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their treasures. In this book are published for the firs time a set of collections of MSS. of the Natha Yogis secured by me from Northern and Southern India. In my first book on the subject, The History, Philosophical Doctrine and Practice of the Natha School (of Yogis )” written in Bengali and published by the Calcutta University in 1950. I have given some detailed account of these Yogis and their practices, with their fundamental philosophy.
The Legends
Legends relating to the different gurus ( preceptors ) and their shisyas ( disciples ) are often contradictory, except in the case of Sree Matsyendra and Sree Gorakhnath. That Gorakhnath learned Yoga from his guru Sree Matsyendranath, who in turn learnt it from Adinath or Siva, is unanimously accepted by the different traditions and 'paramparas' i.e., the list of the gurus and their disciples. The followers a (Gorakhnath are known as Gorakhnathis, and Kanphatas ( Kan = ears, phatas = slit ) as well, as they wear huge ear-rings by slitting the cartilages about three quarters of an inch of both ears in imitation of Lord Siva. The kanphata yogis are found even to the present day in different regions of India and their places of pilgrimage are scattered all over the country.
Of Gorakhnath's disciples King Jalandharnath of Northern India and Queen Maynamati of Comilla ( East Bengal, now Pakistan ) have become famous in the ballads sung in honour of the Queen's only son King Gopichandra. Gopiclhandra’s renunciation is a familiar subject on which ballads and dramas have been composed in Bengali, Oriya, Nepalese and Hindi. Gopichandra was the ruler of Bengal in the eleventh century. His mother Maynamati was a disciple of Saint Gorakhnath. Gopichandra's span of life was short. So Gorakhnath ordered Maynamati to conmpel her only son to become a Yogil and accept as his guru Hadipa, a man of low caste and a scavenger. Ha¢ipa was none other than Jalandharnath, the disciple of Gorakhnath, in disguise. As Maynamati and Hadipa were both adepts at performing rniracles, Gopichandra suspected some foul play at first and resented the idea of becoming Ha¢ipव's disciple. The two
