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 :
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
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'.
- (a)1 only — 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)2 only — 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)Neither 1 nor 2 — 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.
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.
Read the two statements as a pair testing 'origin' and 'diffusion'. Statement 1 asks where hatha yoga came from and is the safer of the two — the Nath connection is standard textbook material. Statement 2 asks whether it spread beyond its origin, and that is where candidates hesitate, because they imagine Sufi and yogic practice as sealed off from each other. In fact the syllabus explicitly treats their interaction. Once you accept that Sufi dhikr itself involves regulation of the breath, the borrowing becomes unsurprising rather than exotic. The Uttar Pradesh hook is worth remembering: Gorakhpur takes its name from Gorakhnath, and the Gorakhnath Math there remains the principal seat of the Nath order.
- Hatha yoga combines asana (posture), pranayama (breath control) and mudras and bandhas, and aims at liberation through mastery of the body.
- The Nath sampradaya — the Nathpanthis or Nath jogis — traces its lineage to Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath and is the tradition most closely identified with hatha yoga.
- Svatmarama's Hatha Yoga Pradipika, a fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual, is the classic text of the system and salutes Matsyendra and Goraksha at its opening.
- The Sanskrit Amritakunda was translated into Persian and Arabic and circulated among Sufis; Shaikh Muhammad Ghawth of Gwalior, of the Shattari order, wrote the Persian Bahr al-Hayat describing yogic postures and breathing.
- Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh is named after Gorakhnath and houses the Gorakhnath Math, the chief centre of the Nath order.
- Treating Sufism and yogic practice as sealed traditions and rejecting statement 2. The syllabus itself points to their exchange, and the Persian renderings of yogic texts are the standard evidence.
- Confusing hatha yoga with Patanjali's ashtanga yoga. Both are yoga, but the hatha system is a later, body-centred discipline associated with the Naths, not a synonym for the Yoga Sutras.
- Assuming the Nathpanthis were part of the Bhakti movement. They were an ascetic yogic order; the Bhakti sants borrowed from them, and often criticised them, but were not the same.
UPPSC frames this area as short statement-pairs on medieval sects and their practices, often with a UP anchor such as Gorakhpur; UPSC asks it through Sufi practice, Bhakti-Sufi interaction and the identification of orders and saints.
With reference to the religious history of medieval India, the Sufi mystics were known to pursue which of the following practices? 1. Meditation and control of breath 2. Severe ascetic exercises in a lonely place 3. Recitation of holy songs to arouse a state of ecstasy in their audience Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer(d) 1, 2 and 3
Its first statement — Sufi mystics practising meditation with control of breath — is precisely the borrowing of yogic technique that statement 2 of this UPPSC question asserts.
Which of the following is NOT correctly matched ?
- (a) Shaikh Moinuddin Chishti – Ajmer
- (b) Shaikh Burhanuddin Gharib – Daulatabad
- (c) Shaikh Mohammad Hussaini – Gulbarga
- (d) Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya – Multan
Answer(d) Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya – Multan
Same corner of the syllabus — Sufism in medieval India — approached from the saints and their centres, the companion knowledge to the practices tested here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the classic medieval manual of hatha yoga, is attributed to
- (a)Patanjali
- (b)Svatmarama
- (c)Shankaracharya
- (d)Vachaspati Mishra
Answer(b) Svatmarama — his fifteenth-century Sanskrit manual codified the hatha system and opens by saluting Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath; Patanjali wrote the earlier Yoga Sutras, a different work.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched?
- (a)Nath sampradaya — Gorakhnath
- (b)Chishti order — Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya
- (c)Varkari tradition — Guru Nanak
- (d)Lingayat movement — Ramanuja
Answer(a) Nath sampradaya — Gorakhnath; the Naths trace their lineage to Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath. Bahauddin Zakariya belonged to the Suhrawardi order, the Varkari tradition centres on Pandharpur and not on Guru Nanak, and the Lingayat movement is associated with Basava, not Ramanuja.