities, and its identity, both collective andindividual. These approaches are obviously notmutually exclusive, and the present book attests tothe collaboration between historians, textualspecialists, and anthropologists, and the skillfuluse of their respective methods.

It is difficult to apprehend the present situation ofthe Nāth sampradāyawithout referring to its past. The situation hasevolved over several centuries and, nowadays, newdevelopments contradict the pessimistic assessmentsI once had for the future of Nāth monasticinstitutions and the Nāth religious tradition moregenerally (Bouillier 1997, 229). However, theproblem for the sampradāya remains how to maintain abalance between, on the one hand, the demands of themodern world, with the changes that implies, and onthe other hand, fidelity to perennial values, thepreservation of age-old traditions, and thetransmission of specific religious identity. Thepresent authors’ focus gives due recognition to thisdouble requirement: exploring the “powers of theNāth Yogīs” refers both to the traditional image ofthe thaumaturgic Yogī, so widespread since thepremodern period, and to the very contemporary formof the powerful guru.