Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati

Author(s): Kalyani Mallik
Publisher: Poona Oriental Book House Poona

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names appear in the list of the 84 siddhas. These verse writers were known as Siddhācāryas and were mostly Buddhists, so Shastri published them as "Bauddha Gan and Dohā ", (i. e., the songs and couplets of the Buddhists); Bagchi published some MSS. by Matsyendranath under the caption Kaula-jñana-niṛnaya ".
Gorakhnath's "Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati is now being published with some other texts, belonging to the Nätha Sect. "Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati" is mentioned in "Hath
Yoga-Pradipīkā
as being uttered by Sree Gorakhnath and this tradition is still held by the sect. For obvious reasons this has remained a sealed book to the layman, though it was published by the Nath-Bramhacharyāsram at Hardwar; it was meant only for the members of its own mystic sect and is unavailable. Repeated requests by Dr. Gopinath Kaviraj and Dr. P. Bagchi for a copy of the book have been fruitless. In 1942 my diligent search was rewarded in the form of a transcription of the Ms. A scholar, Sree Giridharilal Vyasji of Benaras, had been to Hardwar, mixed with the yogis, earned their favour and thus obtained a copy of the book. Śree Vyasji had a vast library and helped me with books whenever I needed them. I am deeply indebted to him also for the transcription of 'Siddha-Siddhanta-Paddhati ". Since then I have serched and obtained copies of MSS. of the same SiddhaSiddhanta-Paddhati from Jodhpore and Tanjore. In the Tanjore copy, after the colophon are given four lines in praise of god Rama.
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Jodhpore was once a very influential centre of Nathism. Maharaja Mansingha of Jodhpore had himself written sixteen books on Nathism and had several others written by his court poets about the middle of the nineteenth century. Dr. Singh gives the list of as many as twenty-five Hindi works about Gorakhnath and his cult as mentioned by the state library, Jodhpore. The Maharaja made a collection of Gorakhnath's books and verses, a detailed note of which can be obtained from the Report on Search of Hindi MSS, 1902, Banaras University.
In Tanjore the Ms. is found in Telegu script, a copy of which has been obtained by me, together with another MS. Yoga-Martyanda, by Sree Gorakhath. The very existence