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RELIGIOUS SECTS
comprehends the tombs of several eminent members of this communion and the dwellings of the Mahant and his resident disciples.
GORAKHNÁTH was a man of some acquirement, and has left specimens of his scholarship in two Sanskrit Compositions, the Goraksha śataka and Goraksha kalpa: third, the Goraksha sahasra Náma is, probably, of his writing. The celebrated BHARTRIHARI, the brother of VIKRAMÁDITYA, is said to have been one of his disciples, but chronology will not admit of such an approximation. According to the authorities of the sect Gorakh is but one of pine eminent teachers, or Náths. Of the perfect Yogís, or Siddhas, eighty-four are enunerated; but it is said, that there have been many more, of whom several are still upon the surface of the earth.
The Jogis of GORAKHNÁTH are usually called Kánphátás from having their ears bored and rings inserted in them at the time of their initiation. They may be of any cast; they live as ascetics, either singly or in Maths!. Siva is the object of their worship--they
Solitary and independent living, however, appears to be improper, if the authority of the Hatha Pradipa is to be depended upon:
सुराज्ये धार्मिके देशे सुभिक्षे निरुपद्रवे।
एकान्ते मठिकामध्ये स्थातव्यं हठयोगिना ॥ “In a well- governed and well-regulated country, fertile and prosperous, the latha Yogi (he who upholds the world in eternal continuity) should reside in a solitary cell within the precincts of a Math.” Other directions follow applicable to most establishments of a similiar nature. The cell should have a
