Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

THE GORAKAATAKA: ITS ORIGINAL TEXT

Author(s): Swami Kuvalayananda and S. A. Shukla
Source: Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Vol. 35, No. 1/4 (1954), pp. 129134
Published by: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41784925 .
Accessed: 13/10/2014 04:31
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

THE GORAKSASATAKA:

ITS ORIGINAL

TEXT

BY
Swami Kuvalayananda and S. A. Shukla
The Goraksasataka has been attributed to Goraksa and is
included in the list of works ascribed to him by scholars like
Aufrect,Briggs etc. But the question as to what exactly constitutes the original text of the Goraksasataka has not, so far,
engaged the attention of scholars who have written about
a
Gorakhnath. For instance, Dr. Mohan Singh 1 says, Goraksasataka and Goraksa Samhit are together published under the
G. W. Briggs 2 holds that the firstpart
title Goraksa Paddhati
"
of the Goraksa Paddhati is the Goraksa Sataka. He says. It
( i. e. G. P, ) consists of two series of one hundred verses each,
the firsthundred being the Goraksa Sataka ". The second hundred
which deals with six topics - Prnyma, Pratyhra, Dhran,
4
Dhyna, Samdhi and Mukti, is, according to him, a secondary
?
or Eupplemental document to the first which is the Goraksa
Sataka, proper. Dr. Briggs did not make an attempt to see
whetherthe subject-matter of Yoga is completed in the first
hundred verses so that the second hundred could be called a
supplement.
Pandit 3 Hajari Prasad Dvivedi also says the same thing,
viz. -the firsthundred verses of the G. P. are called Goraksa
Sataka. In the descriptive details of the work G. P. he says*
TR3TT
SHTR
| I
"
srmrr
TOTt I
*T5TTW*fr
( of this i.e. G. P. the firsthundredhas, several times,been printed
4
under thetitle, Goraksa Sataka ' The name ofthe second hundred
4
is also said to be, Yoga Sastra ' ) He furthertells us that this
Goraksa Sataka has been transliterated into Roman Script and
4
printedby Briggs in his book- Gorakhanath & the Kanphata
Yogis
1 Gorakhnath
andMedievalHinduMysticism,
P. 10*.
2 *Gorakhnath
andtheKanphataYogis,P. 257,1938'
8 NathSampradaya,
P. 99,1950*.
17 [ Annals,B. O. R. I. ]

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

130

Annals of theBhandarkarOrientalResearchInstitute

It may be noted here, that this transliteratedtextis taken ( as

Briggs himself tell us ) from the Poona MS. ](P1) which is the
same as the firsthundred of the Goraksa Paddhati. Briggs does
not transliteratethe second hundred which is so essential for the
completionof the subject-matter.
One Ms. remained to be consulted and that was from the
Nepal Darbar Library. But Dr. P. C. Bagchi has given its detailed
4
descriptionin his introductionto, araren*Rofa ' Pandit Dvivedi
tells us that he could not obtain the said MS. but on looking into
the details as given by Dr. Bagchi, he says that the text of the
MS. of the Goraksa Sataka in the Nepal Darbar Library is not
fromthe transliteratedtext printedby Briggs in his book.
different
From what has been stated above, it will be seen that these
scholars take the first hundred verses of the G. P. to constitute
the text of the Goraksa Sataka.
It is easy to understandhow Briggs came to this conclusion.
He studied the Poona MS. (PI) which is called Goraksasataka. It
1
consists of one hundred verses and reads in the end, sii*3rft$r( Thus ends the Goraksasataka ). Now, the verses in
this Mg. (PI) are indentical with those in the firsthundredof the
G. P. that is published by the Laxmi Venkateswar Press Bombay,
Saka 1855 and which was used by Briggs, as he himselftells us.
1 Abbreviations
:MSS.markedas PI, P2 etc.are from
Bhandarkar
OrientalResearchInstitute,
Poona.
MSS.markedas Cl, C2 etc.arefrom
RoyalAsiaticSociety,Caloutta,
MS. B is from
OrientalLibrary,
Baroda.
MSS. markedas Bnl,Bn2etc.arefrom
SaraswatiBhavanGovt.Sanskrit
Benares.
Library,
MSS.markedas L1,L2 etc.arefrom
IndiaOffice
London.
Library,
MS. Bk is from
Bikaner.
AnupSanskritLibrary,
MS. Tn is from
SaraswatiMahalLibrary.
TanjoreMaharajaSerfojs
MS. Mnis from
Mandaleswar,
Ujjain,Indore.
MS.Md is from
Govt.OrientalMSS, Library,
Madras,
G. S.- GoraksaSataka.
G. P.- GoraksaPaddhati.

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Goraksaataka
: Its Original Text

131

But, as has been stated above, he did not try to see whether
the subject of Yoga was completed in these hundred verses.
Pandit Hajari Prasad Dvivedi following Dr. Briggs, naturally
came to hold the same view. Consequently, the firsthundred
verses of the G. P. came to be regarded as the text of the Goraksaataka.
We took up the question and started collecting MSS. described
as Goraksaataka. We could procure 35 MSS. from MSS.
Libraries at Poona, Calcutta, Benares, Baroda, Adyar, Bikaner,
Tanjore, Madras and Mandaleswar. Out of these,MS. C4 from
the Royal Asiatic Society,Calcutta, disclosed the factthat that MS.
was only a continuation of the Poona MS. ( PI ). Not only that
but it also contained a Sanskrit Commentary-BlaprabodhinI by
Laxmi Narayan whose Commentary of the same name is found
on the textof the Poona MS. ( PI ). In other words,the Poona
MS. ( PI ) and the Calcutta MS. ( C4 ) together formone whole
text with a Sanskrit commentaryby the the same commentator.
This combinedtext of the two MSS. PI and C4 is exactly identical with the text of the Goraksa Paddhati which is printed by
Laxmi Venkateswar Press Bombay. PI corresponds exactly to
the firsthundredand C4 to the second hundredof the G. P .
Now we have to see whetherthe scholars referredto above,
are justifiedin splitting the G. P. into two parts and denominating the firstas the Goraksaataka and the second by some other
name. For this, we must examine the subject-matterof the entire
text of the G. P.

Verse No. 7 of the firsthundreddefinesthe subject-matter. It

reads as follows
t
1
sTfSTfWsrremr
( By the way, it may be noted here that this enunciatoryverse is
found in all the MSS. which we studied and which are described
as Goraksaataka. In fact,it definesthe fundamentalbasis of the
text of the Goraksaataka ).
Now, in the printedG. P. we find that the treatment of the
subject as definedin this verse begins early in the firsthundred

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

132

OrientaiResearch
Annals oj theBhandarka
Institute

and is concluded towards the close of the second hundred. That

is to say, the subject-matteris spread over the two hundred verses,
intermingledwithothermaterial of Yogic importance.
Thus the two series of one hundred verses each of the G. P.
togetherformbut one organic whole and cannot be split up into
two, withoutmutilatingthe subject-matter. Out of the six topics
definedin the enunciatoryverse,Asanas and a little of Prnyma
are dealt with in the firsthundredand the rest of the Prnyma,
Pratyhra, Dhran, Dhyna and Samdhi are described in the
second hundred. In view of this integral nature of the two parts
which formbut one whole of the G. P. it would b incorrectto say
that the firsthundredof the G. P. is the Goraksaataka and the
second somethingelse. The firsb hundred touches only the fringe
of the subject while the major part is dealt with in the second
hundred. So, the firsthundredof the G. P. does notconstitute
the
of
the
Goraksa
text
Sataka.
original
A closer examination of all the MSS. described as Goraksaataka ( in the catalogue or in the body of the textitself) shows
that the numberof verses varies from MS. to MS. Where the
numberof verses is hundred as in MS. PI and C4, the subject as
1
defined in the verse
0tc.' is left incomplete and
STT<TO*P:
wherethe subject is treated in full, the number of verses ranges
from157 ( as in MS. Bn4 ) to 200 or even more, ( Three MSS.
fromMadras, Mandaleswar & Tanjore contain a hundred verses
but theirtextthoughrelevant to Yoga, is foreignto the subject as
definedin th6 enunciatory verse and is different
fromthat of the
32 MSS. describedas Goraksaataka. So these have been left out
of consideration).
This variation in the numberof verses from157 to 200 or more
fora complete treatmentof the subject- as defined in the verse,
'
3TRJ
etc.' promptedus to press the inquiry still further.
srfnT^^:
We startedwith thehypothesisthat the original Goraksa-ataka,
as its name indicated, must have consisted of one hundred verses
only and in these one hundred verses all the six Yogrigas must
have been dealt with. So out of the 32 MSS. under examination
we selected only those verses which directly dealt with the six
Angas of Yoga one by one and some other verses which were

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Goraksaialaka: Its Original Text

133

closely connected with the descriptionof these Angas. Then we

foundthat this careful selection of ours would give us not only
one hundredverses but could also deal with all the six Angas of
Yoga satisfactorily. So, hypothetically we came to the conclusion that the one hundred verses selected by us must have been
the original text of the Goraksa Sataka.
But we thought that our Hypothesis would be satisfactorily
established if we could still find a MS. containing only one
hundred verses and coveringthe whole topic ofYoga as enunciated
"
in the verse44
srnrfa: ote. So, a huntforadditional MSS.
was undertakenand throughthe good officesof Dr. P. E. Godo,the
Curatorof the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute,Poona, we
opened correspondence with the Keeper of the India OfficeMSS.
Library, London and we could get three more MSS. of the
Goraksasataka. Fortunatelyforus, one of them proved to be the
exact type of MS. providingthe necessary independentcorroboration that we wereso eagarly looking for. It is indexed as "Sanskrit
It satisfies both
MS. Keith 5765-1-0. 1664 B. Goraksa Sataka
the conditions. It contains 101 verses and deals with ail the six
topics enumerated in the enunciatory verse. It is true that all
the verses of this London MS. are included in the published text
of the Goraksa Paddhati but they are not the firsthundred verses
of the G. P. They are spread over the two and are interspersed
with verses containing otherYogic material.
So, the text as ascertained by us and corroborated by the
London MS. ( LI ) constitutes the original text of the Goraksa
ataka.
As a corollary of this, we may state that the G. P. is nothing
but an inflationof the original G. S. The original G. S. has been
gradually amplified by the introduction of several othertopics
connected with the theoryand practice of Yoga, till at last, the
number of verses rose from 100 to 200 or more necessitatinga
suitable title ( Sataka being a misnomer). The title Goraksa
Paddhati came in handy. This corollary about the genesis of the
G. P. is amply borne out by an analysis of the MSS. themselves.
Taking only those MSS. that touch all the six topics mentioned
1
'
the
in
enunciatory verse,
etc, we find a gradual

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

134

Annals of theBhandarkar Oriental ResearchInstitute

rise in the numberof verses,as more and morematerial came to be

added. For example, the London MS. ( LI ) consists of 101 verses
which comprisethe original text of the G. S. ; Bn4 has 157; L2 has
161; Bn8 has 173; P3 has 175; Bnl has 179; P4 has 193; P5 has 195;
P6 has 200. The MS. B. fromthe Oriental Library, Baroda and
the MS. Bk fromBikaner carry the process still furtherbeyond
200 and reach the figure213, thus taking a fair start, possibly,
for a thirdhundred.
Owing to the paucity of dated material in this mass of MSS. ,
it has not been possible forus to ascertain the successive stages in
the inflationof the original G. S. into G. P. from a chronological
point of view. Nor again, with the help of the available data,
could we trace the MSS. to their place of origin, so that the
inflationcould be explained geographically,as well.
So, our conclusion is thatthe original Goraksa Sataka consisted
only of one hundredverses and the Goraksa Paddbati is only an
inflatededition of the original Goraksa Sataka1.

1 ThisoriginalGoraksaSatakais beingeditedby the Kaivalyadhama

S. M.Y.M. Samiti,Lonavla,with Englishtranslation,
explanatorynotes,
from
twocommentaries
etc.andwill shortly
be madeavailableto
quotations
thepublic.

This content downloaded from 111.68.97.190 on Mon, 13 Oct 2014 04:31:52 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions