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DECEMBER, 1878.]
NOTES ON THE KÅNPHÁTÅ YogIs.
299
nated the Gorakhpanthis, or followers of Gorakh nátha, the renovator of their creed and doctrines,-in the same manner as the disciples of Dadu, Kabir, and Nanak were designated by the appellations of Då d u-panthis, Kabir. panthis, and Nanakpanth is. Gorak hnátha, the acknowledged founder of the order, is recorded in a Sanskrit treatise on Yogd philosophy, called the Hathadipika, by Atmârâm, to have been the eighth in succession to Adi- nitha, the originator of the sect, and to have transmitted his doctrines in Sansk sit to posterity. The names of the leaders of this sect are thus given in the treatise :-$ri Adin Atha, Mats yendra, Sambara, Anand a-b ha irava, Chandrangi, Mena, Goraksha, Virupaksha, Velassa yan, &c.
Gorakhnatha, according to the authori. ties of this sect and the Rekhtas of Kabir, is reckoned to be one of the nine eminent teachers of the Yoga system, and he is still more conspicuous than the others from his having left written documents of his faith and precepts in some works of his composition in original Sanskrit, which no other of his sect had done either before or after him. Dr. H. H. Wilson has given a list of thirty teachers of this faith from the Hathadipiká cited above, and fixed the date of Gorakhnatha in the fourteenth century, by assigning only the space of fifteen years to ench of his successors (vide Wilson's "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus" in vol. XVII. p. 190, of the Asiatic Researches). In the Rekhtas of Kabir, however, printed in the Hindi and Hindustani Selections by Captain Price, there occurs a distich in a controversial dialogue between Kabir and Gorakhnath a which makes them contemporaries at the commencement of the fifteenth century, and states that Gorakhn Atha was the son of Matsy endra, and grandson of A dinâ tha.
The word kanphátá literally means 'ear-split,' and is, like nakti, 'nose-clipt,' a vernacular term of reproach, applied contemptuously to this sect by the victorious Muhammadans, who in the same way made use of the epithet hind, black,' to the inhabitants of this country, and called every one káfar, or 'infidel,' who professed s faith different from their own. The practice of boring holes in the ears (karna-bhedha) is an essential religious ceremony among the Hindus of all castes and tribes in general, but the
custom of making a slit in the cartilage of the ear, and inserting rings or cylinders made of horn, agate, or glass in the perforated part, as necessary for the initiation of a disciple, is an institution originating with Gorakhnatha, who for this reason is styled the founder of the Kanph ⢠â s. This practice was borrowed from a custom prevalent among all classes of yogis of suspending rings to the ears, in imitation of the Jainas and Buddhists, who in their turn had derived it from Siva, the lord of the yogis, who is often represented in a posturo of deep meditation with similar rings pendent in his ears, as in an image in the Dumar Lenâ at Elura, or in the vestibule of the Elephanta cave. These rings, called mundre, from the Sanskrit word mundras or circlets, which from their immense size painfully distort the cartilage of the ear, have often been made objects of ridicule by the Muhammadans in their popular songs. Honce Kabir, although a convert from Muhammadanism to Hindu Râma-worship, does not omit the opportunity of deriding the earrings of Gorakhnath a while discussing with him his religious opinions and principles; a tetrastich in the Bagh-o-Bahár also accuses the Kanphâţâs, and all other classes of yogis and hermits, of cupidity and greediness, notwithstanding their professions to the contrary.
The Kanphatás are mentioned in Lallu LAI's Tables of Hindu Sects and Tribes as having originated from the yogis and jangams of the Saiva faith, and this statement is corroborated by the account which Dr. Wilson has given of them in his "Sketch of the Hindu Sects" in the Asiatic Researches, vol. XVII.
The devotees of Siva (perhaps the only remnants of ancient yogís in India, except the P&ramhansa of Sankaracharya's Vedantism) are religious recluses from the world, and wholly devoted to abstract meditation. The Kanphatas are of the same persuasion, with this difference between them and other Saivas, that, while all orders of Sanyášis are at liberty to visit holy places and perform distant pilgrimages, the Kanphâţâs are constrained to remain within their mathas, or monasteries, and sometimes are even closely confined in their guhas, or cells, for intense application to meditation. A reference to this peculiarity occurs in the Hathadipika, and is thus translated by Dr. Wilson :
"The Hatha jogi should dwell in a well go
