F O R E W O R D
I have great pleasure in drawing the attention of the 'scholars and philosophers interested in the Yoga system of philosophy to this collection of 10 works of the school of the system known as that of the Natha Yogis or Kanphata Yogis, which the learned Dr. Kalyani Devi Malik has edited on pro curing MSS. thereof from far and near with great assiduity and to which she has prefixed a well-thought out and thought-pro voking thesis on the historicity and dates of the principal perso. nalities whose names are associated with the origin and deve lopment of the cult of the said Yogis, and added a compre hensive synopsis of the contents of each work, made more interesting and instructive by the supplementation of critical notes.
She has, by doing so, rendered a great service to the cause of Indian culture in its spiritual aspect because the Natha Yogis continue in an uncorrupted form the ancient Hatha yoga tradition, whose origin goes back to the proto-historic times when there lived the great Siddhas of the Mahesvara sect like the great sage Panini, who have left behind for the bene fit of civilised man, wonderful works on such scientific subjects as grammar, linguistics, mathematics, medicine, classical music etc. based on intuitive knowledge acquired by a singular devotion to the humanistic ideals and at great personal sacrifice. Dr. Gopinath Kaviraj had, in the first quarter of this century, published in the Prince of Wales Sarasvati Bhavan Text Series two works of that | sect of secondary importance, namely Gordha-siddhantasigraha and Siddha-siddhanta-saningraha. The former thereout is a 17th century work made out on the basis of extracts drawn from 60-65 works and the latter is a summary of the Siddha-siddhanta-paddhati of Nityanath, who flourished long after Gorakasanatha whose achievement in the matter of the revival of the Siddha tradition is comparable with that of Siddha Vasugupta in the matter of that of the Kasmir Saivism and of the great philosopher Sankara in that of the Advaita Vedanta. The former contains some extracts from the
