With reference to Hath Yog, which of the following statement is/are correct ?
1. Hath Yog was practiced by Nathpanthis.
2. Hath Yog technique was also adopted by the Sufis.
Select the correct answer u

Question

With reference to Hath Yog, which of the following statement is/are correct ?
1. Hath Yog was practiced by Nathpanthis.
2. Hath Yog technique was also adopted by the Sufis.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below :
Codes :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — C, both statements are correct. Statement 1: hatha yoga — the discipline of postures (asana), breath control (pranayama), and the mudras and bandhas meant to rouse the latent energy of the body — is historically the practice of the Nath sampradaya. The Nathpanthis, or Nath jogis, trace their line to Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath and spread across northern India from about the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the classic medieval manual of the system, Svatmarama's Hatha Yoga Pradipika, opens by saluting exactly those teachers. Statement 2: the technique travelled outside its own tradition. Indian Sufis, whose own discipline of dhikr already involved regulating the breath, took a close and practical interest in yogic breath control and postures. The Sanskrit Amritakunda, a text of yogic practice, was rendered into Persian and Arabic and circulated in Sufi circles, and Shaikh Muhammad Ghawth of Gwalior — a leading figure of the Shattari order in the sixteenth century — composed the Bahr al-Hayat, a Persian work that describes yogic postures and breathing practices for a Sufi readership. This borrowing is one of the standard examples in the syllabus of interaction between Sufi and indigenous ascetic traditions. Both statements standing, the answer is 'Both 1 and 2'.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) It denies the Sufi borrowing, which is well attested — Persian and Arabic renderings of yogic texts circulated among Sufis, and Shattari writing on breath control and postures shows the technique being taken up in Sufi practice.  (b) It denies the more basic of the two facts. The Nathpanthis are the tradition with which hatha yoga is most closely identified; the medieval hatha manuals themselves place Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath at the head of the lineage.  (d) Both statements are true, so a blanket rejection is wrong. This option only tempts a candidate who assumes hatha yoga is a modern invention with no medieval history.

Concept: Medieval north India was not a set of sealed religious compartments. The Nath jogis, wandering ascetics with pierced ears and matted hair, carried a body of physical technique — postures, breath control, internal purifications — that claimed to make the body itself the instrument of liberation. Because that technique was practical rather than doctrinal, it could be detached from its theology and adopted by others. Sufi masters, especially of the Shattari order, absorbed its breath disciplines into their own; the sant poets, Kabir among them, borrowed its vocabulary of the inner body while criticising its outward austerity. This traffic of ideas between yogis, Sufis and the sants is one of the defining features of the religious history of the period.

State PCS 2019 Q129 — History PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q129 — History PYQ with Answer