ktism and Hathayoga

.
James Mallinson
jim@khecari.com
Please do not cite or pass on without the authors permission
March ,

Introduction
n this paper shall examine one of the ways that ktism endured after its
heyday, the aiva Age magisterially documented by Alexis Sanderson in
a recent book-length article. e thirteenth century, the end of aivisms
period of dominance, coincided with the rise of yoga, specically yoga which
used the techniques known as hatha,
. to a position of dominance among the
soteriological methods employed in ndia. t is hathayogas
relationship
.
with aivism and its kta manifestations that is the subject of this paper.
Scholarship on hathayoga,
my own included, unanimously declares it
.
to be a reformation of tantric yoga introduced by the gurus of the Nth
sampradya,
in particular their supposed founder, oraksa.
. n much sec.
ondary literature the phrases Nth yoga and hathayoga
are used inter.
changeably. When other traditions are seen to employ the practices or terminology of hathayoga,
they are said to be borrowing from the Nths.
.
oraksa,
who
probably
ourished in the twelfth century, and Matsyen.
dra, who according to tradition was oraksas
. guru but is likely to have
lived three centuries before him, were exponents of the kta cult of the
Pacimmnya or western stream of Kaula aivism. To this day the Nth
S
.
t is at this time that yoga is rst included among the daranas, in the c. th-century Sarvasiddhntasamgraha,
.
which was composed by an anonymous Advaitavedntin (
). Over the subsequent centuries
the orthodox (in particular Vedntin) interest in the hat.ha techniques of yoga continued to grow, culminating in
the composition in the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries of a group of Yoga Upanis. ads which consist for the
most part of passages from earlier hat.ha texts (
).
xamples of this are legion. To give just three, from dierent contexts
(
) who describes all the
texts used to compose the Yoga Upanis. ads as Nth V
(
viii-xii) who says that Kabr borrowed
various elements from the tradition of the Nths and
V
(
) who says that the Rmnands
have been deeply inuenced by the Nths.
or an overview of the history of the Nth sampradya
see M
c.
.

Yogs are renowned as tntrika adepts and their monasteries are often situated near important goddess temples, such as Jwalamukhi in the Kangra
district of imachal Pradesh or evi Pattan near the ndia-Nepal border.
e Pacimmnya tradition is no longer extant and Nth liturgy is now
more in keeping with the tradition of the foremost surviving kta cult,
that of the aksi
or southern stream of Kaula aivism, with the
. nmnya
.
goddess la- or Tripur-sundar being the focus of their worship.
e Nths kta credentials are pukka. e ascription to them of both
the invention of hathayoga
and the composition of the corpus of Sanskrit
.
texts which teach its practice stands on shakier ground it derives from the
claims of the Nths themselves and from the fact that of the small number of
texts on hathayoga
that have been edited, some are ascribed to Nth gurus or
.
mention them as the revealers of their doctrines. ut the corpus of Sanskrit
works on hathayoga
- which is our only source for hathayogas
formative
.
.
period - has, perhaps surprisingly considering the widespread popularity
of yoga today, been the subject of very little critical study. Much of my
research of the last few years has concentrated on identifying the texts that
constitute this corpus and using them to examine how hathayoga
developed
.
and who practised it. n the rst part of this paper shall summarise what
constituted early hathayoga.
shall then show how, in contemporaneous
.
taxonomies of yoga, kta techniques were grouped separately from hatha.
yoga, under the name laya. Next shall show how in the Hathapradpik,
.
the text which became hathayogas
locus classicus, the kta techniques of
.
layayoga were included under the rubric of hatha
. and how at the same time
the purpose of hathayoga
was realigned to be more in keeping with that of
.
laya. shall then identify the practitioners of early hathayoga
- who were not
.
ktas - and show how they have continued to be its torchbearers. n the
nal part of the paper shall attempt to locate these developments in their
wider context.

Early Hathayoga
.
e earliest references to hathayoga
are scattered mentions in uddhist canon.
ical works and their exegesis dating from the eighth century onwards, in
which it is the soteriological method of last resort. n its earliest denition,
in Pun. darkas
eleventh-century Vimalaprabh commentary on the Kla.
See e.g. V
.
On the uddhist texts which mention hat.hayoga, see irch

cakratantra, hathayoga
is said to bring about the unchanging moment
.
(aksarak
sa
.
. na)
. through the practice of nda by forcefully making the breath
enter the central channel and through restraining the bindu of the bodhicitta
in the vajra of the lotus of wisdom. While the means employed are not
specied, the ends, in particular restraining bindu, semen, and making the
breath enter the central channel, are similar to those mentioned in the earliest descriptions of the practices of hathayoga,
to which now turn.
.
n seeking to establish a corpus of early works on the practices of hatha.
yoga we are greatly assisted by the Hathapradpik,
which
can
be
dated
to
.
approximately
. ts composer, Svtmrma, used verses from at
least twenty texts to compile his hugely inuential work, whose stated
aim is to be a light on hatha
. in the darkness of a multitude of doctrines.
Only four of the texts drawn upon by Svtmrma mention hatha
. or
hathayoga
by name and of those only one, the Datttreyayogastra, a Vais.
.
nava
work,
gives
a
detailed
exposition
of
its
techniques.
ts
ha
thayoga
con.
.
n this denition hat.hayoga is a gloss of the mlas hat.ha. is is the rst of many instances of practices
referred to in primary sources simply as hat.ha being said to constitute hat.hayoga in later systematisations, exegesis
and secondary literature. is has resulted in the Hat.hapradpik often being referred to in secondary literature
as the Hat.hayogapradpik when only a tiny fraction of its manuscripts call it thus. We see in this the scholastic
tendency towards categorisation, to identify dierent types of yoga and to pit them against one another. ut it
should be noted that the situation is more nuanced in the texts themselves even those which do categorise dierent
varieties do not see them as altogether dierent types of yoga but as contrasting (yet sometimes complementary)
methods of achieving yoga. us compounds such as hat.hayoga and layayoga should be understood as tatpurus.as
with an instrumental case relationship yoga by means of hat.ha etc. e one exception to this is rjayoga, which,
as the aim of all methods of yoga, should be understood either as a karmadhraya or as a tatpurus.a of genitive
relationship the royal yoga. A small number of texts do identify their yoga as rjayoga but this is to emphasise
the superiority of their method above all others rather than give a denition of rjayoga (see e.g. Amanaska . - ,
V
).
is earliest denition of hat.hayoga is repeated verbatim in other uddhist exegetical works (see
).
e verse from the Klacakratantra on which Pun. darka
is commentating ( . cd) says that if the siddhi desired
.
by mantra-practitioners does not arise as a result of purication, yogic withdrawal and so forth, then they should
accomplish it by forcefully (hat.hena) restraining bindu in the vajra in the lotus
samuddhipratyhrdibhir
vai yadi bhavati na s mantrinm
is.t.asiddhir
.
.
ndbhysd dhat.henbjagakuliamanau
. sdhayed bindurodht |
Pun. darka
glosses hat.hena with hat.hayogena and denes it thus (Vimalaprabh Vol. , p.
.

idnm. hat.hayoga ucyate | iha yad pratyhrdibhir bimbe dr. s.t.e saty aks.araks.ana
. m. notpadyate
ayantritaprnatay
tad ndbhysd dhat.hena prna
.
. m. madhyamym. vhayitv prajbjagatakuliamanau
hat.hayogah. ||
. bodhicittabindunirodhd aks.araks.ana
. m. sdhayen nihspandeneti
.

- .
or the details of the texts used and verses borrowed, see my forthcoming monograph Yoga and Yogis: the
Texts, Techniques and Practitioners of Traditional Hat.hayoga.
Hat.hapradpik .
bhrnty bahumatadhvnte rjayogam ajnatm |
hat.hapradpikm. dhatte svtmrmah. kr. pkarah. ||
Datttreyayogastra ,
. , . , . , . .

Yogabja

Amaraughaprabodha , , , ,

and ivasamhit
.

sists of a yoga of the eight limbs also taught in Patajalis Yogastra but
here ascribed to Yjavalkya and others, or an alternative set of practices
employed by Kapila and other siddhas, practices which are thus the distinguishing feature of early hathayoga.
.
ese practices comprise ten physical techniques which in later works
all came to be classed as mudrs. Some of these techniques, in particular
those known in hatha
. works as the three bandhas - mla, jlandhara and
ud. dyna
- are attitudes to be assumed in meditation, ascetic practice or
.
breath control, which are taught or mentioned in a wide variety of earlier
eir primary aim, which they
works the others are unique to hathayoga.
.
eect either pneumatically, by making the breath enter the central channel
and rise upwards, or mechanically, is to stop the lunar bindu, or semen,
which is equated with amrta,
. the nectar of immortality, from dripping down
from its store in the head and being consumed in the solar re at the base
of the central channel. e techniques of early hathayoga
are thus direct
.
methods of addressing the ancient (and still prevalent) ndic concern with
the preservation of semen, which results from its being considered to be the
vital principle and its loss being thought to lead to weakness and death. e
hathayogin
might practise vipartakaran,
.
. inverting himself in order to use
gravity to keep his bindu in his head. Or he can, applying khecarmudr,
insert his tongue into the opening behind his uvula thereby sealing bindu
in the cranial cavity. Or he might, should he ejaculate, create a vacuum in
his abdomen and resorb his bindu by means of vajrolimudr.
ight of the works used to compile the Hathapradpik
teach one or more
.
of the Datttreyayogastras alternative hatha
. techniques. ese constitute
the corpus of Sanskrit texts on what call early hathayoga
in contrast to the
.
more catholic classical hathayoga
of the Hathapradpik
and subsequent
.
.
works. e texts of the corpus are, in approximate chronological order,
See e.g. Sarvajnottara Yogapda ab as edited by V
(

n. ) sanam. ruciram. baddhv

rdhvakyam adhahira
. h,
. which teaches that in all the four seated sanas that have just been named the head is to
be held down, in the manner of the hat.hayogic jlandharabandha.
A measure of the validity of using the Hat.hapradpik to establish this corpus in this way - as well as of the
Hat.hapradpiks inclusivity - is that we know of no text which predates it and teaches early hat.ha techniques but
was not used in its compilation. (As noted above, some of the hat.ha practices, in particular the three bandhas,
are taught in earlier works, but as one among a variety of attitudes to be assumed in meditational, ascetic or yogic
postures they are not treated individually, nor do they take the names by which they are known in hat.hayogic
works.)
n terms of chronology, the corpus splits neatly into two halves. e Amr. tasiddhi, Datttreyayogastra and
Vivekamrtan. da
catalogue of
. are named or cited in fourteenth-century works (u ston Rin chen grubs
canonical works in the case of the Amr. tasiddhi (see S
), the
rngadharapaddhati in the case
of the Datttreyayogastra (over
verses cited) and Vivekamrtan. da
. ( verses shared)). Verses from the central
core of the Goraks.aataka are found in the Yogabja, which also borrows from the Datttreyayogastra. is,
together with the coherence of the Goraks.aatakas teachings, suggests that the Goraks.aataka was the source. e
four texts that constitute the second half of the corpus are all to some extent derivative of those in the rst half,

the following
- Amrtasiddhi
.
- Datttreyayogastra
- Goraksaataka
.
- Vivekamrtan. da
.
- Yogabja
- Khecarvidy
- Amaraughaprabodha
- ivasamhit
.
shall now briey summarise the techniques of hathayoga
as taught in
.
each of these works (other than the Datttreyayogastra, which has already
been mentioned).
Amrtasiddhi
.
e sectarian origins of the Amrtasiddhi
are unclear it is explicitly aiva but
.
contains no specically kta teachings. e hatha
. techniques taught in
the Amrtasiddhi
(which are not named hatha)
are used to make the breath
.
.
enter the central channel and raise it upwards in order to reverse the usual
direction of ow in the channels of the body and stop bindu from moving
downwards. e Amrtasiddhi
is the rst text to teach the pervasive hatha.
.
yogic physiology in which the moon is situated at the top of the central
channel from where it rains down amrta
. which, if preventative yogic techniques are not employed, is then burnt up in the sun situated at the bottom
indicating their later date. urther details of their dependence on the earlier works are given in the notes to the
descriptions of the texts below.
S
, on the strength of the Amr. tasiddhi teaching hat.hayoga and the text cycle which it is part of being
traced back to Virpks. a/Virpks. antha, identies the text as Nth (
- ). n the text itself, however,
there is nothing to suggest that it was composed in a Nth, or even Pacimmnya, milieu. As well as there having
been a siddha called Virpks. a/Virp, the name Virpks. a has been used from at least the th century to refer
to the form of iva that presides over the Vijayanagar region (V
) and the Amr. tasiddhi could also
be a product of that aiva tradition, in particular the Klamukha cult that ourished there prior to the Sangama
kings patronage of Vais. navism.
.
Amr. tasiddhi - .

of the central channel. t also introduces the widespread hathayogic

no.
tion of the identication of the breath, semen and mind by stopping any
one of these three, all three are stopped.
e principle aim of the hatha
is thus the
. techniques of the Amrtasiddhi
.
same as those of the Datttreyayogastra to stop or reverse the movement
of bindu. Neither text associates the practices of hatha
or
.
. with Kun. dalin
the cakras.
Goraksaataka
.
Probably contemporaneous with the Datttreyayogastra, i.e. composed in
the thirteenth century, are the rst texts on yoga to be associated with
oraksa,
and Vivekamrtan. da.
. the Goraksaataka
.
. Unlike the Datttreyayogastra, neither of these works calls its yoga hatha
it is just yoga. e
.
Goraksaataka
teaches that liberation is to be attained by controlling the
.
mind through controlling the breath. One method of controlling the breath
is to stimulate Kun. dalin,
which can be done either by using the three hatha.
.
yogic bandhas mentioned earlier, or through sarasvatclana, stimulating
Sarasvat. Sarasvat or akti-clana is not taught in the Datttreyayogastra but it is included among the mudrs of the Hathapradpiks
classical
.
hathayoga.
n the Goraksaataka,
it involves wrapping in a cloth the tongue,
.
.
which is identied with Sarasvat and said to be the goddess at one end of
the central channel, and tugging on it in order to stimulate Kun. dalin,
who
.
dwells at the other end. Nowhere in the Goraksaataka
is
the
preservation
.
of bindu or amrta
. mentioned.
n the Amr. tasiddhi (as in later hat.hayogic texts) the archaic triad of sun, moon and re is reduced to the pair
sun and moon, the sun and re being identied as one (AS . ).
See Amr. tasiddhi viveka .
e Datttreyayogastra makes no mention of the usual six cakras of yogic physiology (although at verse
the sahasrakamala, which is sometimes added to that schema as a seventh cakra, is said to be the source
of amr. ta) but does refer to Kun. dalin
in passing, saying that in the paricaya stage of yoga she and the breath
.
are made to move by re ( ). e Amr. tasiddhi mentions neither Kun. dalin
nor cakras. (At . - it does
.
say, however, that a solar rajas, the feminine equivalent of bindu, is found in all beings wrapped in the goddess
element (devtattvasamvr. tah),
for the text of
. and that its union with the lunar bindu is yoga see footnote
this passage. f. Vivekamrtan. da
- , Yogabja .)
.
On the confusion between the Goraks.aataka and the Vivekamrtan. da
. caused by the latter also coming to be
known, among other names, as the Goraks.aataka, see M
b - .
e text says that the three bandhas are used to restrain the breath in order to stimulate Kun. dalin,
who is
.
to be stimulated in order to control the breath, suggesting that the Kun. dalin
paradigm has been imposed onto a
.
yoga that worked on breath alone.
Later redactions of the Goraks.aatakas verses, such as that in the Hat.hapradpik, through textual corruption
and, we must assume, either a rupture in the transmission of the practice or a dissociation of the textual and
practical traditions, say that the cloth is to be wrapped around the waist (see M
b).

Vivekamrtan. da
.
e framework of the text of the Vivekamrtan. da
. is a description of the wellknown six cakras of yogic physiology, within which are passages on a variety
of yogic subjects including an enumeration of a sixfold yoga and a section
on Kun. dalin
in which awakening her by means of re yoga (vahniyogena)
.
and raising her, together with the mind and the breath, to the brahmadvra,
is said to be the way for yogins to become liberated. mmediately after this
passage on Kun. dalin
comes a description of ve hathayogic
mudrs, none
.
.
of which is said to bring about the raising of Kun. dalin.
ey have a range
.
of physical benets, including the raising of the apna breath, but the aim
most emphasised in their descriptions, particularly in that of khecarmudr,
is the preservation of bindu. Later in the text the hathayogic
mudr called
.
vipartakaran,
. the inverter, is taught and this too is said to be a method
for stopping the downward ow of nectar Kun. dalin
is not mentioned.
.
Yogabja
e Yogabja is a dialogue between iva and the goddess. t makes no
mention of any Nth gurus. ts yoga is similar to that of the Goraksaata.
ka in that it uses the three hathayogic
bandhas
and
akticlan
mudr.
e
.
awakening of Kun. dalin
is
the
purpose
of
many
of
the
yoga
practices
taught
.
in the text preserving bindu or amrta
. is mentioned in passing twice.
Khecarvidy
e Khecarvidy is a composite text in which teachings on the practice of
the hathayogic
khecarmudr have been inserted into part of a Kaula work
.
that includes a coded description of a mantra (the khecarvidy of the texts
title), and a eulogy of madir, alcohol, which is reworked into praise of
Khecar. e practice of khecarmudr enables the yogin to access various
stores of amrta
via the six cakras
.
. in the body and also to raise Kun. dalin
Vivekamrtan. da
- . n the Vivekamrtan. da
is not said to interact with the cakras in any way.
.
.
. Kun. dalin
Vivekamrtan. da
- teaches mlabandha, ud. dynabandha,
jlandharabandha, khecarmudr and mah.
.
mudr.
Vivekamrtan. da
- .
.
e Yogabja includes a number of verses from the Datttreyayogastra and Goraks.aataka and is likely to
postdate them (YB
- ,
c- b,
c- b DY
- ,
c- b,
YB
,
c- b,
ab,
c- d,
c- b GS c- b, c- b, ab, a- b, c- b). e following verses are found in both
the Yogabja and Hat.hapradpik but in no other texts, so it is likely that the Yogabja is their source YB , ,
c- b,
c- b,
( HP . , . , . , . , . ).
Yogabja a- b,
- ,
c- d.
Yogabja
,
.

to the great store of amrta

. in the head, with which she oods the body on
her journey back down to her home at the dhra, the base located at
the perineum. e Vivekamrtan. da
. is mentioned near the beginning of the
Khecarvidy, but despite that texts clear assertions that the purpose of
khecarmudr is the sealing of bindu or amrta
. in the head, that aim is not
mentioned in the Khecarvidy (and it would be hard to reconcile with the
ooding of the body with amrta).
n many respects the Khecarvidys khe.
carmudr has more in common with the tongue-pulling akticlan mudr
of the Goraksaataka
than with the cavity-sealing khecarmudr taught in the
.
Datttreyayogastra and Vivekamrtan. da.
.
Amaraughaprabodha
e Amaraughaprabodha is ascribed to oraksa
. in its manuscript colophons
and mentions four gurus associated with the Nth order in its opening
verse. t teaches a hathayoga
(named as such) which is very similar to the
.
bindudhrana
but it adds the awakening of
. yoga taught in the Amrtasiddhi,
.
Kun. dalin
to
the
benets
of
the
Am
rtasiddhis
mahmudr
and it mentions
.
.
a dhyna of akti.
ivasamhit
.
e last of the texts which constitute the corpus of works on early hathayoga
.
is the ivasamhit.
ere is nothing in the ivasamhit
to associate it with
.
.
Khecarvidy . .
e Amaraughaprabodha shares verses with the Amr. tasiddhi, Amanaska and ivasamhit
(AP , , cd,
.
ab, , cd, ab, AS . c- b, . , . cd, . cd, . , . cd, . cd, . (many other verses in
the Amaraughaprabodha are derivative of verses in the Amr. tasiddhi, particularly those describing the four classes
of aspirant - compare AP - with AS vivekas - ) AP Amanaska . AP ,
S . , . (AS
. is likely to be the original source of the latter)). t also includes a quotation attributed to a rsampu
. t.a. t is
thus to some extent a compilation, but it contains verses found in the Hat.hapradpik and not elsewhere (AP
, - , ab, HP . , . - b, . ab, . AP ab, cd, , c- d, ab, cd, ab, c- b
HP . ab, . cd, . , . c- d, . ab, . ab, . cd, . c-f AP cd, - HP . ab, . - ), so
in the absence of an alternative source for those verses it seems likely that the Amaraughaprabodha was compiled
before the Hat.hapradpik.
Amaraughaprabodha
om
. namo 'stv dinthya mnanthya vai namah. |
nama caurnginthya siddhabuddhya dhmate ||
Amaraughaprabodha - , .
e ivasamhit
shares
verses with the Amr. tasiddhi (S . b, . cd, . , . , . ab AS . b, . ab,
.
. ab+ . cd, . c- . b, . ab S . c- d, . - , . , . ab, . dc, . ab, . cb, . , . cb AS . - , . - , . , . cd, . bc, . ab, . cd, . , . - S . , . , . - AS . ,
. , . several other verses in the ivasamhits
descriptions of mahmudr, mahbandha and mahvedha are
.
derivative of verses in the Amr. tasiddhi) four verses with the Datttreyayogastra (S . DY - the
S also paraphrases passages from the Datttreyayogastra compare S . , . - , . - , . - , . - ,

the Nths. On the contrary, various features of the the text show it to be
a product of the tradition of aiva non-dualism mixed with the expurgated
daksi
Kaula cult of Tripurasundar known as rvidy. is cult
. nmnya
.
became the most widespread and enduring of the kta traditions.
e kta orientation of the ivasamhit
is made plain at the end of its
.
teachings on the benets of increasing numbers of repetitions of the rvidy
mantrarja through thirty lakh repetitions the practitioner becomes equal
to rahm and Vis. nu
. through sixty lakh he attains Rudra-hood through
eighty lakh, the aktitattva. inally, through one crore repetitions, he is
absorbed into the absolute.
e ivasamhit
mentions hathayoga
by name but does not dene it,
.
.
nor does it make it clear which of the many practices it teaches come under
its rubric. n its fourth patala
mudrs taught
.
. it teaches all ten hathayogic
in earlier works on hathayoga
and, further conrming its roots in the tra.
ditions of rvidy, crowns them with its own, a hathayogic
variety of the
.
hand-gesture yonimudr which occupies a central place in the rituals taught
in the Vmakevarmata, one of the foundational texts of rvidy. e
ivasamhit
contains detailed teachings on Kun. dalin,
who is said to be the
.
.
great goddess (paradevat) and to take the form of the creation of the
universe (jagatsams
e purpose of its hathayogic
mudrs is to
.
. r. s.tirp).
.
awaken Kun. dalin
and make her pierce a variety of lotuses and knots as she
.
. ab etc. with DY c- b, c- b, c- b, c- b,
- ,
cd) one verse with the radtilaka
(S . T . ) and one with the Vivekamrtan. da
). Ten of the fteen verses which
. (S . VM
the ivasamhit
shares with the Hat.hapradpik are not to be found in other texts (S . a- b, . , . - ,
.
. , . ab, . ab, . ab, . , . a-d, .
HP . a- b, . , . - , . , . ab, . cd, . ab,
. , . , . ).
See the invocations of the goddess Tripurabhairav at . and . , and teachings on the associated tripartite
rvidy mantrarja/mlavidy. e mantrarja consists of vgbhava + kmarpa + akti, whose condensed forms
are aim,
sauh
. klm,and
.
. it is taught at . - and . - . ts three components also combine to make the
mlavidy in the Vmakevarmata ( . - ). e yogins said in the ivasamhit
to be situated at the cakras
.
correspond to those in hskararyas Saubhgyabhskara commentary on Lalitsahasranmastotra
- . e
assertions that the yogi can make himself irresistible to women ( . ), that he can become a second Kma ( . ),
and instructions to meditate on Kma ( . ), have parallels with the love magic taught in the Vmakevarmata
and the associated earlier Nity tantras, a kta textual corpus from which the cult of Tripur developed and
which was independent of the Vidypt.ha literature (S
cf.
, - ). e
ivasamhits
vedantic teachings (see in particular the rst pat.ala) conrm the connection with the cult of the
.
southern ankarcryas of Kanchi and Shringeri.
ivasamhit
. a- b
.
trimallak
s. ais tath japtair brahmavis. nusamo
bhavet |
.
.
rudratvam
. s. as. t.ibhir laks. aih. aktitattvam atibhih. ||
kot.yaikay mahyog lyate parame pade |
Vamakevarmata .
ivasamhit
. b.
.
ivasamhit
. a.
.

and . , and .

in Jayarathas Vmakevarmatavivarana
. ad loc.

rises upwards. espite incorporating and reworking many of the Amrta.

siddhis verses on mahmudr, mahbandha and mahvedha, and several
verses from the Datttreyayogastra, nowhere does the ivasamhit
men.
tion bindudhrana
. as the aim of any practice of yoga. ven vajrolimudr,
the practice of urethral suction which in the Datttreyayogastra and the
Hathapradpik
is for the preservation of the yogins bindu, is made purely
.
kta in the ivasamhit,
where its sole purpose becomes the absorption
.
of ones partners bindu or rajas, in order to combine them within ones own
body.
So, to summarise early hathayoga
in its earliest formulations, which
.
are found in texts that are neither kta nor associated with the gurus of
the Nth sampradya,
hathas
distinguishing feature is a variety of physical
.
.
techniques which are used to keep bindu or amrta,
. i.e. semen, in the head.
n contrast, contemporaneous Nth works emphasise the purpose of their
yoga, which they do not call hatha,
as being the raising of Kun. dalin.
To
.
.
this end, the Goraksaataka
and
Yogabja
prescribe
akticlan
mudr,
the
one
.
physical yoga technique exclusive to early Nth yoga. Meanwhile another
early Nth work, the Vivekamrtan. da,
but
. co-opts the mudrs of hathayoga
.
they are still said to work only on bindu, not Kun. dalin.
n later Nth
.
and other kta works of the canon, the co-option of the hatha
. techniques
(along with their name) is more developed, so that in the ivasamhit
the
.
purpose of the hathayogic
mudrs
has
become
the
raising
of
Ku
n
dalin
and
.
..
bindudhrana
is
not
mentioned.
.

Other methods of yoga

shall now turn to a typology of yoga which became commonplace and
which, like the description of hatha
. practices, is found for the rst time in
the Datttreyayogastra. atttreya teaches three methods of yoga mantra,
laya and hatha.
All three lead to rjayoga, i.e. samdhi.
.
ivasamhit
. - .
.
e Datttreyayogastras teachings on vajroli (vv.
c- b) name only bindudhrana
. as its aim, not the
absorption of commingled sexual uids. e Hat.hapradpiks teachings on vajroli (vv. . - ) describe it as a
technique of bindudhrana
. for the male yogin (a verse found in some witnesses after . , but not in the edited
text, enjoins the absorption of both rajas and bindu). At the end of the section teaching amaroli and sahajoli, two
practices supplementary to vajroli, it is said (vv. . - ) that the true yogin absorbs male bindu mixed with her
own rajas, thereby achieving total success (sarvasiddhim), knowing the past and present and becoming a khecar.
S . - .
Kun. dalin
is not mentioned in the context of vajroli even in the ivasamhit,
but in the c. th-century
.
.
Hat.haratnval the practice is explicitly said to awaken her ( . ).
DY a- b.

n some texts these dierent yogas are hierarchised and said to be suitable
for corresponding degrees of aspirant. n contrast to the attitude implied
in the uddhist texts referred to at the beginning of this paper, which place
mantrayoga at the centre of their systems of practice and mention hathayoga
.
as the yoga of last resort, in hathayogic
works
mantrayoga
is
for
the
lowest
.
level of aspirant, middling aspirants are suited to layayoga and hathayoga
.
is for those of the highest calibre.
Mantrayoga
Mantrayoga corresponds to the central practice of the tantras of the aiva
Mantramrga, namely the repetition of mantras in order to obtain siddhis.
Of the Sanskrit works on early hathayoga,
only the two texts most obviously
.
produced in kta milieux, namely the Khecarvidy and ivasamhit,
teach
.
mantras for obtaining siddhis. n other works mantra practice is omitted
altogether or reduced to either the ajap gyatr (the involuntary repetition
of ha on the outbreath and sa on the inbreath) or the repetition of om. as
a puricatory technique.
Layayoga
Layayoga means yoga through dissolution. t is achieved by a wide variety
of methods, the best known of which is the raising of the serpent goddess
Kun. dalin
upwards from the base of the spine to union with iva in the head
.
via a sequence of, usually, six cakras. e cakras are associated with progressively more subtle elements and Kun. dalins
upward journey represents a
.
reversal of creation, a laya or dissolution.
e dierent degrees of aspirant are also taught in the Amr. tasiddhi (vivekas - ) but the Amr. tasiddhi does
not give a corresponding typology of yogas.
DY - .
S . - .
S . - .
e teachings on the mantra of Khecar that were central to the earliest form of the Khecarvidy (before the
teachings on the hat.hayogic khecarmudr were incorporated into it) become a relic in its later redactions. e
coded denition of the mantra was obscure to commentators and the verses in which it is taught were unintelligible
to scribes, so were corrupted in most, if not all, recensions of the text. See KhV . c- b and M

n. .
is is most striking in the Hat.hapradpik, on which see below.
Vivekamrtan. da
- , Gheran. dasa
. - cf. radatilaka . - .
.
. mhit
.
DY c- d, VM , S . , . cf. adhyya of the Yogayjavalkya.
issolution into the elements is also mentioned at Yogastra . bhavapratyayo videhaprakr. tilaynm. aiva
works predating the hat.hayogic corpus often mention laya, particularly in the context of meditations that lead
the yogin up through a hierarchy of elemental tattvas, and they teach some of the techniques associated with
the layayoga taught in hat.hayogic works, but they do not teach laya to be a particular variety of yoga (personal
communication from Alexis Sanderson June
).

e Datttreyayogastra gives a mythological explanation of the origin

of layayoga which shall now translate in full
[atttreya said]
Layayoga happens as a result of the dissolution of the mind by
Datttreyayogastra vv.

layayoga cittalayt samketais

tu prajyate|
.
dinthena samket
as. t.akot.ih. prakrtith||
||
.
.
smk
. r. tir uvca
bhagavan dinthah. sah. kimrpa
h. kah. sa ucyatm|| ||
.
datttreya uvca
mahdevasya nmni dintha ca bhairavah. |
abarea ca devo yam
||
. llay vicaran prabhuh||
.
rkan. t.haparvate gaury saha pramathanyakaih|
.
mithah. rparvate caiva kadalvanagocare|| ||
girikt.e citrakt.e supdapayute girau|
kr. payaikaikasamketa
m
h. prha tatra tn|| ||
.
. amkara
.
tni sarvni
. vaktum
. hi na aknomi tu vistart |
kni cit kathayis. ymi sahajbhysavat sukham|| ||
tis. t.han gacchan svapan bhujan dhyyec chnyam aharniam|
ayam eko hi samketa
dinthena bhs. itah||
||
.
.
nsgradr. s. t.imtrena
. aparah. parikrtitah|
.
irahpctyabhgasya
dhynam
.
. mr. tyum
. jayet param|| ||
bhrmadhyadr. s. t.imtrena
ucyate|
. parah. samketa
.
lalt.e bhrtale ya ca uttamah. sah. prakrtitah||
||
.
savyadaks. inapdasya
angus. t.he layam uttamam|
.
uttnaavavad bhmau ayanam
. coktam uttamam|| ||
ithilo nirjane dee kuryc cet siddhim pnuyt|
evam
kathaym sa ankarah||
||
. ca bahusamketn
.
.
samketair
bahubhi cnyair ya cittasya layo bhavet|
.
sa eva layayogah. syd hat.hayogam
||
. tatah. r. nu||
.
Datttreyayogastra, ed. rahmamitra Avasth, Svm Keavnanda Yoga Samsthna
.
J Mn Simh
W Wai Praj Pt.hal / M Mysore
. Pustak Prak
overnment Oriental Manuscripts Library
W Wai Praj Pt.hal
U Yogatattvopanis.ad
a layt ] J W MW layah. U b samketais
] W W samketas
J M, kotiah. U tu pra.
.
jyate ] parikrtitah. U d samket
as. t.a ] J W W samkets
srdha M a nthah. sah. ]
.
.
nthasya J W , ntha ca M, nthaca W
b kimrpa
h. kah. sa ucyatm ] ko yam
.
.
rpah. sa ucyate J , kimrpa
m
.
. kah. sa ucyatm
. W , ko 'yam
. purus. a ucyate M, ko yam
. rpah. sa
ucyatm
b ntha ca bhairavah. ] MW nthdikny api BW , nthasya bhairavah. J
. W
c abarea ca devo yam
. ] MW ivevara ca devo sau , ivara ca devo yam
. J , ivevara
ca devo yam
d vicaran ] J W MW vyacarat a rkan. t.ha ] J W rkan. t.hah. MW
. W
b saha pramatha ] J W W sahasrapramatha M (unm.) nyakaih. ] M nyakn J WW
c mithah. rparvate caiva ] M himks. aparvate caiva J W , himlayas tu parvate W
b supdapayute girau ] W sapdaniyatai gurau J , sa yath niyayoginah. M, sapdanilaye
girau W
d amkara
h. prha tatra tn ] J W W abarebhyo hi dattavn M b na aknomi
.
tu vistart ] W na aknomti vistart J , nnya akto hi tam
. vin M, nan saknomi tu vistart
W
b dhyyec ] W M dhyyan J W , dhyyen U chnyam ahar niam ] nis. kalam varam U c pctya ] M pacc ca J W , pact W (unm.) d mr. tyum
. ] mr. tyu W jayet
param ] W jaye param J W , jayo varah. M c lalt.e bhrtale ya ] J lalt.e bhtale ya
W W , llvibhtilepa M c uttna ] J M uttnah. W W avavad ] W M ikhard
J , aravad W d ayanam
. coktam uttamam ] apasanacottamottamam
. J (unm.), ayanam
. cottamottamam M a ithilo ] W W ithil J , hamseva
M d hat.ha ] M karma , dharma
.
J W , dhat.a W

means of samketas,
esoteric techniques. dintha has taught
.
eighty million samketas.
.
Smk
rti
said
. .
Please tell me, what form does Lord dintha take Who is he
atttreya said
e names of Mahdeva, the great god, are dintha, hairava
and Lord of the abaras. While that mighty god was sporting
playfully with Prvat in the company of the leaders of his troop
in [various places such as] Mount rkan. tha,
. rparvata, the top
of a mountain in the region of the anana orest, [and] the
mountain at itrakta
. covered with beautiful trees, he, ankara,
out of compassion secretly told an esoteric technique to each of
them in those places. , however, cannot teach all of them in
detail. shall gladly proclaim some of them, [such as this one]
which consists of a simple practice and is easy
While staying still [or] moving, sleeping [or] eating, day and
night one should meditate on emptiness. is is one samketa
.
taught by iva. Another is said to be simply staring at the tip of
the nose. And meditation on the rear part of the head conquers
death. e next samketa
is said to be simply staring between
.
the eyebrows. And that which is [staring] at the at part of the
forehead between the brows is said to be excellent. [Another] excellent dissolution is [staring] at the big toes of the left and right
feet. Lying supine on the ground like a corpse is also said to be
an excellent [dissolution]. f one practices in a place free from
people while relaxed, one will achieve success. ankara has thus
taught many samketas.
at dissolution of the mind which oc.
curs by means of [these] and several other esoteric techniques is
layayogah.
. Next hear about hathayoga.
.
Other works from the same period also mention samketas
taught by
.
iva. Jndevs commentary on the Bhagavadgt, the Bhvrthadpik
(popularly known as the Jnevar), concludes its lengthy teachings on
Kun. dalin
by declaring
.
e samketas
of the siddhas are also mentioned frequently in the indi verses attributed to oraks. a. See
.
e.g. the Gorakhbn,
,
,
.
. skhs
Jnevar .
pim
grsu | to h nthasamketic
da
. de
. m
. pim
. dc
.
.
. msu
. | pari dunu gel uddeu | mhvis. nu
. ||
||
See K

.K

(loc. cit.) understands ntha here to refer to the Ntha sampradya

of Yogs but
.

e swallowing of the body by the body this is a samketa

of iva,
.
although here it is Lord Vis. nu
. who explains it.
e Yogabja, whose yoga is very similar to that of the Jnevar, concludes its description of the raising of Kun. dalin
in a similar fashion, say.
ing
is alone is ivas samketa
it is characterised by [also] being the
.
samketa
of the siddhas.
.
ese samketas
thus denote a variety of practices said to have been taught
.
by iva, some of which have kta overtones, in particular the raising of
Kun. dalin,
who in the Jnevar passage cited above is said to be mother
.
of the world and the highest goddess. Other roughly contemporaneous
texts also give teachings on laya (without calling its techniques samketas).
.
ese are all overtly aiva and some also originate in milieux inuenced
by aivisms more kta manifestions. oremost is the practice of ndnusandhna (which is also often called simply nda) concentration on the
internal sounds which arise in the course of yogic practice, sometimes as
sequences of progressively more subtle sounds that correspond to the stages
of Kun. dalins
ascent. e ivasamhit
says that nda is the best form of
.
.
laya. Sequences of the sounds of nda are taught in a variety of aiva
works, including kta Tantras such as the Brahmaymala, Kubjikmata and
Matsyendrasamhit.
.
e second khan. da
. of the Amanaska, which is likely to predate the Datttreyayogastra by a century or two and shares
verses with the Kulrna.
vatantra, also teaches laya. Laya is achieved by mbhavmudr, in which
the yogin is to gaze outwards unblinkingly, while focussing internally. is
technique is said rst to have been given by iva to Um, the primal akti.
t is also taught in the Candrvalokana of Matsyendra. n the Amanaskas
both internal and external evidence suggest otherwise the poet is pointing out that the teaching derives from iva
even though it is being told by Vis. nu,
. and the verse was written several centuries before ntha was used to refer
to members of an order of yogis (M
c).
Yogabja
ab
sa eva nthasamketa
h. siddhasamketalak
s. ana
.
.
. h. |
Jnevar . , . .
S . and . .
On nda in aivism see V
- .
Amanaska . - ( . Candrvalokana , Hat.hapradpik . )
antarlaks. yam
. bahirdr. s. t.ir nimes. onmes. avarjit |
es. hi mbhav mudr sarvatantres. u gopit|| . ||
diaktir um cais. matto labdhavat pur |
adhun janmasamskrt tvam eko labdhavn asi|| . ||

rst khan. da,

by about a cen. which probably postdates the Hathapradpik
.
tury, the rewards of gradually increasing periods of laya are taught. n the
last, which results from remaining in laya for
years, the yogin becomes
absorbed in the aktitattva.
n the rngadharapaddhati, a lengthy compendium of verses on a wide
range of subjects compiled near Jaipur in
, laya is said to have been mastered by Kr. s. nadvaipyana
and
others,
and
to
involve
a series of meditations
.
working upwards through nine cakras and nally bringing about the union
of the bodys three aktis. e Amaraughaprabodha denes laya as meditation on iva in the form of a linga at Kmarpas location in the body, and
as owing amrta.
e Khecarvidy does not dene laya but does teach
.
that after ve months of visualisation of Kun. dalins
ascent and her ood.
ing the body with amrta,
the
yogi
achieves
laya
in
the
ve elements and it
.
associates laya with unman, the supramental state.
To summarise the samketas
or secret techniques of layayoga comprise
.
a variety of meditations on, and visualisations of, places and energies in the
body, in contrast with the physical practices of hathayoga.
ey are taught
.
by iva, often in works of kta orientation.
e yoga taught in the early texts associated with Nth gurus, with its
emphasis on the raising of Kun. dalin,
corresponds more to the techniques
.
of laya than to those of hatha.
An
early
and
disjointed attempt at combining
.
the two can be found in the Vivekamrtan. da
. the somewhat later ivasam.
hit presents a more coherent synthesis the most inuential fusion is that
found in the Hathapradpik,
to which we now turn.
.

e Classical Hathayoga
of the Hathapradpik
.
.
Soon after its compilation by Svtmrma in the fteenth century, the Hatha.
pradpik became the most inuential work on hathayoga,
in
part,
no
doubt,
.
because it was the rst text explicitly to make hatha
. its central concern. Texts
that taught the hierarchy of mantra, laya and hatha
. yogas were known to
Amanaska .
caturvimatibhir
vars. air layasthasya nirantaram
.
. |
aktitattvasya siddhih. syc chaktitattvamayo bhavet ||
rngadharapaddhati
.
Amaraughaprabodha .
Khecarvidy . .
Khecarvidy . ab.
.e. the Datttreyayogastra, Yogabja, Amaraughaprabodha and ivasamhit.
.

Svtmrma, but he reduced their typology to a distinction between hatha.

yoga and rjayoga, excluding mantra and laya yoga. e practices taught in
the Hathapradpik
are all hatha
.
. and they lead to rjayoga, i.e. samdhi.
Mantra practice is notable by its complete absence in the Hathaprad.
pik. n contrast, many of the techniques of layayoga are incorporated
wholesale and are thus for the rst time taught under the rubric of hatha.
yoga. t is also in the Hathapradpik
that
various
other
practices
which
.
were to become emblematic of hathayoga
are for the rst time taught as part
.
of hatha.
ese
include
non-seated
sanas,
complex kumbhakas (methods
.
of breathing), and the sa
. t. karmni,
. six techniques for cleaning the body.
We see in the Hathapradpik
the culmination of the process begun in the
.
Vivekamrtan. da,
. in which the kta laya technique of the visualisation of
the rising of Kun. dalin
is overlaid onto the physical techniques of hathayoga,
.
.
techniques originally used for the purpose of bindudhrana,
. the preservation
of semen. e mudrs taught in the Datttreyayogastra and Vivekamrtan. da
.
. as methods of bindudhrana
. are now said to be for raising Kun. dalin.
e Hathapradpiks
blanket agglomeration of the various techniques
.
of hathayoga
and
layayoga
creates a somewhat incoherent whole. e shoe.
horning of Kun. dalin
into the subtle physiology rst found in the Amrta.
.
siddhi, in which the moon is in the head and the sun already occupies
Kun. dalins
seat at the dhra at the base of the spine, is awkward. e
.
Hathapradpik
teaches two khecarmudrs the rst keeps bindu in the
.
Mantrayoga does perhaps get a lexical nod in the name by which Svtmrma classies the cleansing practices,
the verses teaching which are among the few that am yet to nd in earlier works and which may thus be the work
of Svtmrma himself. espite teaching seven such practices, he calls them the s.at. karmni,
. six acts, which is
the name also given to a group of six magical methods of overpowering ones enemies that can be activated by
means of mantras taught in texts of the aiva Mantramrga (see
the same phrase can also refer
to the six duties of a brahmin).
or the most part the laya techniques are incorporated without alteration. An exception is the samketa
of
.
lying like a corpse taught in the Datttreyayogastra ( cd), which in the Hat.hapradpik ( . ) becomes an
sana, namely avsana, the corpse pose widely taught in modern yoga.
Laya is often mentioned in the Hat.hapradpik, particularly in the context of practices that elsewhere come
under the name of layayoga, and at one place ( . ) hat.ha and laya are dierentiated, but the subject matter
of the text is, as evinced by its title, explicitly said to be hat.ha, with the implication that all the practices taught
therein are hat.ha practices.
know of one exception to the principle of the raising of Kun. dalin
not involving physical techniques in
.
pre-hat.ha aiva works in his commentary ad Netratantra . , Ks. emarja says that clenching and unclenching
the anus makes Kun. dalin
point upwards.
.
Hat.hapradpik .
tasmt sarvaprayatnena prabodhayitum varm |
brahmadvramukhe suptm
. mudrbhysam
. samcaret ||
.

f. Vivekamrtan. da
ab, where the homology of the masculine bindu, iva and indu is felicitous, but that
.
of the triple-gendered rajas, akti and srya seems forced.
Hat.hapradpik . - , . - . .

head and the second oods the body with amrta.

.
e reformulation of the hathayogic
mudrs as means of raising Kun. dalin
.
.
found in the ivasamhit
is
more
coherent.
Unlike
Svtmrma,
the
com.
piler of the ivasamhit
completely removed bindudhrana
.
. from the aims of
the hathayogic
mudrs.
e
coherence
of
the
ivasa
mhit
is partly because
.
.
its compiler was happy to aunt his sectarian aliation, giving him a freer
hand than Svtmrma had. As noted above, the ivasamhit
is a product of
.
the kta rvidy tradition. As well as that cults mantras it teaches detailed
visualisations of the cakras through which its techniques make Kun. dalin
.
rise. ach cakra is to be visualised as having a specic group of syllables in
its spokes, together with a siddha and a yogin, and the yogins correspond
to those taught elsewhere in the texts of rvidy. n contrast, the Hatha.
pradpik, despite stating that the purpose of the hathayogic
mudrs
is
the
.
raising of Kun. dalin,
makes no mention of cakras. Svtmrma, in addition
.
to casting light on hatha,
. had two unspoken further aims when compiling
the Hathapradpik.
e sought to lay claim to hathayoga
for the siddha
.
.
tradition while continuing a process that had started at least two centuries
earlier, in which aiva yoga was being severed from its sectarian roots. e
beginnings of this process can be seen in the teachings on yoga found in the
Matsyendrasamhit,
in the introduction to his edition of which saba K
.
has made the observation that the texts cult is indicative of
. . . a phase in the history of yoga when yogic teachings start to
become detached (perhaps not for the rst time) from the mainstream religion, in this case tantric aivism, by eliminating sectarian boundaries through the concealment of sectarian marks
such as easily decodable deity names, mantras and iconography
and start to prepare for a formative period of a pan-ndian yoga,
which can again become an alternative for the ocial/conservative
religion.
us Svtmrma, while seeking to stake a claim on hathayoga
for the
.
siddha tradition, also sought to avoid alienating any of that traditions disparate elements. e list of synonyms of samdhi which he gives at the
beginning of the Hathapradpiks
fourth upadea is a roll call of the various
.
goals of dierent siddha traditions methods of yoga, but nowhere does
See footnote .
K
.
Hat.hapradpik . - .
athednm
. pravaks. ymi samdhikramam uttamam |
mr. tyughnam
. ca sukhopyam
. brahmnandakaram
. param || . ||

he mention sect-specic features such as metaphysics, mantras, or sets of

cakras.
Svtmrmas appropriation of hathayoga
for the siddha tradition is evinced
.
by his naming as masters of hathavidy
approximately thirty mahsiddhas,
.
including Matsyendra, oraksa,
Virpk
sa,
.
. aurang and arpati,
. whose
names also occur in lists of Nth gurus. e texts that he used to compile
the Hathapradpik,
however, come from a much broader range of tradi.
tions. us Svtmrma borrows approximately
verses from the Datttreyayogastra, yet he makes no mention of atttreya anywhere in the text.
e Datttreyayogastra is the product of a Vais. nava
tradition which coa.
lesced into the yogi suborders of the aanm Samnyss,
in particular the
.
iris and the Purs. atttreya is the tutelary deity of the Jn Akhr,
.
which today is the largest of the Samnys
akh
rs
and
whose
members
are
.
.
predominantly iris and Purs, and there is a long history of rivalry, or at
least dierentiation, between the Nths, with oraksa
. as their rst guru, and
the Samnyss,
with
atttreya
as
their
i
s
tadevat.
To this day the Nth
.
..
Yogs of northern ndia, despite displaying an otherwise broad inclusivity,
will have little to do with atttreya.
rjayogah. samdhi ca unman ca manonman |
amaratvam
. layas tattvam
. nynyam
. param
. padam || . ||
amanaskam
. tathdvaitam
. nirlambam
. nirajanam |
jvanmukti ca sahaj tury cety ekavcakh. || . ||
e six-cakra system was yet to achieve hegemony in yogic discourse. See e.g. the rngadharapaddhati which
mentions groupings of both six and nine cakras (
,
).
HP . - .
Textual, ethnographic and iconographic sources show that the aiva orientation of these suborders did not
take hold until the seventeenth century as part of the formalisation of the aanm order (see my forthcoming
monograph Yoga and Yogis: e Texts, Techniques and Practitioners of Traditional Hat.hayoga).
See for example the early eighteenth-century Bachittar Nt.ak of uru obind Singh, caup - (translated
in K
)
en created att,
who also started his own path,
is followers have long nails in their hands,
And matted hair on their heads,
ey do not understand the ways of the Lord.
en created orakh,
Who made great kings his disciples,
is disciples wear rings in their ears,
And do not know the love of the Lord.
e second largest akhr. of the Samnyss,
the Mahnirvn,
.
. has as its tutelary deity Kapila, who, as mentioned
above, is credited in the Datttreyayogastra as being the originator of some of the practices of hat.hayoga.

Munis and Siddhas

Some of the Hathapradpiks
teachings on the more gymnastic sanas are
.
taken from the Vasis.thasa
mhit.
As an ancient r. si
.
.
. not closely associated
with an ascetic order, there were no sectarian reasons to sideline Vasis. tha
.
and he does get a brief mention in the Hathapradpik
when
it
is
said
that
.
the sanas taught therein are those that were accepted by munis such as
Vasis. tha
. and yogins such as Matsyendra.
is distinction between munis or r. sis
. and yogins or siddhas is found
in a wide range of texts. n a somewhat confused analysis based in the
main on the Datttreyayogastra and the Vivekamrtan. da,
. the rngadharapaddhati says that hathayoga
is of two sorts, one practised by oraksa
. and
.
others, another by Mrkan. deya
and
others.
e
latter
refers
to
the
yoga
.
taught to Mrkan. deya
by atttreya in the Mrkan. deyapur
na.
.
.
. lsewhere
in the rngadharapaddhati rjayoga is said to be of two varieties. e rst,
which was mastered by atttreya and other mahtmans, corresponds to
the bindudhrana
of the Datttreyayogastra the second, whose
. hathayoga
.
practitioners are not identied, uses the breath to raise Kun. dalin
upwards
.
through ve cakras. e roughly contemporaneous Maithili Varnaratnkara
.
gives a list of siddhas and a list of munis. Among the former are a number
of Nth gurus, including oraksa
and
. among the latter are Mrkan. deya
.
Kapila.
What this boils down to is a distinction between layayoga-practising siddhas such as oraksa
munis such as Kapila or at. and hathayoga-practising
.
ttreya, which manifests among todays ascetics as a distinction between
the kta Nths and the relatively more orthodox aanms and Rmnands. is distinction should not be applied too rigorously, however,
because there are many anomalies, in particular lexical ones. us Kapila,
though most commonly said to be a muni, is described as a siddha in texts
e Vasis.t.hasamhits
verses on these sanas are also found (sometimes with changes of metre) in earlier P.
cartrika texts, texts which are thus the rst to teach non-seated sanas as techniques of yoga. See for example those
on mayrsana at Vimnrcanakalpa pat.ala , Pdmasamhit
yogapda . - , Ahirbudhnysamhit
. - ,
.
.
Vasis.t.hasamhit
yogakn. da
.
. . - , Yogayjavalkya . a- . b and Hat.hapradpik . .
Hat.hapradpik . . lsewhere in the Hat.hapradpik we nd more references to these two traditions after
the description of bhadrsana, which, like mayrsana, is taught in a variety of Pcartrika works that predate the
Hat.hapradpik (Vimnrcanakalpa pat.ala , Pdmasamhit
yogapda . c- . d, Ahirbudhnysamhit
. ,
.
.
Vasis.t.hasamhit
. , Yogayjavalkya . ), it is said that siddhayogins call it goraks.sana (Hat.hapradpik . ).
.
As well as the examples given here, see also Vysas Bhs.ya on Yogastra . , Vivekamrtan. da
and Jne.
var . - .
rngadharapaddhati
.
rngadharapaddhati
.
Varnaratnkara
pp. - .
.

as diverse as the Bhagavadgt and the Datttreyayogastra itself.

e Muni tradition of Hathayoga
.
Kapilas ambiguous status is important for our understanding of the muni
tradition which developed the techniques of early hathayoga.
e rst for.
mulation of the practices distinguishing it from other methods of yoga is
taught in the Datttreyayogastra where it is said to be the doctrine of the
school of Kapila and other siddhas the practices are taught as an alternative to the way of the kavi, the eightfold yoga practised by Yjavalkya.

has shown how Kapila was associated with the practice of

non-Vedic asceticism and the Datttreyayogastra appears to conrm
this when it contrasts Kapilas yoga with that of the more orthodox Vedic
r. si
. Yjavalkya.
e practices of ascetics beyond the Vedic pale are only mentioned in
passing in early textual sources. n fact, very little of the actual practices
of ascetics is taught in texts, Sanskrit or otherwise. is is not surprising
asceticism and scholarship are uncommon bedfellows. e only ascetic
practice that is treated in any depth in Sanskrit texts is yoga, and this is because it is one of the few of their practices which is not restricted to ascetics
alone. e ivasamhit,
for example, is explicitly aimed at householders.
.
e techniques of hathayoga
are not taught in Sanskrit texts until the th
.
century or thereabouts. t is my contention that they did not appear ex
nihilo, but that they developed from techniques practised by ascetics from
at least the time of the uddha. e uddha himself is said to have tried
both pressing his tongue to the back of his mouth, in a manner similar to
that of the hathayogic
khecarmudr, and ukkutikappadhna,
a squatting
.
.
posture which may be related to hathayogic
techniques
such
as
mahmudr,
.
Bhagavadgt . , Datttreyayogastra
.
Datttreyayogastra ,
- .

- . To the examples given by

may be added verse .
of the Br. hatkathlokasamgraha
which suggests the antinomian nature of the soteriological practices of Kapila of an. da.
.
simhas
city udhasvmin writes, ere the vices that usually terrify those who want to be liberated from the
.
wheel of rebirth are prescribed by Kapila and others in treatises on liberation (yena dos.ena samsrt
paritrasyanti
.
moks.avah. | sa tasmin moks.astres.u ryate kapildibhih. ||.
Studying books is scorned by the Nths (Y
) and this attitude is found among other traditional
yoga-practising ascetics of today. At the
aridwar Kumbh Mela was informed, over the din of competing
loudspeaker systems blaring out pravacans from ascetic-scholars, that within living memory it was normal for any
Rmnand ascetic who dared to expound the stras to the public to be thrown o his san and beaten up by his
peers.
See S . - , the nal verses of the text.
See M
- .

mahbandha, mahvedha, mlabandha, and vajrsana in which pressure

is put on the perineum with the heel, in order to force upwards the breath
or Kun. dalin.
lsewhere in the Pali anon these same practices are asso.
ciated with tpasas and jvikas, who, together with other austerities, are
also said to practise the bat-penance (vagguli-vata), which is generally assumed to mean suspending oneself upside-down from a tree, thus inverting
oneself in a fashion not dissimilar to the hathayogic
vipartakaran
.
. mudr.
n early Sanskrit sources too we nd mentions of ascetics practising austerities suspended upside-down. All these practices are undertaken by ascetics
who are celibate and it seems likely that some of their austerities were linked
with the preservation of semen in the manner of similar techniques taught
in the texts of early hathayoga
as methods of bindudhrana,
.
. and that these
ancient and previously obscure ascetic practices come to light as the mudrs
of early hathayoga.
.
Within these older sources we nd no mention of forerunners of vajrolimudr, , the quintessential and crudest method of bindudhrana,
. in which
semen is resorbed through the urethra. Not all ascetics, whether those of
mythology or scriptural prescription, were celibate and it may be that
some of their historical counterparts used the technique of vajrolimudr in
order to be able to have sex and preserve their bindu, to have their cake
See e.g. Datttreyayogastra
- ,
- .
See e.g. Goraks.aataka . is variety of vajrsana is variously known as svastiksana, siddhsana and mlabandhsana (see

n. ).
e uddha is said to try this and a variety of other ascetic techniques in the Mahshandasutta (Majjhima
Nikya ).
jvikas are said to practise ukkut.ikappadhna in the Nangut.t.hajtaka (Jtaka ) and the Kassapashandasutta (Dghanikya ), tpasas in the Setaketu and Uddlaka Jtakas (Jtaka , . ). Ukkut.ikappadhna is also mentioned at Dhammapada
and Anguttara Nikya .
and . .
See e.g. Vaikhnasasmrtastra . (
), which mentions those who hang with their head
downwards in a list of celibate hermits who practise a variety of austerities, and the following references in the
Mahbhrata . . - and . . - , in which the rdhvaretas muni Jaratkru nds his ancestors performing
penance by hanging over a big hole (cf. Agastya at . . - , whose ancestors say they are performing the penance
in order to get ospring) . . , in which aruda
. sees some Vlakhilyas hanging upside-down . . - , in
which Manu practises extreme tapas (as well as hanging upside down, he is also said to stand on one leg and hold
up his arms) . . , in which the muni Tanu meditates upside down . . - , in which hs. ma describes a
variety of ascetic practices to Yudhis. t.hira, amongst which is hanging upside down. e practice of hanging upsidedown was relatively common until recently but appears from my ethnographic inquiries to have died out. See
e.g. the c.
illustration of tapkar san from an illustrated manuscript of Jayatarmas Jogpradpak reproduced
at
, and the photograph of an Urdhamukhi Sadhu at O
. anging upside
down or performing a headstand has been a Su practice for at least a thousand years (S
).
M
s claim (
) that vajroli is referred to in the Br. hadranyakopani
s.ad is not borne out by the
.
text.
atttreya himself is said in the th adhyya of the Mrkan. deyapur
na
.
. to have indulged in wine, women
and song in an unsuccessful attempt to dissuade some young sages from seeking his tutelage. e nal verse of the
same adhyya ( . ) says that he practises tapas and also that he is a master of yoga meditated upon by yogins
seeking liberation (yogvara cintyamno yogibhir muktiknks.ibhih).
.
e dharmastras allow vnaprasthas to take wives with them to the forest but they are to remain chaste and
undertake more extreme austerities than the solitary samnyss
(K
- ).
.

and eat it, as it were. t is this understanding of vajroli that has remained
predominant in ndia, rather than the more infamous aim found in kta
hathayogic
texts such as the ivasamhit,
that of absorbing the commingled
.
.
Although our earsexual uids of both the male and female partners.
liest clear-cut reference to vajroli is in the Datttreyayogastra, a recent
edition of a section of the Brahmaymala which teaches the asidhravrata,
the knifes edge penance, suggests a milieu in which vajroli might have
been used. As taught in the Brahmaymala, the asidhravrata was a form of
coitus reservatus quite distinct from kta sexual practices which employed
sexual uids in ritual. ts emphasis on continence would have been nicely
complemented by vajrolimudr, which could have been employed should
the ascetic have fallen o the knife-edge.
So far, among the sources cited as evidence for the ancient muni tradition of bindu-oriented hathayoga,
other than the Amrtasiddhi
there are no
.
.
aiva works. ut the aiva associations of some of its practices are clear, even
as taught in the Vais. nava
Datttreyayogastra. Most obviously, there are
.
the names of mudrs such as jlandharabandha, ud. dynabandha,
mah.
mudr, mahvedha, vajroli, sahajoli, amaroli and khecarmudr, all of which
are redolent of aivism. Mahmudr is said in the Datttreyayogastra to
have been taught by hairava.
And in vajrolimudr there is perhaps a
link between hathayoga
and the practices of the earliest aiva ascetics. e
.
asidhravrata mentioned above was probably practised by Pupatas and
See e.g. ankaradigvijaya . , where Kr. s. na
. is said to use vajroli in order to be able to sport with the gops
and Sarvngayogapradpik . , where iva is said to use it while making love to aur so that Kma cannot
reach him. f. Siddhasiddhntapaddhati . see also footnote
.
Vajroli may also be obliquely referred to at Amr. tasiddhi . -
sa bindur dvividho jeyah. paurus. o vanitbhavah. |
bjam
. ca paurus. am
. proktam
. raja ca strsamudbhavam
. || . ||
anayor bhyayogena sr. s. t.isamhrau
jyate nr. n
.
. m
. |
yad tv abhyantare yogas tad yogo hi bhanyate
|| . ||
.
kmarpo vased binduh. kt.granyako
t.are |
.
prnagiri
sad spard vrajanti madhyampathe || . ||
.
yonimadhye mahks. etre javbindrasannibham
. |
rajo vasati jantnm
. devtatvasamvr. tah. || . ||
bindu candramayo jeyo rajah. sryamayas tath |
anayoh. samga
. ma
. h. sdhyah. kt.gre tidurghat.e || . ||
es. a tattva paro dharma es. a yogah. paro matah. |
es. a muktiprado mrgah. es. a guhyatamah. parah. || . ||
J Maharaja Mansingh Pustak Prakash, Jodhpur, Acc. No.
.
a dvividho ] em. vividho J b sr. s. t.isamhrau
] em. sr. s. t.isamhra
J b kt.gra ] em. kt.dhra
.
.
J d vrajanti ] em. v jamti
. J b yogah. ] em. yoga J d parah. ] em. param
. J

e Datttreyayogastra names aiva ascetics among the possible practitioners of its yoga teachings when it
mentions he who says namah. ivya (namahivyavc)
at verse .
.
Datttreyayogastra
.

Atimrga ascetics, who were separate from the Mantramrga traditions in

which ktism developed.
Strengthening the link between the practices of hathayoga
and those of
.
earlier ascetics is the fact that the ascetic traditions whom our textual sources
show to have been most closely associated with the practice of hathayoga
.
since its rst textual codication, traditions which are today best represented
by the aanm Samnyss
and the Rmnands, are also the ascetic orders
.
most closely associated with the practice of tapas their ascetic practices include many of the austerities mentioned together with the forerunners of
hathayogic
techniques in our earliest sources, and some of the sanas taught
.
in later manuals of hathayoga
correspond exactly to ancient austerities such
.
as standing on one leg or holding one or both arms in the air for long periods. e origins of many of the physical practices of hathayoga
are thus to
.
be found in tapas, in particular the bodily austerities undertaken by the ascetics most often associated with the practice of yoga in early sources, rather
than in the more rareed formulations of mental yoga taught in, say, the
Yogastra and its commentaries or uddhist works. ndeed, all formulations of yoga as yoga prior to the appearance of the hathayogic
corpus show
.
it to be a mental, meditative practice, its physicality limited to sitting in a
suitable position and regulating the breath.
t was onto the bindudhrana-oriented
hathayoga
of this ascetic tradition
.
.
that the Kun. dalin-oriented
layayoga of the siddha tradition was grafted. e
.
name hatha
suggests
the
dicult
asceticism with which its early techniques
.
had been associated, but this did not sit well with all of the practitioners
of the newly kta hathayoga,
either laya-practising siddhas or householders
.
unsuited to practising tapas. n the Yogabja we see an attempt to obfuscate the primary meaning of hatha
. by resorting to an esoteric nirukti which
is often repeated in later works and secondary literature ha means sun,

ese austerities include going naked, sitting in the summer sun surrounded by re, remaining immersed
in cold water at night in winter, and spending long periods standing up (sometimes on just one leg) or holding
up one or both arms. or examples see the references in notes
and , as well as the following Mrkan. deya.
purna
. , Kathsaritsgara . . , Krmapurna
. ,
. etc Vyupurna
.
. . . - , Matysapurna
.
.
(Revkan. da)
. , Bhgavatapurna
.
. . . and Lingapurna
. . . .
Tapas is one of the ve niyamas, observances, prescribed at Yogastra . . n his Bhs.ya thereon, Vysa
denes tapas as the endurance of opposites (dvandvasahanam) opposites include hunger and thirst, heat and
cold, and sthnsana, standing up and sitting down, which may refer to the physical postures maintained for
long periods by ascetics. Other parts of hat.ha practice also correspond to the tapas of old. Prnyma,
in concert
.
with its expiatory and puricatory capabilities (on which see V
- ), is said in dharmastric literature
to be the highest form of tapas (Manu . , . Vis.nu
. , Vais.t.ha . ). Matsyendrasamhit
. says that
.
.
prnyma
is both yoga and tapas Amanaska . says that the various techniques of prnyma
are unpleasant
.
.
and dicult (duhkhtmakair
durjayaih).
.
n some modern manifestations of yoga the physical practices of hat.hayoga are identied with tapas. See
S
and S
- .

tha
e rehabilita. means moon and their yoga or union is hathayoga.
.
tion of the word hatha
. in the face of yogas universalisation was ultimately
unsuccessful, however, and the use of the word in the context of yoga fell
out of favour in all but scholastic typologies of the subject and, in recent
years, in secondary and popular literature on yoga. n vernacular literature
hath
. continued to refer to extreme ascetic practices.

Conclusion
shall conclude with some speculative remarks on the broader context of
the kta co-option of hathayoga.
.
irstly, my ndings raise the question of why these physical yoga techniques started to be codied approximately one thousand years ago, particularly if, as contend, they were already ancient. is seems to me to be
connected with the severing of yoga from its sectarian moorings mentioned
earlier, which served to make yoga available to all. Much of the practice of
hathayoga
as taught in its texts appears to be for ascetics. Several of its tech.
niques are distasteful or dicult and take a lot of time and eort to master
the yogin is often instructed to carry out his practice in an isolated hut. ut
at the same time most of the texts of hathayoga
are explicitly anti-sectarian
.
Yogabja
c- b, which is cited at Hat.hatattvakaumud . cf. Hat.haratnval . . Of the various
possible referents of sun and moon, the most commonly given in this context are the pingal and id
. nds
.
(i.e. the channels carrying prna
. which run from the base of the central column to the right and left nostrils
respectively) see e.g. Vivekamrtan. da
. Other possibilities include the prna
.
. and apna breaths (Amr. tasiddhi
. - ), akti and iva, as menstrual uid and semen (Vivekamrtan. da
- ), or the tip of the tongue and the
.
forehead (Khecarvidy . - ).
e Yoga Upanis. ads largely consist of verses from hat.hayogic works (
) yet only the Yogatattvopanis.ad mentions hat.ha (in verses taken from the Datttreyayogastra Yogatattvopanis.ad ,
Datttreyayogastra c- b, ). e one Sanskrit text produced in a Nth milieu after the formation of the Nth sampradya,
.
namely the circa
Siddhasiddhntapaddhati, makes no mention of hat.ha yoga. n indi works, what might
be understood as hat.hayoga is referred to simply as yog/jog. Other than in the doxographies of Sundardsa, the word
hat.h (the indi form of hat.ha) is used only once in the context of yoga in the corpus of medieval indi literature,
in the Prn. Samkal
of auranginth (v.
), in which hat.h jog is said to be the union of the sun and moon.
.
lsewhere in the medieval indi corpus, hat.h in the context of religious practice refers to extreme austerities
and is usually scorned (see e.g. Gorakhbn
. and
. (in the latter hat.h is
. skh , Guru Granth Shib
associated with hanging upside down), and the verses attributed to arpat.nth found in a manuscript dated
and translated in S
- ). Jayatarmas
raj hasha reworking of the long recension of
the Hat.hapradpik is called Jogpradpak and, despite the many references to hat.ha in its source text, does not use
the word hat.ha/hat.h in its
verses, except when listing the Hat.hapradpik among its sources (v.
). indispeaking yogis in ndia today do occasionally use the compound hat.h-yog, perhaps inuenced by Sanskrit texts.
n their understanding hat.hayoga encompasses dicult and uncomfortable practices, including non-physical ones
such as mauna, a vow of silence. have heard such ascetics translate hat.hayoga into nglish as the conveniently
homophonic hard yoga.

and universalist, and state or imply that anyone can practice yoga. Vajrolimudr in particular - if only as an ideal - would have assisted in opening up the yoga practice of ascetics to all. e ivasamhit
says that through
.
its practice even householders can attain liberation, without observing the
restrictions taught in the texts of yoga.
Written in simple Sanskrit and free from the abstruse metaphysics of the
Yogastra and its exegesis, or the esoterica of aiva yoga manuals, the texts
of hathayoga
are the rst works on yoga that are accessible to all. is made
.
its aims, liberation and siddhis, also accessible to all, without the need for
priestly intermediaries, ritual paraphernalia or sectarian initiations. We see a
similar democratisation of religion in the bhakti cults that started to develop
during the same period and this may have been a corollary of the demise of
aivism, at least as a grand, state religion.
e democratisation of yoga was responsible for the production of its
texts. Ascetics had learnt hathayoga
through oral teachings for centuries, but
.
once its teachings had opened up to householders, texts were produced, perhaps as the result of patronage by these new practitioners, who would have
enlisted pandits to codify the teachings of ascetic gurus. At rst these yoga
manuals were written in Sanskrit, which would have limited their audience,
but vernacular texts containing teachings on yoga soon appeared. Jndevs
late thirteenth-centuryBhvrthadpik commentary on the Bhagavadgt,
popularly known as the Jnevar, contains exquisite teachings in Marathi
on the ascent of Kun. dalin,
and the Tamil Tirumantiram, which probably
.
dates to a similar period, has extensive teachings on hathayogic
tech.
.g. Datttreyayogastra

a- b

brhmana
. h. ramano
. vpi bauddho vpy rhato thav|
kpliko v crvkah. raddhay sahitah. sudhh||
.
yogbhysarato nityam
. sarvasiddhim avpnuyt|
Women are said to practise vajroli at Datttreyayogastra
and Hat.hapradpik . , . - . f. Hat.haratnval . - . Amr. tasiddhi . says that both the avadhta and gr. hastha can practise yoga. e ivasamhit
.
is aimed squarely at householders (but it is less open to women unlike in the Datttreyayogastra and Hat.hapradpik women are not mentioned as practitioners in its description of vajroli).
ouseholder wrestlers in Kota, Rajasthan, for whom the renement and preservation of bindu is an important part of their practice, speak highly of vajroli but do not practise it (personal communication from Norbert
P
June th
).
ivasamhit
.
.
svecchay vartamno pi yogoktaniyamair vin|
mukto bhaved gr. hastho pi vajrolyabhysayogatah||
.
f. Datttreyayogastra

svecchay vartamno pi yogoktaniyamair vin|

vajrolim
||
. yo vijnti sa yog siddhibhjanah||
.
See

xxxvii n.

and

xxix.

niques. Vernacular yoga manuals do not appear in the north until the
seventeenth-century Jnasamudra and Sarvngayogapradpik of the dpanth scholar, Sundaradsa, and the eighteenth-century Jogpradpak of the
Rmnand Jayatarma.
e universalism and antisectarianism taught in the texts of hathayoga,
.
which facilitated the coming together of the kta and ascetic yogas, was
mirrored by the ascetic milieu of the time, which saw a common ascetic
identity develop, drawing on a wide range of sources, from kta to Su,
with the result that, to this day, the yogins of the various North ndian ascetic orders are very similar in appearance and lifestyle. owever, by the
seventeenth century, out of this relatively homogeneous ascetic soup, various ascetic sects did solidify. e co-option of hathayoga
by the edgling
.
Nths may have been part of this process of sect-formation, symbolising
their abandonment of more licentious Kaula practices in favour of a celibate ascetic lifestyle. us the nal verse of the Goraksaataka
is the follow.
ing declaration
We drink the dripping liquid called bindu, the drop, not wine
we eat the rejection of the objects of the ve senses, not meat
we do not embrace a sweetheart [but] the Susumn
nd,
.
. her
body curved like kua grass if we have intercourse . . . it
takes place in a mind dissolved in the void, not in a vagina.
e ktisation of hathayoga
- and yoga more broadly conceived - was
.
entirely successful, to the extent that even the celibate bindu-yoga traditions
were made more kta through incorporating Kun. dalin
into their prac.
tice.
She features widely in the so-called Yoga Upanisads
which were
.
do not include here the Gorakhbn,
. the esoteric pads and sakhs ascribed to oraks. a but probably written
in the sixteenth century, whose obscurantist esotericism disqualies their use as manuals by aspiring yogins.
Goraks.aataka
(cf. Hat.hapradpik . - .)
y bindvkhyeti dhr vigalitamanas tm
. pibmo na madyam
.
pacnm indriyn
|
. m
. vis. ayanirasanam
. carvaymo na mmsam
.
lingmo na kntm
. kuakut.ilatanum
. ndik
. m
. tm
. sus. umnm
.
nye citte pralne pravilaya vivaan maithunam
. cen na yonau || ||
e ktisation of hat.hayoga obscured the origins of its practices. n secondary literature it is widely assumed
that the mudrs of hat.hayoga arose in kta milieux. As have shown, it is likely that they in fact developed
amongst non-Vedic ascetic traditions. To add to the textual evidence have cited, would like to mention two
pieces of external, negative evidence that suggest that the hat.hayogic mudrs were not part of kta practice. e
bindudhrana
. techniques unique to early hat.hayoga, such as khecarmudr, vajrolimudr and vipartakaran,
. are
not found in Tibetan sources, implying that they were not part of the tantric traditions, in particular that of the
siddhas, including Nths such as Matsyendra and oraks. a, which travelled to Tibet during the centuries prior to
the establishment of the Tibetan uddhist canon. Secondly, have long been puzzled about how, if khecarmudr
developed in kta milieux, there are no comparisons of it with sexual intercourse in our textual sources, when
there are such obvious parallels between the tongue entering the void above the palate and the penis entering a

compiled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries several of the mudrs taught in the Jogpradpak are said to raise Kun. dalin
and a aanm
.
Samnys
that

met
at
angotri
in
told
me
that
his
mastery
of vajroli.
mudr enabled him to resorb his semen should Kun. dalin
make him in.
voluntarily ejaculate as she passed through his svdhis.thna
cakra.
Persian
.
works on yoga composed from perhaps the fourteenth century onwards in
order to satisfy slamic interest in the subject are full of descriptions of kta
practices.
n fact, so successful was this ktisation of yoga and its appropriation
by the Nths, that yoga and yogis of all stripes came to be associated by
some with the more malevolent practices of ktism, an association that
persists to this day despite the oldest and most persistent hathayoga
tradi.
tion being that of the generally benevolent munis, represented today by the
aanm Samnyss
and Rmnands. t is the muni tradition that has
.
been responsible for all the new texts and exegesis of hathayoga
since the
.
time of the Hathapradpik.
Meanwhile
the
kta
and,
in
some
cases,
sinis.
ter, Nths have produced no further manuals of hathayoga
and have ceased
.
to practise it, preferring to remain true to their roots and practise kta
tantric ritual.
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