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Aurangzeb and the Nāth Yogīs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2018

VÉRONIQUE BOUILLIER
VÉRONIQUE BOUILLIER*
Affiliation:
CNRS/[email protected]
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Abstract

This article focuses on some representations of Aurangzeb in the Nath Yogi lore; their ambivalence appears as a signifier of the complex relationships the Nath Yogis had with Islam. Aurangzeb figures both as a powerful enemy and as a clumsy devotee, he is depicted more as a symbol than as an historical individual character.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , July 2018 , pp. 525 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2018 

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References

1 A version of this article was presented as a paper at the 2014 ECSAS Zürich conference. I would like to thank all the participants for their questions and comments, and especially Heidi Pauwels and Anne Murphy for their invaluable help, and the anonymous reviewer/s for his/her apt remarks.

2 Many recent studies have documented encounters between Muslims (mainly Sufīs) and Nāth Yogīs from the Muslim side. In a recent paper I considered the other side of the encounters, from the Nāth point of view. My conclusion, which I cannot describe here fully, was that fluid boundaries with Islam were part of the religious identity of the Nāth Yogīs. For the argument and the bibliography, see V. Bouillier, “Nāth Yogīs’ Encounters with Islam”, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal (May 2015), available at http://samaj.revues.org/3878 (accessed 1 January 2018). Regarding the Nāth Yogīs more generally, see Bouillier, V., Monastic Wanderers. Nāth Yogī Ascetics in Modern South Asia (Delhi, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Goswamy, B. N. and Grewal, J. S., The Mughals and the Jogis of Jakhbar: Some Madad-i-Ma'ash and Other Documents (Simla, 1967)Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., p. vii.

5 Ibid., p. 23.

6 Ibid., p. 13.

7 Ibid., pp. 33, 121-124.

8 What is translated as “your Reverence” is the title rifʻat-e dast-gah, rif'at meaning “Being elevated, raised, exalted, noble, or high-priced; high position or dignity” and dast-gah, s.f. “Power, strength, ability, means; understanding; intellect; knowledge”. Platts, J. T., A Dictionary of Urdū, Classical Hindī, and English (New Delhi, 1993 [1884])Google Scholar.

9 Goswamy and Grewal, The Mughals and the Jogis, pp. 121-122.

10 Ibid., p. 33.

11 Ibid., pp. 33-34, 127-144.

12 Ibid., pp. 33-34.

13 Ibid., p. 34.

14 Goswami and Grewal, in their informative introduction to the documents published by them, have already pointed out: “The strong impression that one receives at Jakhbar, however, is that this gaddi of the Jogis has come to be a little isolated from the general organisation of the Kanphatas over the years. This may have been due to the general indifference of the mahants to outside matters [. . .] The Jakhbar gaddi has consequently gone almost completely unnoticed so far”. The Mughals and the Jogis, p. 5.

15 Nevill, H. R., Gonda, A Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1921), p. 144Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 181.

17 Pollock, S., The Language of the Gods in the World of Men Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India (Berkeley, 2006), p. 7Google Scholar.

18 Briggs, G. W., Gorakhnāth and the Kanphata Yogīs (Delhi, 1973 [1938]), p. 86Google Scholar.

19 Srivastava, R. L., Mahāyogī Guru Gorakhnāth evam unkī Tapasyā (Gorakhpur, 1986 [2043 VS]), p. 21Google Scholar.

20 Banerjea, A. K., The Nāth-Yogī Sampradāya and the Gorakhnāth Temple (Gorakhpur, 1979), p. 15Google Scholar.

21 Ibid.

22 Srivastava, Mahāyogī Guru Gorakhnāth, p. 21.

23 Briggs, Gorakhnāth and the Kanphata Yogīs, p. 92.

24 Jagdoś Nārāyaṅ Siṁha, “Śrīnāthtīrth Śaktipīṭh Devīpāṭan”, Yogvāṇī, 15 (1990), pp. 103-109.

25 Nevill, Gonda, p. 193.

26 See Bouillier, V., Ascètes et Rois: Un monastère de Kanphata Yogis au Nepal (Paris, 1998)Google Scholar, and Bouillier, V. and Khan, D. S., “Hajji Ratan or Baba Ratan's Multiple Identities”, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 37 (2009), pp. 559–595CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 As told in the booklets published in Dang monastery and illustrated on wall paintings, see Bouillier, Ascètes et Rois, pp. 57-88.

28 At least this is the way these stories are constructed now. But it is true also that the Yogīs were travelling and settling often in the north-western regions, called in an encompassing way “Khorasan”, which was traditionally under Muslim domination.

29 S. Digby, “Encounters with Jogis in Indian Sufi Hagiography”, unpublished manuscript, (London, 1970).

30 Bouillier, Ascètes et Rois, p. 71.

31 A compound from hāṇḍī, “earthen cooking pot”, and possibly bharaṇ, “carrying, nourishing” (from bharnā, “to fill, to be full”).

32 Rose, H. A., Ibbetson, D. and Maclagan, E. D., A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (Lahore, 1919), II, pp. 395–396Google Scholar.

33 In his short article “Aurangzeb as a Yogī ”, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 54, 2, pp. 203-204.

34 Anon., “Nāthsiddh Hanḍībhaṛang”, Yogvāṇī, 23, 4-6 (April-June1998), pp. 210-211. This issue like many other Yogvāṇī issues is made of short articles, generally anonymous; this one contains many brief notes on some well-known characters of the Yogī lore. Two pages concern Nāthsiddha Haṇḍī Bharaṅg.

35 Gold, D., “The Yogī who pissed from the Mountain”, in Studies in Early Modern Indo-Aryan Languages, Literatures and Culture, (eds.) Entwistle, Alan W. et al. (Delhi, 1999), pp. 145–156Google Scholar.

36 Bhairava and especially Kālabhairava has a preeminent place among the deities worshipped by the Nāths. Usually each maṭh has three main altars or shrines devoted to Śiva as Gorakhnāth, Bhairava and the Devī. But Bhairava can also be the only god effectively represented. He had food prepared for him every morning, which may include a substitute for blood sacrifice. No food or drink is consumed by the Nāths before Bhairava has taken his meal. The duty imparted to Hanḍī Phaṛang is thus an important one, especially as Bhairava is not easy to deal with!

37 Anon., “Nāthsiddh Hanḍībhaṛang”, pp. 210-211, my translation.

38 Briggs, “Aurangzeb as a Yogī ”, pp. 203-204; Gorakhnāth and the Kanphata Yogīs, pp. 70-71.

39 Briggs, “Aurangzeb as a Yogī ”, p. 203.

40 The text is part of a volume, Śrī Nāth Rahasya (Haridvar, Rohtak, 2005), pp. 526-527, published by the secretary of the Yogī Mahāsabhā, Vilāsnāth Yogī. For a study of this Mohammad Bodh see Bouillier, “Nāth Yogīs’ Encounters with Islam”.

41 The earth being a womb, bhūgarbha, as says Yogī Vilāsnāth (Prācīn Bhartrhari Guphā Mahātmya, (Haridvar, 2001), p. 12), see Bouillier, V., “Grottes et tombes: les affinités des Nāth Yogīs avec le monde souterrain”, Rivista di Studi Sudasiatici, III, (2008), p. 41Google Scholar.

42 Temple, R. C., The Legends of the Panjab (London, 1885), I, p. 208Google Scholar.

43 The Gurgaon version in Rose et al., Glossary, I, p. 181.

44 Gold, “The Yogī”, p. 153.

45 Ibid.

46 White, D. G., “The Exemplary Life of Mastnāth: the Encapsulation of Seven Hundred Years of Nāth Siddha Hagiography”, in Constructions hagiographiques en Inde: entre mythe et histoire, (ed.) Mallison, F. (Paris, 2001), pp. 152–157Google Scholar.

47 Bouillier and Khan, “Hajji Ratan”.

48 Gold, D., ‘Different Drums in Gwalior: Maharashtrian Nāth Heritages in a North Indian City’, in Yogī Heroes and Poets: History and Legends of the Nāths, (eds.) Lorenzen, David N. and Munoz, Adrian (Albany, 2011), pp. 51–62Google Scholar.

49 In the Rajasthani (Sirsa) version reported by Rose et al., Glossary, Vol. I, p. 178; see also Indian Antiquary 1881, pp. 32-43, quoted in Briggs, Gorakhnāth and the Kanphata Yogīs, p. 235. We also find mentions of Prithvi Raj Chauhan, an echo perhaps of the numerous fights between the Delhi king and the neighbouring kingdoms, Rose et al., Glossary, I, pp. 177 (Bijnor version) and 181 (Gurgaon version).

50 A similar situation is described by Dušan Deák for a Marathi sampradāya made of followers of Dattatreya (alias Śahā Datta): “these four [disciples] are instrumental in winning even the Mughal emperor Awrangzeb to become Śahā Datta's follower!” See Deák, Dušan, “Śahādat or Śahā Datta? Locating the mysterious fakir in the Marathi texts”, in Muslim Cultures in the Indo-Iranian World, (eds.) Hermann, D. and Speziale, F. (Berlin, 2010), p. 520Google Scholar.