Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Note on Transliterations
- Introduction
- 1 Current Research on Nāth Yogīs: Further Directions
- 2 Powerful Yogīs: The Successful Quest for Siddhis and Power
- 3 Kingly Corruption and Ascetic Sovereignty in the Telugu Account of the Nine Nāths
- 4 In Siddhis and State: Transformations of Power in Twentieth-Century Gorakhpur Temple Publications
- 5 The Search for the Jugi Caste in Pre-Colonial Bengal
- 6 Back When We Were Brahmins: Historical and Caste Critique Among Bengali Householder Nāths
- 7 Shades of Power: The Nāth Yogīs in Nepal
- 8 Yogī, Paṇḍit, and Rāṣṭra-Bhakta: Some Reconstructions of Yogī Naraharināth’s Religious Career
- 9 The Evocative Partnerships of a Monastic Nāth Temple in Contemporary Rajasthan
- 10 Towards a Nāth Re-Appropriation of Haṭha-Yoga
- Index
4 - In Siddhis and State: Transformations of Power inTwentieth-Century Gorakhpur TemplePublications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Note on Transliterations
- Introduction
- 1 Current Research on Nāth Yogīs: Further Directions
- 2 Powerful Yogīs: The Successful Quest for Siddhis and Power
- 3 Kingly Corruption and Ascetic Sovereignty in the Telugu Account of the Nine Nāths
- 4 In Siddhis and State: Transformations of Power in Twentieth-Century Gorakhpur Temple Publications
- 5 The Search for the Jugi Caste in Pre-Colonial Bengal
- 6 Back When We Were Brahmins: Historical and Caste Critique Among Bengali Householder Nāths
- 7 Shades of Power: The Nāth Yogīs in Nepal
- 8 Yogī, Paṇḍit, and Rāṣṭra-Bhakta: Some Reconstructions of Yogī Naraharināth’s Religious Career
- 9 The Evocative Partnerships of a Monastic Nāth Temple in Contemporary Rajasthan
- 10 Towards a Nāth Re-Appropriation of Haṭha-Yoga
- Index
Summary
Abstracts
For centuries Nāth Yogīs have been known fortheir political influence. However, colonialismand modernity played prominent roles in thedisenchantment of Nāth siddhis and in the subsequentdeterioration of their political influence. In thetwentieth century, when northern Nāth monasteriesbegan to rise to political power again, they didso under completely different circumstances. Thispaper focuses on the ascent of Mahant Digvijaynāthto the head of the Nāth temple in Gorakhpur, UttarPradesh. Analyzing Digvijaynāth's own writings,this essay illustrates how Digvijaynāth, althoughpriding his predecessors for their siddhis, also took pains todistance himself from these powers. I argue thatthis ideological shift cemented the Gorakhpurmonastery as the political epicenter for thenorthern Nāth community in the twentiethcentury.
Keywords: power, Gorakhpur, Nāthsampradāya, temple print, modernity, religiouspolitics
One can easily imagine that the modern politicalimportance of the Nāth sampradāya (community) in Gorakhpur, inpresent-day Uttar Pradesh, India, would haveastounded many people in early modern Hindustan.Settled in the Terai of the Himalayas, the NāthYogīs at Gorakhpur had little influence outside oftheir region prior to the twentieth century. Yettoday Gorakhpur is home to the most significanttheocratic center for the contemporary sampradāya and the nucleusof this current power is the Gorakhnāth maṭh (temple complex) andthe mahan s(monastics) who lead it. Gorakhpur, named incommemoratation of the preceptor of the Nāth Yogīs,Guru Gorakhnāth – an ascetic who taughttranscendence over worldly concerns, sectariandivisions, and even nature itself – is today farmore recognized for Hindu fundamentalism than forthe yogic sādhana(bodily discipline) or siddhis (supernatural powers)traditionally associated with this order. While theimmense political stature associated with the modernmaṭh may appearunprecedented to some observers, the relationshipbetween Nāth Yogīs and temporal power is not.Gorakhpur's Gorakhnāth maṭh displays only a novel variation ofthe Nāth Yogīs longstanding pursuit of both divineand worldly powers. As twentieth- andtwenty-first-century leaders of the maṭh have employed modifiedtechniques to garner political power in modernIndia, they also continue to invoke the legendarysiddhi s that havelong been associated with the sampradāya.
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- The Power of the Nath YogisYogic Charisma, Political Influence and SocialAuthority, pp. 103 - 130Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2022