Situating Sufism and Yoga Author(s): Carl W.

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Situating Sufism and Yoga*

CARL
((The natives

W.

ERNST

of all unknown

countries are commonly

called Indians" Maximilian of Transylvania, De molucco (1523)

Orientalism
Since the Protestant Reformation,

and Essentialism
the dominant nature religions how the of the a of into one 'source'

in the Study
concept

of Religion
has been best be one of essences from used from

of religions can

unconditioned this perspective, various another, and what metaphors which

by history1 by analysing to is

The

religious their religion by which

traditions original

understood, Scholars or By have

components. doctrines 'influenced'.

describe

'borrows' it is thus and the unchanging

practices

consequently

amechanical from by

ahistorical was

conception to be easily which approach into by accept

religion norm

as a pure (or from

essence, of a religion doctrines

variations as defined or

perceived could be

definition importing

scholars) This

explained is highly to

as the abstract religious often those of

result

of

foreign

practice. in the

terminology, history people

and metaphorical, studies, have who we reject even read a though that a

is rarely it tends particular case of

questioned to make school alleged or

intellectual rather 'was than

religions thinker

agents.

How Even

influenced'

so-and-so?

particular

influence

unconsciously Once significance; addition 'influenced' and subjective an

it as a category has been

analysis. it is felt, ? explained of language. of one or has rather, 'Sources' said something away 'original' so many anything. often of immense is in those

influence

established, has been

the phenomenon implicit by them evaluation are

explained are

There while

in this kind This to

'derivative'. that

kind

analysis it helps ('search

contains clarify for

problematic I would misses of like the

assumptions

it is hard

see how

to argue point by

that what excluding

the Germans or minimising

call Quellenforschung the significance of

origins')

an author's

reinterpretation

sources.

As Wendy
more For on basic

Doniger
than hand,

observes with

respect to the study of myth,

or political for agendas to account this approach

"The problem of diffusion is

of this sort of of tale-tracking. each telling".2 Protestant

the mechanical diffusion study of

complexities still fails religion,

the one comparative

the particular perpetuates

genius an

In the

also

implicitly

* This article is based on the Annemarie Schimmel Memorial Lecture, delivered at the Royal Asiatic Society, London on 11 December 2003. See my Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in theContemporary World (Chapel Hill, NC, 2003), Chapter 2, for a discussion of modern concepts of religion. ~ TTie Implied Spider: Politics and TJieology in Wendy Doniger, Myth (New York, 1998), p. 141. JRAS, Series 3, 15, 1 (2005), pp. 15-43 DOI: 10.1017/S1356186304004675 ? The Royal Asiatic Society 2005 Printed in theUnited Kingdom

16 Carl W. Ernst
of as for world sign but of weakness an analytical and evidence model the of is fine nature of

concept dependence if one religion, One was the

religions on foreign

ideologies influences

competing is a sure activity,

domination, in this game.

any

This of

is engaging

in missionary flawed. examples early of

for

appreciation

it is seriously of the chief of

this

search and its

for

sources

and to

influences the religions

in religious of late

studies antiquity.

* Early scholars in this field liked to talk about Oriental-Gnostic'

deriving the elite, from or India. Such by from As borrowing the sometimes masses; who was said though were out, alternatively superstitious by Smith the keen Protestant

study

Christianity

relationship

influences on Christianity,
to have been carried explanation their out by was power favourite to

deliberate by

borrowing

paganism Z.

priests, has

aggrandise anti-Catholic

this deception.

Jonathan

pointed

polemics

are the key to understanding

The term language is originally events; of also any see of'influence' astrological, subsequently kind this was of divine, archaic caused the

this jaundiced view of early Christianity.3

becomes denoting it came spiritual, especially the to mean moral, suspect when we consider of or or influenza, secret the its history. stars that The control etherial "the emanations inflowing...

terrestrial or One this means, thing) can viral

infusion power on

{into a person or principle". that

immaterial, term

notion by the

at work influence of power

in the

based

the notion

disease

of maleficent by one person

stars. Most or thing

recently, over

influence in a

more

abstractly,

exertion

another,

manner
signifies

that is only perceptible

the "authority of prestige all it is above as a major

by its effects.4 In the history of ideas, influence

over in the ideas or over that task of the will the the of another".5 'influence' of ideas intellectual of analysis. history The term historian

therefore
Since has was the come seen

Enlightenment, to function

category

as simplifying complicated
chemist of Arthur influences to astrology, of the reducing Lovejoy, pass over compounds the from

philosophical
to elements. of ideas

systems into their basic components, much

In the quest "is especially for these basic in the to factors, processes trace this interested

like a

in the phrase by which enterprise the

history one

province of

to another".6 resemble This to their

If it is correct a latter-day or

then the

the historian stars of our

ideas would cosmos.

astrologer, perhaps better, and

charting alchemist,

influences reduces may be or

intellectual

chemist, essential This

intellectual the philosophers

compounds stone thrill verb of of

of history academic

elements, kind

in the process work can

attain seen

immortality.

of detective thematic to

as the principal related fueling exist

the hunt between

in scholarship. as well

"Spotting as within texts

certain seems

likenesses the

disclosing

patterns

inaugurate by

excitement of and 3 ideas may difference

the critical only

act".7 Unfortunately, of the are theorist. the result

the connections As Jonathan of mental Z.

discerned Smith observes, The

the history "Similarity mechanical

in the mind 'given'. They

are not

operations".8

Jonathan Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and theReligions of Late Antiquity (Chicago, 1990), pp. 21-22, 34. 4 Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. "influence". 5 also stresses Andre Lalande, Vocabulaire technique et critique de la philosophie, 5th ed. (Paris, 1947), p. 498, which the astrological origin. 6 Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being: A Study of theHistory of an Idea (Cambridge, MA, 1936, reprint ed., 1976), p. 16. 7 in Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin Louis A. Renza, "Influence", (eds), Critical Terms for Literary Study (Chicago, 1990), p. 187. 8 Smith, Drudgery Divine, p. 51.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 17

character takes position thinker changes kind range place of upon of the in any influence thinker who If we it will be metaphor s evaluation triumphally wish, obscures of previous announces the role of selection and and intentionality the influence intercultural carried We need and term by that superior of one ex this

formulations, the detection to understand

it privileges

the analyst another.

of decisive how complex of meaning analysis.

in contrast,

take place,

necessary which account of

to re-examine all too acts often of

the freight substitutes for

of metaphorical of categories example

language, that take

a wider resistance.

interpretation, is the vaguely suggests The

appropriation, disapproving either term was

Another which liquids during reunite were two by

of a problematic etymology two

metaphor metaphorically independent as a The

'syncretism', two different introduced attempts two religions to

its neo-Greek or allying

pouring originally

together the

forces. derogatory

Protestant and

Reformation Protestants. those who

description assumption was were

of misguided that these

Catholics irrevocably

underlying attempted the to

separate;

rejoin

them used

attempting to

to combine and

alien

substances

or powers.

Subsequently

term was

to refer

philosophical

religious positions that identified various deities of the ancient world as being simply different
aspects term like of of the same god or goddess. By the nineteenth century, syncretism was a familiar Iwould because are treated the in religious to suggest the underlying as homogeneous Any one-sided or that studies, the usually concept of that applied to non-Christian in the conveys. study contexts.9 of religion

disparagingly

syncretism either or of

is problematic its etymologies individuals, 'essence' from religions of

assumptions

If religions

either question. change, that

substances

autonomous of the

this vastly such a religion

oversimplifies makes by historical proposing

characterisation diversity also into

complexity, can

a deviation that

the norm. exist

Syncretism,

religions

be mixed,

assumes

in a pure

unadulterated

state.

Where
untouched without be found,

shall we
by

find this historically

religious cultures? to any previously problem follows;

untouched
Has any

religion?
religion If pure a

Is there any religious

into existence fully religions and irreducible term

tradition
formed, cannot is

other

sprung

reference a logical

existing syncretism

religion? becomes

meaningless

if everything

syncretistic.10 The term 'religion' the entity, of interior and the itself lends itself to of equivocation a single believer, of clarified, assigned tradition as well. the We use the term equally as a over occur. who is this

to describe corporate the course

consciousness vast historical ambiguity author or the texts

religious as it has

community accumulated easily tradition, religion,

complex is not normally customarily necessarily notion

centuries. concerns with

If this an

then misconceptions to one with religious another

If the

discussion deals

nonetheless an a

concepts Does

associated have of a bias religion toward

inter-religious boundary? can be

exercise? If one applies

author abstract of

a consciousness to this kind as

of overstepping of the analysis, essence the of

a fixed history

result religion.

a mechanical

ideas with

doctrine

an article that is sensitive Encyclopaedia ofReligion and Ethics (Edinburgh, New York, 1908?26), "Syncretism", to the polemical historical origins of the term. Oddly, the 1987 Encyclopedia of Religion more or less accepted syncretism as a legitimate category and offered no critical analysis of the concept. 10 See Robert D. Baird, Category Formation and the 1 (2nd ed., Berlin, and Reason, History ofReligions, Religion in Peter J. Claus and Margaret A. Mills 1991), pp. 142?152; Tony K. Stewart and Carl W. Ernst, "Syncretism", (eds), South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia, (New York, 2003).

18 Carl W Ernst
To on the reasons for the to to find the The ancient the the New Another the very or

speculate in Europe version

briefly diverse by of the

powerful one may

urge point civilisations. once the

unity

genetic of of the

relationship Christian Christian civilisations tradition for need

religious colonial history India

phenomena, encounter was were perhaps clearly after with

disorientation dislocation and

other inevitable,

sacred and severe

independent ascribed unaccounted factor of in the Judaism to

of China underwent of

in view. the discovery

Likewise, of

authority World, major existence

questioning revered

in the works to define

the

ancients

throughout the anxiety

Europe.11 over

religious

genealogies

was

and Islam, which

impulse expressed ranged to give itself, from not

has continued
a single in theology

to be a defining
line but of meaning, in various essay

factor in European modernity

to of sheer theories the historical cultural relation diffusion. between to to derive the

Yet

the
still

history

as an alternative scientific

arbitrariness,

These Greek excesses all forms

Abel-Remusats thought (based school on

1824 a

explaining

and Chinese of

comparison turn of

of Lao-Tzu the century,

and Heraclitus), which sought

the Pan-Babylonian

at the

of religion from Babylonia via a process of cultural diffusion. As philosopher

Voegelin A observed,

of history Eric

horror, not

all over

the earth

of the spirit No

a shudder at the richness of the vacui but pleni, seems at work, spirit as it reveals itself a monomaniacal in a multitude of hierophanies, desire to force the operations on the one line that will in history lead into the speculator's present. unequivocally lines must be left dangling that conceivably could lead into somebody else's

independent

present

and future.12 as

Similarity dependency. about The could be the rough be

between Thus essential edges safely in the we

two can

formulations explain

could

be but

explained self assured

the

result

of

historical

the farfetched (i.e., out The

Romantic religions

pronouncements in their Indian core. core, was to of

identity

of all Oriental smoothed

non-European) by reducing

of particularity, disregarded exercise of

formulations of religious comparison

to a doctrinal phenomena and

as accidental. theoretical

real meaning through

found

imagination

detection

sources. Another Christian was factor cultures in the quest primarily prominent evolution and as a for influences of is reflexive their difference climate applied comparison in of and contrary from to the first, viewing non This

in terms in the

European

Christianity.

particularly of

intellectual freely

nineteenth-century comparative to reveal study which

colonialism. of religion, religion

Theories originally

race were disingenuous

the

understood

intended

was

superior.13 The study of religion in Christian theological faculties Christianity from this kind of historical investigation, since Christianity
the the theorist Protestant professed) Reformation. was assumed More to be than other still pure literary and texts, integral, despite the Christian

initially exempted (inwhatever form

such events were as

scriptures

accorded
witness of

the authority of tradition in a way

history and the sanction of divine

that defined
truth.

authenticity
other

both
religions

through the
could be

If, however,

11 and McLaughlin, Critical Termsfor Literary Study, pp. 105-120. Donald. E. Pease, "Author", in Lentricchia 12 Eric LA, 1974), p. 3. Voegelin, Order and History, Vol. IV, The Ecumenic Age (Baton Rouge, 13 Eric Encyclopedia of Religion, 3, pp. 578?580) links the term 'influence' Sharp ("Comparative Religion", considers the term to be now "seldom used". evolutionistic schemes that rank religions, and he optimistically

to

Situating Sufism and Yoga 19

shown their the to be dependent relation hybrids and composed inferior to of nature. the various Despite and 'Oriental' the later influences, progress world still concepts Christian could be of that was historical a testimony research it was born, to into the

of Christianity of ambivalence the about names

cultural

religious religions'

into which lingers. of context.14 projected

colonial important a screen coded foreign The and The

legacy to for under Oriental problem

toward extent religion

'Oriental

In addition, the 'mystic

it is also East' were issues onto a

recognise

to which

Romantic

debates the

in the European and pantheism

Problematic in this way

of mysticism

substratum. with the comparative reference by the approach to the scholar from to religious religion just mentioned that are is its irrelevance being described. by

lack of magisterial else

significance

with

phenomena 'influences' tradition essential later Muslims have of the evolved evolving and its

comparison exhibits secure for and any

detecting historical as to what the

previously that nature can of border

unsuspected on solipsism. Islam, about I would insofar We as well as

anyone Some have

a disconnection in their

scholars, contempt

conviction to discover

'classical' thought time.

still their like it is need as the

attempt their to

have over

predecessors instead available to

how attention

religious the

interpretations dynamic

turn

internal

tradition

to us

in individual the origins noted observer, as it entails scholarship of of religious by

examples of religious academic Iwish

provided traditions observers.15 explicit

by history,

self-interpretation. participants

to understand factual of beginnings

as formulated As about a gesture abandoning about of religion in to true

by

to indicate

the dethronement of comparative

the magisterial insofar critical nature analysis

to be

the project

religion, Recent heuristic polythetic and of

essentialist on the

assumptions concept

religion.16 has place stressed of the the provisional model in one were various of a zoology member grouped and even and a

categories, This "it was of the is no

proposing analogous longer

essentialist familiar of

religion.

a model that what classes

already was of

anthropology, a class was were

in which thereby in fact known family

known creatures

other

members... This included unvarying means under

by what conflicting category; acceptable, another. scientific notion unvarying striking problematic

resemblances".17 can based entail be on

that multiple the of rubric

authoritative definitions since they of

positions religions

sets of one

characteristics

single religious are no longer rather in the than recent earlier of

implicitly

endorsement to see the

authorititave of was analytic clearly

position categories based upon

It is especially thought, of since

noteworthy the phrase zoology', species in between it abandons

flexibility religion'

'comparative so the that

'comparative genus and

it evidently of and

perpetuates religions. difference,

an outmoded essentialism it makes about

notion means

definition similarity a number

Avoiding and

practical enterprise,

balance but

comparison religion that

a are

of a priori

prejudices

14 Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India and 'The Mystic East' (London, 1999), pp. 33, 97, 118-145. 15 For Marc Bloch's distinction between origins and beginnings as applied to the study of religion, see Carl W. Ernst and Bruce B. Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Sufism in South Asia and Beyond (New York, 2002), pp. 48-49 I argue against an essentialist interpretation of Islam, is Ironically, the book in which Following Muhammad, Essence and Character". catalogued by U.S. Library of Congress categories under "Islam and Consequences", Rodney Needham, Man, 10 (1975), pp. 349?369, "Polythetic Classification: Convergence The Implied Spider, pp. 143-145. quoting pp. 350, 352. See also Doniger,

20Carl W.

Ernst

no

longer

justifiable. of

While religion

there among

is in fact academics, concepts

a strong

emerging

argument still dominates

for non-essentialist in ideological,

interpretations media-driven, "This

essentialism of religion, as we

and mass is the practice

marketing

shall

see below. it

of the Yogis;

this is not an activity

of the community -

ofMuhammad.

Nevertheless,

is correct". Muhammad Muhyi al-Din, ca. 1748

Sufi Interpreters
The modern foregoing study remarks of religion scholarship somehow endured on the since over derived through is entirely study of

of Yogic
expand I have ago, so century

Practices
on a problem that since has dogged the

religion As

its inception. two from centuries Hinduism,

argued an

elsewhere, unquestioned really times. romantics

the beginning assumption that This

of Orientalist Sufism conceit "Muslim was has

it was it was until

not recent and

Islamic

at

all.18

the nineteenth derivative".19

In Zaehner's alike

words, that

mysticism

Orientalists

agreed

mysticism must always and inevitably derive from India. The

this called assumption "Indomaniac found romantic demands zeal". in theories Orientalist thirteenth-century "Steering the Coran of on a mid that one In part, of seek no elsewhere doubt, diffusion of text for an there was from Sufism by a was some single E. H.

lack of historical evidence for

of what one scholar elegance has and attraction source. Palmer's which of India in the One

explanation

simplicity of an the

cultural

typical 1867

example of

interpretation Persian course

translation entitled

important

'Aziz

al-Din

Nasafi,

Palmer on

Oriental and really support doctrines

Mysticism. of

between the Sufis' Religion focusing

the pantheism cult of on is the the Aryan yogic religion

the one

hand is to

the deism

the other,

of beauty... Arguments and

Sufiism used

the development this contention

the Primaeval between of no

race".20 practice

wavered as the that essence I have sources. Jonathan

the philosophical

of Vedanta make

Indian interest

mysticism. in upholding simply has be the purity a reversal of of Islamic the mysticism

Let me from project

it clear by foreign

pollution

That Z.

would Smith

comparativist

of Orientalism. choices

As

commented, identity or uniqueness, and that

It is as if the only

the comparativist

has are to assert either are to make is assumed

the only possibilities such an enterprise, explained If we extremely are either to

for utilizing itwould appear,

comparisons dissimilarity 'psychic

assertions to be

regarding

the norm;

similarities

In dependence. are to be

as the result of the

unity'

of humankind, the to attack

or the result of'borrowing'.21 to of is

avoid

these No

essentialist longer

dichotomies,

polythetic or defend

approach arguments

religion influence

helpful.

is it necessary

For a general review of early scholarship on Sufism, see Carl W. Ernst, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism (Boston, i. I have presented amore detailed series of remarks on the theory of the Indian origins of Sufism !997)> Chapter in "The Islamization of Yoga in the Amrtakunda Translations", Journal of theRoyal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 13, 2 (2003), pp. 199-226. 19R. C. Zaehner, Mysticism Sacred and Profane: An Inquiry into some Varieties of Praeternatural Experience (New York, 1961), p. 160. 20 E. H. Palmer, Oriental Mysticism: A Treatise on Sufiistic and Unitarian Theosophy of the Persians (London, 1867; III, whom he described as a great 1969), pp. x?xi. Palmer dedicated this treatise to Napoleon reprint ed., London, patron of "European Orientalism". 21 Smith, Drudgery Divine, p. 47.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 21

or authenticity, since it is now symbols, possible practices, it to acknowledge and doctrines to take freely can dissect the form a be that numerous in examples any and literary particular Orientalist critics explanation call of

hybrid religious

and multiplex milieu.

at work essentialist of what

Nevertheless, of religion, in which detected is the data about Pool alleged

is still worthwhile when they

interpretations

particularly a theorist sources the

'strong misreadings', based What, priori single Muslim hatha on newly then, assumptions text, The

triumphantly and origins.

proposes

revolutionary

regarding

relationship

between study, and yogis

Sufism I have

and yoga, traced

apart

from of

a the to as

Oriental

mysticism? which,

In a recent versions the Nath yogis

the history made

ofNectar, practices North

in multiple with

translations, and the

available known practices

readers yoga

certain

associated Indian

teachings These

(in standard

pronunciation,

are called

yogis).22

include divination by control of breath through the left and right nostrils, summoning female
spirits that can by be identified recitation of of as yoginis, and mantras. into Arabic, other was examples an performing All meditations was on the cakra centres Islamised This accompanied over time, Sanskrit this material Ottoman I will and increasingly

in a series text, and

translations of

Persian, that

Turkish, make particular

and Urdu.

remarkable clear that

a number Sufi circles

mention, use of

it abundantly practices that

in certain

there

awareness

can be considered yogic

which however, the Sufi it may Sufi be identified, engagement and of yoga accounts as late of

(although the question of defining yoga, and the perspective

still needs with it was among hatha most yoga to be was clarified). not to be Contrary found at to Orientalist the historical in

from

expectations, beginnings Moreover, time. occur yoga The The in of

tradition,

highly Sufis in Sufi

developed, gradually texts, using

unsurprisingly, became more

India.23 over

the knowledge most writings materials Sufi engage exact

Indian yoga

detailed terms

technical these texts

in Hindi,

from

as the nineteenth Sufi yoga practices was texts without very

century, any

although real and attempt did not

typically or notable of

juxtapose synthesis.

alongside in hatha

at integration (with certain schools

interest with

practical,

exceptions)

philosophical

of Vedanta

or other

Sanskritic

thought.24

The
number pause Sufism catalogue with the

foregoing
of for technical some

brief

summary of the Pool of Nectar

that will remain and methodologically descriptive term, As at historical its nature

translations has just introduced

problematic definition. belonging What if we do we do mean not

terms attempts

basic

by

and yoga? of

'Sufism' and

is by

an outsider's as 'isms'. and

to the Enlightenment stands the Sufi in tension tradition.25 in most and tenth in Sufi scholarship now it is a

ideologies

creeds of Sufism

identified

such, ethical

it inevitably ideals and of

insider what societies, Despite

vocabulary we call

spiritual may be

vocations considered

Historically, Muslim centuries. thought

typical

prominent

trend

gradually the strong Sufism

crystallising emphasis has been polemics

as a self-conscious upon the Qur'an from two

movement and Islam the Prophet in both

in the ninth Muhammad

and practice, Muslim

disassociated for

Orientalist so that

and modern

reformist

the past

hundred

years,

Ernst, "Islamization of Yoga". 23 To gauge the relative importance of these yoga practices for Sufism considered broadly, Iwould point to a recent encyclopedia in which article on Sufism (5,000 words), I devoted two sentences to yoga; see "Tasawwuf" inRichard Martin Muslim World (New York, 2003), 2, pp. 684-690. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Islam and the 24 see Carl W. Ernst, "Muslim Studies of Hinduism? For the larger context of this translation movement, A Reconsideration of Persian and Arabic Translations from Sanskrit", Iranian Studies, 36 (2003), pp. 173?195. 1. See Ernst, Shambhala Guide to Sufism, Chapter

22

22 Carl

W.

Ernst

highly

contested

subject. meditative ritual

Sufism

can

refer

to awide

range

of phenomena,

including corporate

scriptural institutions, term, as Sufism tombs distinctively of

interpretation, aesthetic however, is firmly deceased and Sufism rooted saints,

practices, doctrines, There local

master-disciple and is no contexts, in relation literary

relationships, texts. As All to a

gestures,

generic that we the very

descriptive describe tangible with a

is deceptive. in particular and

Sufism often to

in general. anchored

it is deployed

lineages

and personalities

local sacrality Individual Sufi groups or traditions in one place may be completely
of what 'Yoga' is like extending a philosophy signifies an Sufis do or say in other be regions. even harder to define. rapids, of many texts, Georg Feuerstein maintains and regard is a term ancient over that may river a vast, to with

oblivious

that

"Yoga

countless terrain

eddies, different particularly

loops, habitats".26

tributaries, Some

backwaters, itmainly For others, Shiva as

colorful important meditative

linked primarily

Sanskrit ascetic

Patanjali's

Yoga Sutras. with

yoga

practices

frequently

associated

the god

inHindu
material yoga

teachings, though yoga is also widespread

that the "the Sufis yoga mostly encountered associated was with a of force"),

in Buddhist
highly charismatic The

and Jain contexts. The yogic

tradition of the called tenth hatha to twelth the hatha

specialised figures lineage

(literally,

centuries,

especially

Matsyendranath

and Gorakhnath.

that preserves

yoga teachings
yogis, due to The initiation.27 and Hatha yoga prominent yoga has

is known
the distinctive early Nath in their amuch and

collectively
wooden yogis were are

as the Nath
inserts associated the feminine and

siddhas (adepts) or Kanphata

large rings the erotic known set of they put in their practices as yoginis of Kaula

('split-ear')
ears during Tantrism, yogis. classical Special cakras, and the

with

pantheon more

deities

or female than the

complicated with subtle of their

psycho-physical a minimum physiology chants emphasis recognisable brief

techniques

of Patanjali, include of

it is presented of

of metaphysical including or mantras on sexual psychic with

explanation. centres occult called efficacy, the Kanphata

practices retention summoning have Yet, are faced

manipulation pronunciation Despite

semen, of deities. over

syllabic ascetic a

restraint,

yogis

become in the with of

the past millennium to provide even

caste.28 descriptions arising from these of both the Sufism gap and yoga, we

attempt an

such

especially of of the and the

challenging religions and

problem the way thought,

between are rubric and and

scholarly in Age

analyses the global

the history marketplace Although

in which

traditions under the

appropriated of New yoga the

contemporary scholarly dependence attraction can of be

especially argument to anxieties and

spirituality. issues of

Orientalist related both seen

about about yoga

Sufism Islam

addressed relegation on the The values

authenticity to India, both of

of mysticism extent to which

Sufism as

today any of

rests

primarily definition.

traditions authority

transcending the legacy

religious the

accelerating

distrust

that

still marks

Enlightenment

26 1989). Georg Feuerstein, Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy (Los Angeles, 27 Medieval India (Chicago, 1996); George Weston The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in David Gordon White, 1980), pp. 179-250; Shashibhusan Das Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis (Calcutta, 1938; reprinted Delhi, 1976), pp. 191-210, 392?398; Feuerstein, Yoga, pp. 277-302. Gupta, Obscure Religious Cults (3rd ed., Calcutta, 28 Daniel Gold and Ann Grodzins Gold, "The Fate of the Householder Nath", History of Religions, 24 (1984), pp. 113-132.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 23

over Sufism identity. doctrine in Europe Rumi is the and over are poet institutional those The ignore because most any he

experience forms Islamic of

authenticity and America

approval.29 or

popular form is seen of as

that minimise precisely

best-selling

in America

going beyond all religions.

With often stress to yoga seen as the the definitional very basis problem of all in relation or to religion is even as a religious and more physical affiliation. in most severe. Yoga is for spirituality, by anyone alternatively of

technique According cases they

reduction estimates,

that

can be over five

embraced million

regardless practice

some

Americans

yoga,

do

so in settings (physical education, YMCA

whatever the topic with of Hindu yoga yields religious a series and, at for the traditions. of titles The

classes) that downplay or ignore any connection

A that quick survey of recent library acquisitions on its universal accessibility: Glossy the yoga with Yoga for magazines yoga now, fashion it carries the

emphasise

Americans; on yoga

Yoga for All; are available available burdens and

inevitably,

Complete and So when of of

Idiot's Guide newspapers we use the

to Yoga. describe term

supermarket "today's sublime

counters,

accessories multiple intricate category immune When curious

yoginis".30 philosophy system

transcendence the Nath yogis,

associated and also

Patanjali, marketing

esoteric

psycho-physical basis concepts historical the arrival

the mass

of yoga from one

as the generic these grandiose to the

of mysticism of context of Sufis yoga.31 for

in all religions.

Modern

scholarship

is not

turns

the

encounter took place

of not

Sufism long

and after

yoga, the Nath

it is a or

coincidence

that

in India

Kanphata yogis became organised,

ascetic had orders certainly success had existed a remarkable

that is by the beginning

in India for many The time. and were all visitors. the only an encounter Nath free While Indian to

of the thirteenth century. While

the Naths did not appear to have the purity hospices, 'Hindu' Sufis shared to observe at Sufi of whom that competed of both of lotus the sanctity.32 groups lingam

centuries, yogis drop hardly religious

at this particular ritual to any society, and perhaps also

restrictions which culture had much in

of Brahminical turn were open the yogis

in for meals representative group

as a whole,

were was

with

in common. interests for popular in a country burial; or samadhis Sufi in

This

between of meditation, healers, preferred have

two movements and which and possessors funeral fit buried that method, the model in the the heads designation defensively

overlapping some extent Moreover, practiced shrines The

psycho-physical recognition where

techniques as wonder-workers, was the

cremation to the

tombs, over

untutored who were extended

eye, must customarily to term this

set up

yogis, and by

position.33 yogi a Sufi

similarity

between became

yogis known

Sufis

the point the was

of Nath for

establishments master. While

the Persian that

pir, name

common adopted

it is sometimes

suggested

to deter

"The modern age conflates authoritarianism with authority, hence tends to suspect the latter (and its poetic the former. Only when the notion of authority becomes a pejorative social representatives) as in fact embodying term can anxiety concerning it spread to other areas like literature and criticism" (Renza, "Influence", p. 197). 30 Sara Steffens, "Yoga Baring: Find your Inner Fashionista with Exercise Gear", Raleigh News & Observer, 15 March 2004. 31 Frits Staal, Exploring Mysticism: A Methodological Essay (Berkeley, 1975). 32 For a stimulating see Marc of Hindu and Islamic asceticism, Gaborieau, sociological comparison ou vrais jumeaux? Les renoncants dans l'hindousime et dans l'islam", Annales: Histoire, Sciences "Incomparables Sociales, 57 (2002), pp. 71-92. Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis, pp. Willard Trask (Princeton, NJ, 1989), pp. 422-423. 39?40; Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, trans.

29

Carl W. Ernst 24
Muslim that many rulers Muslim from the were from with the the historical characteristic evidence it seems of clear yogis,

wiping rulers

yogis quite

out,34 familiar

specialities

and it is striking that the Mughals

Acculturation presumption The Sufis by of the yogis religious problem a to selected persecution with particular

in particular became patrons of yogi establishments.35

Islamicate for the yogis' norms seems of a more such likely a title.36 even as in cases where associated reason than the

adoption model

theoretical clearly

the Orientalist technique

influence (such

is that, control)

recognise

as breath

being

Indian yogis, this does not explain the significance of the practice as adapted by Sufis. Recently, Jiirgen Paul returned to the influence model to inquire into the case of Naqshbandi Sufis in Central Asia. Using what he calls a phenomenological comparison, he proposed with
a concept religious been least yogis. Indian seem used of Indian such influence as based on deliberate celibacy, study, and breath consideration, control. control, also There a central common "inspired control control and adoption seems of practices vegetarianism, to have at

a clear since Paul

awareness the time

among of Baha' concludes

these Naqshbandis al-Din that Yet that, Naqshband these the Central significance

that breath (d. 1390), was

technique among Indian

therefore

Asian of

Sufis were this breath

by non-Muslim technique would was

mystical to be

techniques".37 by the fact

affected

among formulas

these Naqshbandis, in order to make

breath

invariably

to accompany

dhikr

recitation

this meditation

continuous,

with
God).

a focus on such typically Islamic chants such as la ilaha ilia allah (there is no god but
In other words, if breath extent can control it be was used to enhance "inspired by the effect of Islamic meditation mystical to what considered non-Muslim Indian

formulas, techniques"? Another major

example

raises of

questions Sufi

about

the

influence meditative

model, practice.

in

this

case

concerning Simnani

systematisation

psycho-physical

cAla5 al-Dawla

(d. 1336) was one of the chief figures

vast literary output was matched by his

in the Kubrawi
extensive activities

Sufi order in Central Asia, whose

in training disciples. Heir to an

already highly developed

(d. 1317) of and others, considerable within of seven subtlety, the body,

system of meditation
incorporated on interior based each

established by his teacher Nur al-Din Isfarayini

practices and of articulated subtle and a spiritual method (latifa, pi. The in in visualisation seven prophet further centres

Simnani

earlier

lata'if') system

associated by

with Simnani

particular underwent to the

a colour.38

subtle order,

centres from

developed the fifteenth

evolution century,

in India resulting

the Naqshbandi

through

late nineteenth

G. S. Ghurye, Indian Sadhus (Bombay, 1964), p. 139, argues protective dissimulation from the proximity of Yogi centres and the alleged conversion of two shrines at Gorakhpur shrines and pilgrimage sites toMuslim population into mosques by 'Ala5 al-Din Khalji (d. 1316) and Awrangzeb (d. 1707). 35 B. N. and Other Documents Goswamy and J. S. Grewal, TheMughals and theYogis ofjakhbar, Some Madad-i-Macash (Simla, 1967). 36 On Sufi terms in yogi centres, see Veronique Bouillier, Ascetes etRois: Un Monastere deKanphata Yogis auNepal (Paris, 1997), pp. 91-93. Jiirgen Paul, "Influences indiennes sur la naqshbandiyya d'Asie centrale?", Cahiers dAsie Centrale, 1?2 (1996), In a similar vein, William order S. Haas observed that the dhikr technique of the Algerian Rahmaniyya pp. 203-217. "has as its centre a thoroughly elaborated technique of breathing, obviously of Indian origin", and so he speculated that the nineteenth-century founder of the order must have gone to India; see "The Zikr of the Rahmanija-Order A Psycho-physiological Analysis", Moslem World, 33 (1943), pp. 16-28, citing Corbin, En Islam iranien:Aspects spirituels et philosophiques, vol. 3, Les Fideles d des Idees (Paris, 1972), pp. 275?355; Nuruddin Abdurrahman-i Isfarayini, Bibliotheque Landolt (Paris, 1986), "Etude Preliminaire", pp. Kashif al-Asrar, ed. and trans. Hermann Henry in Algeria: p. 18. 'amour,Shicisme et soufisme, Le Revelateur des mysteres: 38?49.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 25

a new assignment of six subtle centres to particular parts of the body. A typical version of the

Naqshbandi
(ruh) (sirr) two

subtle centres puts the heart (qalb) two fingers below

fingers below of the the right breast, the soul (nafs) beneath the breast, the mystery (khafii) above

the left breast, the spirit

the navel, the and conscience the arcanum

in the middle

eyebrows,

(akhfa) at the top of the brain.39

One yogic spine, Both bodily could concept although systems locations, Indian argue of that seven of the Naqshbandi-Kubrawi cakras the Sufi or subtle centres nerve are system centres clearly colours that has located a certain along with similarity the the images were have Simnani, based been much court region spinal with of the the

some include

unconnected and

region.

visualisation

of appropriate assume or either that figures

sometimes practices would that

in particular on earlier

so that one might yoga yogis. was forced techniques, From his

the Sufi like Simani

unspecified in contemporary his inclination,

interested against of the

biography,

however, with

it appears Buddhist

to engage

in disputations

monks

at the

Mongol ruler Arghun; in these debates, Simnani showed considerable theological hostility to the Buddhists. Although they were probably from Mahayana schools with highly developed
yogic with techniques them.40 research of has subtle shown centres, that the there was considerable assigned practical subtle variation centre, among and even Sufis their of their own, Simnani showed no interest in discussing meditation practices

Recent

in the number

colours

to each

physical
system subtle hatha seem of field

locations
subtle with

in the body. Arthur Buehler

as "a heuristic to travel Despite relation device for in non-material their with comparability,

has described
the disciple to

the adjustable Naqshbandi

develop a subtle body or a variations Sufi occur within do not

centres which

realms".41 however,

Similar the

yoga to have to

practices.42 any the intrinsic

techniques and they the

the psycho-physiology descriptions of subtle

of yoga, nerves Sufi texts the

rarely make breaths, the

reference sun

characteristic symbolism, or

yogic the

(nadis), contain seven be

and moon

kundalini. exegesis

In addition, tied to each

a multilevelled subtle centres, below, so

prophetology that distinctive

and mystical Islamic

Qur'anic

of

symbolisms

are embedded

in the

system.

As will

indicated

some Naqshbandi
of yogis

Sufis like Ahmad

Major manuals

Sirhindi showed explicit hostility

of Sufi contemplative practice

toward the practices

from remoter areas,

and Brahmins.

such asMiftah
of Alexandria Judgments accorded about them

al-falah or The Key

(d. 1309), sources in Sufi subtle the Sufi make and no

to Salvation, by the Egyptian

reference of such to any practices Haq, explain and who away identifiable

Sufi master
Indian yoga

Ibn cAta'Allah
technique.43 significance origin begging ignorance of the of the yogic by

influences

necessarily argued the

ignore for the

interpretations. centres, system was

Enamul forced to

the Naqshbandi question, calling

differences ... due

"quite

imperfect

immature

to the

39 Muhammad pp. 298-299. 1405/1985), Dhawqi Shah, Sirr-i dilbaran (4th printing, Karachi, 40 Jamal J. Elias, The Throne Carrier of God: The Life and Thought of ^AW ad-dawla as-Simnani (Albany, 1995), pp. 18, 26; for Simnani s concept of subtle substances or centres, see pp. 79-99. 41 Arthur Frank Buehler, Sufi Heirs of the Prophet: The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the Rise of theMediating Sufi (Charleston, SC, 1998), p. 112; cf. pp. 103?116 for a full account of the Shaykh, Studies in Comparative Religion latifa system. 42 1970). Agehananda Bharati, The Tantric Tradition (Garden City, N.Y., Ibn cAta' Allah al-Sikandari, Miftah al-falah wa misbah al-arwah (Egypt, 1381/1961); Ibn cAta' Allah, The Key to Salvation and the Lamp of Souls, trans. Mary Ann Koury Danner 1996). (Cambridge,

26 Carl W. Ernst
anatomical the scientific being of the Sufis who of human were far inferior to the Indian with to

knowledge knowledge said,

Yogis

respect

body".44 a very late Urdu and text the yogic method, "These or six that makes cakras. Ghawth subtle explicit After c Ali centres to scheme to giving Shah are comparison a lengthy

This between description Qadiri Sannyasi He then

it is striking system version in lotuses six for

to see of

the Naqshbandi of (d. a six-centre remarked the six

subtle of

centres

the Naqshbandi that kanwal) according lotus, which

Qalandar also in the

1880)

conversation (k'hat lotuses each

teaching, enumerated number

six cakras, to a complex ordered

according yogic

the Yoga that the

sastrd\ includes Sanskrit

these of petals

a different

are

according

alphabet; these are depicted in a diagram included in the published version of his discourses, in the form of a long-stemmed plant with groups of petals bunched together at the level of
each lotus. In the upper with a marginal on the right note throne, over my corner on of the diagram, reading, 'From there is also the a drawing student of must a throne-like visualise emanation, this diagram, his an the diagram [thinking heart'". that] "Here the

platform, guru ocean

or pir of

sitting has

treasury

of hidden that follows

light

poured

In the brief

comment

Ghawth

cAli Shah remarked, "The method of this practice is that through visualization one should transfer each [Sanskrit] letter from the petal to the inside of the stem. Having
imagined of the the skull], the shows stem one as a single great river, after reaching the brahmanda letters body gained titled [the cakra at the above, crown then This contact in this lotuses and in transfers centres [the letter] above. When active, and the all the entire are collected becomes probably book

due

order

subtle a

become detailed

luminous".45 through mentioned of the

account with passage

remarkably

knowledge than from

of yoga, the vaguely inserted

nineteenth-century (when the

yogis, transcriber of

rather these

discourses

the description

their petals, he introduced

Ghawth this the late cAli Shah comparison juxtaposes does systems. in on the

it only as coming from "a certain sage" [kisi gyani]). Although

the Naqshbandi not attempt This evidence kind of Islamic Sufi Hindu leaders disciples, with on Kanpur) terms to of bridge subtle the centres conceptual is more as external and the yogic and a technical to cakras gap the of as similar, between author's doctrines

two meditative to bring based times,

comparison sages

testimony confirmation

willingness and practices In recent spread explain branches school include of their

Indian

traditional

sources.46 in northern including from India have taken significant masters steps who to

Naqshbandi among

teachings

a number hatha is in

of Hindu yoga. effect practices The These

the Naqshbandi (centred yoga,

cosmology

classical what

Naqshbandi Sufi-based these groups of

particularly known as of

constitute Particularly

a new of overall

Ananda-yoga. the name Allah

important the cakras.

silent

recitation

to

awaken

doctrine

no. 30 Publication Enamul Haq, A History of Sufi-ism in Bengal, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh relies to a considerable extent on older Orientalist (Dacca, 1975), p. 139. This study, based on a 1937 dissertation, literature. 45 Gul Hasan Qadiri, Tadhkira-i ghawthiyya (Delhi, 1298/1881), pp. 148?150. This section is omitted from the English translation of this text, Gul Hasan, Solomon's Ring: The Life and Teachings of a Sufi Master, trans. Hasan Askari (London, 1998), but see pp. 185?193 for "Encounters with Hindu Sages". 46 See the brief section entitled "Conversation with Mahapurusa ibid., pp. 139?144 (trans. Sannyasi Mata", on the Askari, pp. 155-160), which acts as aHindu supplement to four lengthy chapters on the divine unity based Qur'an, hadith, and Sufi authorities (pp. 22?139). Other passing references to yogic practices discussed by Ghawth cAli Shah are found on pp. 52 (amantra with translation), 332 (Hindi verses ascribed to Amir Khusraw on the anahita or unstruck sound).

44 Muhammad

Situating Sufism and Yoga 27

the identity of permits cakras.47 the microcosm a wide-ranging This recent and yoga, and the macrocosm, series of analogies which indication common between inverts of to both Sufi Islamicate of and subtle view Indie centres of the of

traditions, with relation religion Keeping here with some yogic

notions

development, is a striking of essentialism. the Sufis The

the Orientalist in which

between can defy in mind

Sufism the

the way

the history

expectations these cautions of

about how text,

comparative appropriated Pool of Nectar.

approach, or The

we

can

briefly

survey practices, from of the the al

important

examples

interpreted earliest

yogic sources,

attention

to the most century, from depict sceptical

important Sufis with criticism

fourteenth yogis,

a range

of reactions admiration.

to the On

teaching the

and practices side,

ranging

to frank

critical

Sharaf

Din Maneri meaning

(d. 1381), for instance, felt that contemporary yogis did not understand the full of the sayings that they had inherited.48 The Chishti saint Burhan al-Din Gharib that a certain yogi
these such with as meditation

(d. 1337) believed

techniques criticised and yogic

of his acquaintance
drugs and and the ascetic

used fraudulent
of on spirits.49 the

alchemical
Some Sufis that in

supplemented practices

assistance exercises,

grounds

themselves
duties was

they were
much more

devoid of spiritual grace; following

beneficial. Such was the position, not

the prescribed
surprisingly, of

Islamic religious
the doctrinally

emphatic Naqshbandi
and other non-Muslim

Sufi, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624), who

ascetics (such as Plato and other ancient

regarded yogis, Brahmins,

Greek philosophers) as

irremediably misguided.50 Likewise, Din displayed considerable ambivalence when

divination techniques for estimating the end

a Sufi teacher in India named Muhammad a disciple questioned

of one's life, as explained

Muhyi al him in 1748 about the

in an early version of

Nectar known as the Kamrubijaksa. "This is the practice of the Yogis," he replied; The Pool of
"this All yogic is not the an same, activity of the community evidence of Muhammad. shows that Sufis of them Nevertheless, commented seem also with to have it is correct".51 interest been on particular with considerable and

techniques

concepts,

and many

familiar

versions of The Pool ofNectar. The Chishti master Nizam

one of yogi's the effect concept of bodily days control of of different impressive, on the month and he was the conception

al-Din Awliya'
also intrigued of children

(d. 1325) found

by yogic (until accounts his master

indicated to him that he would

(d. 1356) commented in passing

live a celibate life). His disciple Nasir al-Din Chiragh-i Dihli

on the yogic practice of breath control in comparison to

that practiced by Sufis:

The essence of this matter As long is restraint of breath, his that is, the Sufi ought interior is concentrated, to hold his breath he during his is he

meditation. breath,

as he holds is distracted,

his breath, and

and when

releases

the interior

it destroys

his momentary

state_Therefore

the Sufi

47 Thomas Dahnhardt, "La scienza sufica dei centri sottili presso una scuola contemporanea di yoga", Asiatica in Indian Sufism: A Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Branch in the Venetiana, 2 (1997), pp. 19-29; id., Change and Continuity Hindu Environment (New Delhi, 2002). 48 Simon Digby, "Encounters with Yogis in Indian Sufi Hagiography", paper presented at the unpublished in South Asia, University Seminar on Aspects of Religion of London, January 1970, p. 6. Carl W. Ernst, Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center, SUNY Series in Muslim Spirituality in South Asia (Albany, 1992), p. 328, n. 361. 50 Ahmad Sirhindi, Maktubat-i imam-i rabbani (2 vols., Karachi, 1392/1972; reprint ed., Istanbul, 1977), I, p. 130 (letter 52); I, p. 366 (letter 221); I, p. 394 (letter 237); I, p. 666 (letter 313); II, p. 157 (letter 55). fol. 2b (marginal comment). Karachi, MS 1957?1060/18?1, Kamrubijaksa, Pakistan National Museum,

28 Carl

W.

Ernst

whose

breath

is counted. yogis, who

The

accomplished

of breath; this has but adept is the master are called siddha in the Indian breathe language,

single meaning. breaths.52

The

counted

Nasir
was

al-Din s disciple Muhammad

essential for Sufi disciples. of

al-Husayni Gisu Daraz

of discipline

(d. 1422) felt that breath control

in 1404, he remarked, the this and

In a manual

composed

Following disciple,

the habit but not

everyone

as is done the breath, is necessary the yogis, for among stopping can do it to the extent can. Those who that those people follow from association with women. Diminution prayers idle talk. of intake of food

habit must drink abode, many

completely

abstain

permits and

the performance the traveller

of required One

and supererogatory should avoid

in the case of one If control becomes

of fixed habitual,

retains mobility. thought

thoughts Gisu

can be banished; Daraz was

is natural

to the carnal to

soul.53 extent to which

Nonetheless, was acceptable. Except

extremely

careful

limit

the

yogic

practice

for breath

control,

which other

is the kinds on

specialty

and

support These Sufis.54

of

the yogis, which

it is necessary

for

the disciple respecting

to avoid the yogis

all their are also

of practices. [advanced]

two points

I have written

incumbent

Another
victory curing

Chishti, Ashraf Jahangir Simnani

over a yogi, and and he was also familiar which snakebite similar purposes,

(d. 1425), is credited by his biographer with

with he mantras regarded of as the Naths magical used charms for purposes (afsun).55 The

a
of

later Chishti master

the yoga under of the Naths

cAbd al-Quddus Gangohi

than anyone or else 'Alakhdas' find the 'Servant external to a of

(d. 1537) was probably more

He wrote Hindi verses the Absolute'. to It is in connection the Arabic Mandawi, He yogic also version in the composed

familiar with
on the with of The subject cAbd Pool of

in that order.

the pen-name that we he

al-Quddus Nectar, century, called which

earliest taught

reference disciple,

is said for or The

to have

Sulayman recitation.56 considerable

late fifteenth a treatise masters

in exchange Rushd nama

instruction Book

in Qur'anic with

of Guidance

content.57

Later

of the Chishti
52 Nasir Publication

order such as Nizam

al-Din Awrangabadi

(d. 1729) and Hajji

Imdad Allah

al-Din Mahmud Chiragh-i Dihli, Khayr al-majalis, comp. Hamid Qalandar, ed. Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, no. 5, Studies in Indo-Muslim Mysticism, 1 (Aligarh, of the Department of History, Muslim University, 1959), pp. 59?60 (session 12). 53 Gisu Daraz, Khatima-i adab al-muridin al-macruf bi-khatima, Urdu trans. Mucin al-Din Darda'i (Karachi, 1976), no. 168, p. 158. 54 Ibid., no. 205, p. 171. 55 Ashraf Jahangir Simnani, Lata'if-i ashrafi, comp. Nizam Gharib Yamani (2 vols., Delhi, II, p. 396. 1295/1878), " 56 Simon Digby, cAbd Al-Quddus Gangohi Medieval Indian (1456-537 A.D): The Personality and Attitudes of a III (1975), pp. 1-66, citing p. 36, equivalent to Rukn al-Din Quddusi, Sufi", Medieval India, A Miscellany, Lata'if-i a Quddusi (Delhi, 1311/1894), p. 41, anecdote 5. From this source it is known that cAbd al-Quddus composed of this text is preserved Risala-i qudsi, possibly in answer toMandawi's questions on the yogic text, and amanuscript in Lahore; cf. Muhammad Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Sherani (Lahore, 1969), II, p. 224, no. 1236. On the manuscript Sufi treatise with no reference to however, examination, (22 fols.) turns out to be a conventional recitation (d. 945/1538-9, yogic practices. On Sulayman Mandawi reportedly aged over 150), whose Qur'anic was inspired by the Prophet and cAli during his fifty years of austerities inMecca, see Mandawi, pp. 243?244. 57 For references see S. A. A. Rizvi, "Sufis and Natha Yogis inMediaeval Northern India (XII bibliographic to XVI Centuries)", Journal of the Oriental Society ofAustralia, 7 (1970), pp. 119-133, citing p. 132, quoting Rukn al-Din's Lata'if-i Quddusi, p. 41; id., A History of Sufism in India, vol. I, Early Sufism and itsHistory in India to 1600 A.D. in R. S. McGregor "The Text of Alakh Bam\ (Delhi, 1978), p. 335; S. C. R. Weightman, (ed.), Devotional literature in South Asia: Current research, 1985?8 (Cambridge, of yoga is 1992), pp. 171?178. Gangohi's knowledge in "cAbd Al-Quddus". discussed at length by Digby

Situating Sufism and Yoga 29 (d. 1899) continued

formulas, to be much yogic mantras together

to include descriptions of yogic mantras

explicit accounts of yogic Nizam postures In this way survey al-Din

inHindi
(although

alongside Arabic dhikr

the gave latter account account or The tends of a brief al-quluh

with

abbreviated). in his lengthy

Awrangabadi practices, Nizam

of Sufi meditative

Order

ofHearts:
Recollection Towards the sky [say] "tun", and towards oneself (dhikr) in the Hindi language. some also [say] "hufi" towards the heart. Or one says to the right, "uhi hi", "hurl", [say] though and to the left, "wuhi hi". Or one says to the right, "inhan tun", to the left, "inhan tun", towards the direction "inhan of prayer (qibla), "inhan some say towards "inhan tun", towards heaven, "inhan "uhan tun". In the heart heaven, "uhan one strikes

tun", though

the ground, tun".

tun", towards

tun", and

in the direction

of the heart,

Another the yogis. times,

recollection One turns

(dhikr) in the Hindi the head and eye

language. toward

One

sits cross-legged and recites

just

like the position one thousand

of

heaven

this recollection One

or recites

it even more. one of

In the end

a world

favors (Hindi

one's wishes. baithak)

says this very word: selected as having the

"uhi uhi". But benefit up both it. Then it toward practices hungry occupied hidden

the eighty-four

postures

has been One

and special feet, one placing looks

quality

of all the postures,

and it is as follows. the genitals,

sits cross-legged

and brings foot near

the sole of the left foot beneath at the stomach closes and brings

the breath

up and collects firmly thinks, without

and holding the right it at the navel, on

and takes

the back. One magical and without with

the mouth (wahm), that

and holds is, one

the tongue internally together

imagination sleep. If he he

"uhi hi", food

one the palate. Then and one remains and remains of

remains attains

three days

or sleep, in him

this practice, then

an unconsciousness or becomes

that produces enraptured

the unveiling

things. He

returns

to consciousness

and intoxicated

(majdhub

u mad'hush).5S This account of yogic mantras from the fifteenth of this of dhikr

chapter

survey

techniques

resembles Muhammad
fewels.59 generally Sufi

the Hindi Ghawth

chant of Far id al-Din Ganj-i Shakkar, the only Hindi chant that (discussed below) included in his Arabic meditation manual, The Five
that Nizam practice al-Din via Awrangabadi authorities had and contact texts with living from yogis, different he yogic Sufi deriving

Although prefers

it is said to cite

orders.60

Along with
their practice

the Chishtis,
without any

it is probably the Shattari Sufis who most

hesitation, giving particular emphasis to

integrated yoga into

the mantra.61 Though

Nizam al-Din Awrangabadi, Nizam al-qulub (Delhi, 1309/1891? 2), p. 32. This text is discussed in detail in Ernst and Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love, Chapter 2. 59 I on these Hindi mantras, have heard oral commentaries "uhan suggesting a simple mystical interpretation: tun" resembles modern Hindi for "you are there", while "inhan tun" sounds like "you are here", so the chant would underscore the presence of God everywhere. Thanks to the late Prof. M. R. Tarafdar for this suggestion. 60 K. A. Nizami, Tarikh-i mashayikh-i Chisht (Delhi, 1985), V, pp. 174-175; cf. Digby, "cAbd al-Quddus", p. 51. In the Kashkul-i Kalimi (Delhi, n.d.), Shah Kalim Allah (p. 30) describes the single most efficacious of the 84 postures of yoga according to Shaykh Baha' al-Din Qadiri (Shattari?), and he explains the yogi "unstruck sound" (Chishti). (pp. 40-41) with reference to the comments of Miyan Mir of Lahore (Qadiri) and Shaykh Yahya Madani 61 See Khaliq Ahmed Nizami, "The Shattari Saints and Their Attitude towards the State", Medieval India Quarterly, III (1950), pp. 56-70; Syed Hasan Askari, "A Fifteenth Century Shuttari Sufi Saint of North Bihar", Proceedings of the 13th Indian History Congress (1950), pp. 148-157; M. M. Haq, "The Shuttari Order of Sufism in India and Its in Bengal and Bihar", Journal of theAsiatic Society of Pakistan, 16 (1971), pp. 167?175; S. A. A. Rizvi, A Exponents History of Sufism in India (Delhi, 1983), II, pp. 151-173.

Carl W. Ernst 30
the historical of this Sufi order are obscure, it seems that itwas introduced to India

origins

by

cAbdAllah Shattari (d. 1485), the first Sufi to use that name. The
Tshqiyya or Bistamiyya in Iran and Central Asia. The latter name

same order is known as the

points to the association

of the Shattaris with

representatives of the

the Iranian Sufi Abu Yazid al-Bistami, one of the most powerful early
ecstatic form of Sufism. There are, on the other hand, traditions

that link the Shattaris with

Sufism, Junayd of Baghdad

the Qadiri
(d. 910). The

order, which
characteristic

trace its origin

meditative

to the master of sober

practice of repetition of

the Qur'anic
Shattaris

names of God
though

(dhikr, plural adhkar) formed a prominent

fragments of his written work have

part of cAbdAllah
Certainly in

teaching,

only

survived.62

the work of Shaykh Baha' al-Din Shattari (d. 1515) there is evidence of an interest in Indian spiritual practices; his work Risala-i Shattariyya or The Shattari Treatise contains repetitions of divine names inHindi,
chapter is entitled "On

alongside the divine names inArabic and Persian. The fourth and last
various Arabic, Persian, and Hindi adhkar, with attention to certain

methods
(wahm), to them".63 order was

(suluk) of the yogis and their adhkar, which

the sentences Thus able and to by that they recite of in meditation, the tenth/sixteenth of yogic the beginning a

they recite with magical

and other incantations amember and of century, mantras structure of

imagination
related Shattari the

(da'awat)

produce

systematic into

account the

visualisation tradition.64

practices,

assimilated

even

incorporated

conceptual

Sufi

But
influential

it is particularly with Muhammad

Shattari masters, that yoga became

Ghawth
a

Gwaliyari

(d. 1563), one of the most

in the repertoire of Sufi

significant

element

practice. Muhammad
influence period he came with of meditation into contact

Ghawth was notable both for his spiritual teachings and for his political
emperors. around who His the fort were spiritual of Chunar visiting career began with Uttar shrine a thirteen-year where in the in the hills with yogis in eastern the yogi Pradesh, located

the first Mughal

probably

fort.65 Muhammad
Nectar in Gujarat and

Ghawth
probably in order problems

completed
around to 1550, clarify study

a Persian translation and expansion

partly out of dissatisfaction of the Arabic was the terms, problem, in order with an the obscurities of Indian version.66

of The Pool of
existing One Persian of of the the

translation, apparently Arabic about knows,

partly

insoluble alphabet

in the

mantras or Sanskrit acute right

inappropriateness a problem because to retain

for precise of spells

transliteration readers. must This be

of Hindi is an especially

complained as everyone their efficacy.

by

a number and

charms

pronounced

exactly

cAbd al-Haqq Muhaddith Dihlawi cAbd al-Ahad al-Bukhari, Akhbar al-akhyarfi asrar al-abrar, ed. Muhammad p. 176. Two manuscripts (Delhi, 1332/1913-4), reportedly containing works by cAbd Allah Shattari are Risala-i cAbdAllah Shattari, MS Khudabakhsh treatise containing sayings Library, Patna; and Tawba wa dhikr, an anonymous of Hallaj and cAbd Allah Shattari, MS Karachi, National Museum cit. Ahmad Munzawi, Fihrist-i 1965-210-21, Mushtarak-i Nuskha-ha-yi Khatti-i Farsi-i Pakistan (Islamabad, 1363/1405/1984), III, p. 1365, no. 2447. 63 Baha' al-Din ibn Ibrahim al-Ansari Shattari, Risala-i Shattariyya, MS 297/61 no. 318, Osmania University, available asmicrofilm of Chicago, fols. 2a~3a. Unfortunately 1018, Middle East collection, University Hyderabad, lacks the fourth chapter. The use of the term imagination (wahm) is characteristic of The Pool ofNectar (ch. VII). 64 See Ethe, no. 1913, col. 1060; numerous other copies are found in libraries in India and Pakistan. See also the undated work by Ishaq (a disciple of one cAbd al-Rahman Shattari), titled Ma'rifat-i anfas, MS 873(i) Persian tract (suppl. cat. I), Asiatic Society, Calcutta, which Dara N. Marshall described as "a Persian version of a Hindu on metaphysics"; Mughals in India, A Bibliography (Bombay, 1967), no. 728, p. 207. From the title, The Knowledge of Breaths, it appears to deal with breath control. 65 Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, p. 82. 66 Carl W. Ernst, "Sufism and Yoga according toMuhammad Ghawth", Sufi, 29 (Spring, 1996), pp. 9?13. this copy

62

Situating Sufism and Yoga 31 Although Muhammad Ghawth did not have access to any Sanskrit text of The Pool ofNectar, he incorporated his knowledge of contemporary yoga. His version is greatly expanded from
the existing Arabic of text, with considerable version that differences no longer based survives. in part upon his likely access that he to an had earlier recension the Arabic It seems

been using The Pool ofNectar as a teaching text with his disciples in the Shattari Sufi order,
and that his Persian translation emerged as an oral commentary on the Arabic. The teachings

of The Pool ofNectar, as adapted by Muhammad

position in the literature of the Shattari order.

Ghawth,
of

apparently occupied
on cakras

a significant
in chapter VII

Most

the material

may be found in a manual of Shattari teachings written by Muhammad Lahore (d. 1706), Adah-i muridi or The Manners ofDiscipleship.67
In this connection it is necessary to mention Muhammad Ghawth's

Rida

Shattari of

popular

mystical

treatise, fawahir-i khamsa or The Five fewels, first composed in the shaykh s youth and later revised in 1549.68 The Mecca-based Shattari teacher Sibghat Allah (d. 1606) later translated
this from African Jukiyya, here, contains text into Arabic, and under Africa his and learned dhikr of be successors Indonesia; of yogis these practices these guise Five were Shattari of a Sufi taught to disciples North called comment it in fact Hughes' al as far away as North such their despite anything channels order

through in the The

authors with because, hardly

as al-Sanusi own the distinctive assertions

formulas.69

fewels

deserves

certain considered

nineteenth-century Indian in content.

Orientalists, Nevertheless,

that might

popular Dictionary of Islam (first published

"This book is largely made up of Hindu Muhammadanism", almost charms first the the entirely to section Islamic third gain without of prayers particular (or ritual describes jewel') prayer. the

in 1885, and still in print) described

customs which, could in mean.70 on India, have that with In reality, how they the

it as follows:
part consists used The as of text be

become

explaining in Arabic, results, explains

what together recited one

instructions recitations

can Sufi

or else how

as dhikr may concerns as

in familiar devotional the divine

style.

deepen prayer 'invocations

one's using

life names,

through while specific

The use of

second the

section

divine

names

(da'awat)'

to obtain

goals (this is the longest section of the book). The

techniques contains Sufi master of the a of single Farid the Shattari dhikr order, and in Hindi, Shakkar the fifth formula Ganj-i attributed, (d. 1265).71 of The

fourth section deals with

to the way to but see God. to the Sufis' not to any yogi, For Pool the Shattari

the specific
The text early Chishti

is devoted

al-Din of yoga,

understanding source,

practices

the Persian

translation

of Nectar

is the primary

67 Muhammad Riza Shattari Qadiri Lahuri, Adab-i muridi, MS 5319 'irfan, Ganj Bakhsh, Islamabad (Munzawi III: 1218, no. 2149 ), pp. 31-2, 62-78. 68 Muhammad Ghawthi Mandawi, Gulzar-i abrar (MS 259 Persian, Asiatic Society), fol. 326a. 69 See Muhammad ibn Khatir al-Din ibn Khwaja al-Attar [Muhammad Ghawth], al-Jawahir al-Khams, Arabic trans, from Persian by Sibghat Allah, ed. Ahmad ibn al-cAbbas (2nd ed., Egypt, 1393/1973), pp. 3-9; Muhammad ibn cAli al-Sanusi, al-Salsabil al-muHn fil-tara'iq al-arbacin, in al-Masa'il al-cashar (Cairo, n.d.), pp. 124 fF. 70 Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam (n.p., 1885; reprint ed., Delhi, 1973), s.v. "Dacwah", pp. 72-78. Cf. also Jcar Sharif, Islam in India or the Qanun-i-Islam, the Customs of the Musalmans of India, trans. G. A. Herklots, ed. William Crooke for examples of practices taken (Oxford, 1921; reprint ed., New Delhi, 1972), pp. 219-231, from The Five Jewels. Marc Gaborieau has discussed these practices in detail in "L'Esoterisme musulman dans le sous-continent Bulletin d'Etudes Orientates, 14 (1993), pp. 191?210. indo-pakistanais: un point de vue ethnologique", 71 Muhammad Ghawth, al-Jawahir al-khams, II, p. 70. The same dhikr was also quoted by the later Shattari author of Bihar, Imam Rajgiri Shuttari Sufi Saint", p. 157; Haq, "The (d. ca. 1718); cf. Askari, "A Fifteenth Century Shuttari Order", p. 175 (with wide textual variations).

Carl W. Ernst 32
rather than The and citations Five Jewels. a Its continued Urdu of Nectar is attested by found a both a number India. century. of

popularity translation can be

by Sufi the

large

manuscripts Further

nineteenth-century from The Pool

Qadiri

in southern nineteenth

during

Because of the wide

Turkish Sufis there

circulation of the Arabic version of The Pool of Nectar inOttoman

cited its practices as part of the continuum of Sufi experience,

lands,
of

many

the manuscripts
we shall return

being attributed to the great Andalusian

to this pseudonymous attribution below.

Sufi master
The popularity

Ibn 'Arabi (d. 1240);

of the text led to

its being translated twice into Ottoman

these Sufis translations of the Mevlevi al-Misri, was printed order. who, One in Istanbul Ottoman

Turkish during the eighteenth

in 1910; testimony catechism on the text was to this particularly text was

century, and one of

popular by among a certain form,

provided

Muhammad

in a Turkish

Sufism

in question-and-answer

cited the importance of breath control by quoting from The Pool ofNectar; the passage in question (I. 2) describes how control of the "sun" and "moon" breaths in the right and left
nostrils can make one impervious to heat and cold.72 Sir Richard Burton also encountered

reference to the teachings of The Pool ofNectar in Sindh in the early nineteenth century, in an unnamed writing by a Sufi named Mahmud of Karya (evidently Mahmud Nizamani of
Kara, d. 1818). Burton cited an unspecified treatise on Sufism by Mahmud which referred

to the frame story at the beginning

from Rukn Kamru al-Din came to Lakhnauti and and "from

of The Pool ofNectar

converted a Hindoo to Islam work,

(Int. 2-4),
after losing a

inwhich
disputation

aHindu
with

sage
Qadi

Samarqandi,

the Amirat

Kandha

[i.e., Amritakunda

or Pool ofNectar], composed

Burton took this story as a

a treatise inArabic and named itHauz

sign of the "popular belief" as to the

el Hayat
Indian

[Pool of Life]".73
of Sufism, a

origin

subject on which he (unlike SirWilliam Jones and many others) declined to take a position. these fragmentary references testify to the wide diffusion of The Pool ofNectar, Although
they also indicate that it was used Jewish very selectively. Alu'el, A similar cited instance the arises yogic in the case on of the the fifteenth-century Yemeni scholar who teachings

positive and negative qualities of right- and left-hand breaths from The Pool ofNectar
exegesis only of of a Biblical text insofar of be Indian this (Genesis 13:9). In such a case, the ultimately point that the Indian author and Urdu with on yogic material significance the scope as it contributes essay is limited out through that to the main primarily a more regional

in his
was

is making.74 sources, tradition of it

While should took

to Arabic, extensive

Persian,

nevertheless place among

pointed Sufis

engagement especially

Indie

languages,

the frontiers

may be that the process of translation into literary Persian and Arabic Bengal and the Punjab. It
72 John P. Brown, "On the Tesavuf, or Spiritual Life of the Soffees, Translated from the Turkish of Mohemmed Missiree", Journal of theAmerican Oriental Society, 8 (1856), pp. 95-104, quoting the Hawd al-hayat on pp. 99?100; reprinted in id., The Dervishes; or,Oriental Spiritualism (London, 1868), pp. 359-370, quoting the Hawd al-hayat on where the quotation from Hawd p. 365; also reprinted in Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, s.v. "Sufi", pp. 6i5a-6i7b, of a author or text was translated here by Brown; a manuscript al-hayat occurs on p. 616a. It is not clear which Misri Turkish catechism by Niyazi Muhammad (d. 1697), similarly entitled As'ila wa ajwiba-i mutasavvifana (Resit 353, fols. 25?32, Suleimaniye Library, Istanbul), does not contain this passage. 73 in the Richard F. Burton, Sindh (London, 1851; reprint ed., Lahore, 1971), pp. 199, 405. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know which version of the text he had in mind. Several Persian absence of the text of Nizamani of the discourses works by Mahmud Nizamani of Kara, including two collections (malfuzat) of his master Pir Muhammad Rashid III, p. 1383, no. 2481; III, p. 1548, no. 2846; III, p. 1840, (d. 1827) are listed by Munzawi, no. 3416. Y Tzvi Langermann, Yemenite Midrash: Philosophical Commentaries on the Torah, Sacred Literature Series (San Francisco, 1996), pp. 276-277.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 33

imposed certain limits on the transmission of Indian religious concepts, whether because

of the highly
Hellenistic in local Hindi languages romance

developed
or may Padmavat the have

cosmological
specific been teaching

and psychological
requirements to this difficulty. a Chishti

vocabulary
orders. The

tied to Islamic and

Literary composition eastern extensive

sources,

of Sufi

less prone

sixteenth-century a far more

by Muhammad

Ja'isi,

Sufi,

contains

Nectar.75 The same is true of a host of picture of yogic physiology and practice than The Pool of Bengali Muslim authors who explored the themes of yogic physiology and cosmology with
considerable and other certain cakras There technical yogic Islamic with is even Sufi a themes, skill. Here together we with A work stations, and find more full details extensive of the cakras, metaphysical called angels Goraksa-vijaya the the nerves, concepts, Yoga-Qalandar deities by drinking combined identifies in aMuslim the nectar, with the cakras. author

identifications. mystical biography

suggestively substitutes called

for Hindu written

of Gorakhnath

named Fayd Allah.76 In the Indus region, while this level of immersion in yogic concepts did not occur, the yogi became a popular figure in poetry written in Punjabi and Sindhi. The writings of the great Sindhi poet and Sufi cAbd al-Latif B'hita'i (d. 1752) furnish a very
positive sannyasin, with yogis evaluation visiting for of yogis. the major a space of He himself yogi three places years. had worn the ochre robe and wandered region the while like a Hindu travelling is of pilgrimage One of his cycles in the of Indus poetry,

"Sur Ramkali",

dedicated
used folklore

to the praise of the ideal yogis.77 Bullhe

motifs that he was that portray the with archetypal the Persian yogi familiar

Shah (d. 1758), a Punjabi Sufi poet,

as the mystical of The beloved.78 Pool of Nectar It has been

suggested

translation

through

his master Shah Tnayat Qadiri

Practice, of the a work significance that discusses of yogic the Hajji,

(d. 1735), author of the Dastur al-'amal or The Handbook

teachings.79 in these Much literatures. been the nurse of the Prophet the path of yoga". Dabistan and remains to be done in the evaluation

of

yogic themes

"Baba Ratan having

that is, Gorakhnath,

having

[Muhammad],

nourished

the reveredMessenger,

taught the Prophet

Competing Much

Rhetorical

Strategies

of Sufis and Yogis

of the historical evidence for the interaction of yogis and Sufis appears to lie in Sufi
texts, analyse and this material accounts is definitely of yogis written in Sufi from literature a Sufi was point made of view. by Simon The first to and classify Digby

hagiographical attempt

seeMomtazur Rahman Tarafdar, Husain Shahi Bengal 1494-538 A. D., no. 16 (Dacca, 1965), pp. 198-225; A Socio-Political Study, Asiatic Socity of Pakistan Publication id., "Influence in Frederick De Jong (ed.), Shica Islam, Sects and Sufism: of the Natha cult on the growth of Sufism in Bengal", Historical Dimensions, Religious Practice andMethodological Considerations (Utrecht, 1992), pp. 97-104; Enamul Haq, Sufi-ism in Bengal, pp. 368-422; David Cashin, The Ocean of Love: Middle Bengali Sufi Literature and the Fakirs of 1995). Bengal (Stockholm, 77 Motilal Jotwani, Shah Abdul Latif: His Life and Work (Delhi, 1975), pp. 29, 33-34, 126, 140-141. 78 Denis Matringe, "Krsnaite and Nath elements in the poetry of the eighteenth-century Panjabi Sufi Bullhe literature in South Asia: Current research, 1985-8 (Cambridge, Sah", in R. S. McGregor (ed.), Devotional 1992), pp. 190-206; J.R. Puri and T. R. Shangari, Bulleh Shah, theLove-intoxicated Iconoclast (New Delhi, 1986), pp. 117-118, 169?170; Lajwanti Rama Krishna, Panjabi Sufi Poets A.D. 1460-igoo (New Delhi, 1973), pp. 71?74. in Badakhshani, "Adabi manzar", p. 129; cf. Rama Krishna, pp. 65?66, where Shah Maqbul Beg Badakhshani, on the Jawahir-i khamsa of Muhammad is also cited. Ghawth 'Inayat's commentary

75 White, Alchemical Body, pp. 260-262. 76 For suggestive reviews of this literature,

Carl W. Ernst 34
in an oft-cited of which involve classifies to Islam: these stories into several most the yogis

unpublished the

paper.80 of

Digby the yogis

categories, of

conversion

i) spontaneous

conversion

in the presence of Sufis; 2) magical

vanquished and converts to Islam;

contests between
3) magical contests

yogis and Sufis, in which

leading to conversion of

the yogi is
the yogi, in

which
and

a contested
reference

sacred site is yielded

to the lore

to the Sufi; 4) a Sufi's refusal of gifts from a yogi;

of the yogis. In these stories it is clear that one

5) casual

and practices

of the key issues is the rivalry between Sufis and yogis in terms of miraculous
sources generally maintain that even when yogis perform what appear

powers. The Sufi

these

to be miracles,

must be considered

in a different light than actual miracles performed by Sufi saints, who are inspired by God. Following an old distinction, Sufi writers often classify the powers
these non-Muslim with the of charismatic genuine this of study, Sufis figures as false miracles (karamat) that that God only and one (istidraf) permits of of Satanic to inspiration, perform. of categories From stories all as contrasted miracles saints

of

the perspective concerns the

it is remarkable in yogic

the five the first

categories four

interest

techniques

practices;

have to do with
the yogis. As Digby points

establishing
out, the

the religious and thaumaturgical

numerous accounts

superiority of the Sufis over

of encounters between Sufis

hagiographic

and yogis (or other Hindu figures) almost always depict the yogi acknowledging the superior spiritual power of the Sufi.81 There is necessarily a theological element of triumph in this kind of narrative. This is evident in a story told by Nizam al-Din Awliya' (d. 1325), describing a yogi who challenged a Sufi to a levitation contest. While the yogi could rise vertically was to in in the air, with God's help the Sufi able the direction of Mecca, then to fly first the north and south, before returning to accept the submission of the yogi; the flight in
the basic from direction pattern the of Mecca emerged surely in texts period, completed Chishti, by God holy there. but his from war He they indicates of the religious century, character the most of the victory82 While this derive or Lives of the fourteenth versions al-aqtab

grandiose called Siyar

later Mughal

as in an extravagant by arrival Ilah-diya in India Chishti

hagiography in 1647. as

of the World-Axes, Mucin issued orders the the idol local al-Din to him

In the the result

biographical of a divine

account command with destroy

is described He and

the Kacba on the

in Mecca. king,

consequently he and immediately ate a cow, was

arrived

in Ajmer, to

to unleash temples populace,

infidel

threatened arousing power

conspicuously were unable

slaughtered to harm him.

the wrath that the

of deity

Such

his

(dev)worshipped
yogi were Ajaypal all rendered

in the local temple converted

with 1,500 by followers, the saint's but power. ineffective

to Islam and became his disciple. Then

his numerous In what magical a assaults typical on episode the becomes

the
Sufi

arrived

in this

kind of story, the yogi then took to the air and flew away on his deerskin, but the Sufi sent
his and shoes up in the to air to beat becoming the yogi a into humble of Mucin submission, al-Din and and so the same yogi time returned gaining converted Islam, at the

disciple

80 Digby, "Encounters with Yogis". See also Simon Digby, Wonder-Tales of South Asia (Jersey, 2000), pp. 140?220, "Medieval Sufi Tales of Yogis". "The Tale of Gorakh Nath", pp. 221-233, 81 are related by Richard M. Eaton, Sufis of Bijapur 1300-1700; Social Roles of Similar stories from the Deccan Medieval India (Princeton, NJ, 1977), pp. 53-54, iio-ni, 132-133. Sufis in 82 Latif Malik Nizam al-Din Awliya' Bada'oni, Fawa'id al-fu'ad, comp. Hasan cAla Sijzi, ed. Muhammad (Lahore, p. 12. 1386/1966), p. 84; trans. Lawrence, Morals for theHeart; cf. Digby, "Encounters",

Situating Sufism and Yoga 3 5 the boon of immortality. The

to convert to Islam, and leading the Shihab elements conversion and well Sufis, royal as a al-Din, missing to Islam historiography. theological To one.84 this class

story then continues with

al-Din of to proclaim the Delhi of Mucin so that

the refusal of the Raja

the forthcoming The story victory contains the

of Ajmer
of Sultan several on

Mucin

establishment Sufi

Sultanate.83 al-Din, it crosses thus has

in earlier and

biographies imperialism, story's

particularly the line between political were

emphasis hagiography dimension

strident The

triumphalism

a strong over the yogis

as to the

These of

stories

of one-upmanship encounters belongs

not biography

limited of

however.

triumphal

important

Sikh founder-figure,
day with ideal of his the profound "true

Guru Nanak, who

teachings occurs on in an

is depicted
of hymn, the

as confounding
"true in which yogi".85 the

the Nath
A similar

siddhas of his
appeal to the

the nature Ismacili

yogi"

Ismacili

imam

establishes

his superiority to the Nath yogi Kanipha.86 The triumphal rhetoric of the tales of Sufis humbling
unusual literary phenomenon, texts that in which are ascribed extensive to well-known expositions Sufis. Most

yogis
of yogic of

is matched
teachings

by
occur

an
in

pseudonymous

the Arabic

manuscripts

of The Pool of Nectar

Andalusian Chishti, under This Sufi is likewise several treats the master, said

in Istanbul libraries are attributed

Ibn to be titles, nerves time, Sufi 'Arabi. the most and The founder of the author of an extremely called

to the authorship
Indian Chishtiyya, work {The standard on yoga

of the great
al-Din is found that on terms on

Mucin

popular Wujudiyya the

different subtle

commonly breath control, material materials

Treatise Hindi

Existence). of yogic

using

physiology; names integrate

at the but

same the

the yogic and yogic

is followed remain haft nam

by meditations separate, (Treatise without

the Arabic attempt to also

of God, them.87

any

Another

such work

is the Risala-i

on the Seven Names),

called Haft ahhah (The Seven Friends), 2. composite work

al-Din seven Nagawri chapters is (d. 1295) and others, sometimes with a phrase classified containing entitled

attributed to the early Sufi Hamid

as a work on alchemy. seven. Each The of the the number second

separately

chapter, by Gyan Nath the Yogi alias "Felicitous" (Persian sa'adatmanct), is entitled inHindi as Sat sagar (The Seven Oceans), and iswritten inHindi with a Persian translation. The third
chapter, The Seven Stars, is credited to Sulayman Mandawi (d. 1538?39), a prominent Muslim

scholar who

had studied the Arabic version of the The Pool ofNectar with

cAbd al-Quddus

83 trans. Simon Digby, in Ilah-diya Chishti, Siyar al-aqtab, pp. 124-133, Mucin al-Din Chishti ofAjmer, Oxford University South Asian Studies Series 84 Ernst, Eternal Garden, pp. 90?91. 85 1 (Oxford, 1909), Max Arthur MacAuliffe, The Sikh Religion, Volume available online at <http://wwAv.sacred-texts.com/skh/tsri/tsri i6.htm>; W.

P. M.

Currie,

The Shrine and Cult

of

(Delhi,

1992), pp. 72-81.

"Life of Guru Nanak: Chapter XIII", H. McLeod, Guru Nanak and the Sikh

Religion (Oxford, 1968), p. 141. 86 and Yogi Kahipha: Tantra Revisited between Guru Hasan Kabiruddin Khan, "Conversation Dominique-Sila in David Gordon White in Religions (ed.), Tantra in Practice, Princeton Readings by the Ismacili Preachers", (Princeton, NJ, 2000), pp. 285-295. 87 I have consulted copies of this and another Persian text on yoga ascribed to Mucin al-Din Chishti, kindly both entitled Risala-i wujudiyya. Munzavi provided by Pir Zia Inayat Khan from his personal collection, (III, see also Muhammad p. 2101-3, no. 3820) lists ten MSS of this title in Pakistan, the earliest dated 1084/1673-4; Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Shafi' (ba-farsi 0 urdu 0 panjabi) dar kitabkhana-i Professor Doctor Mawlawi Muhammad (Lahore, 1392 q./i35i Shafi', ed. Ahmad Rabbani SI1./1972), pp. 261-2, no. 305. A text with the same title in Calcutta (Ivanow, ASB Curzon 460/5) is attributed to Farid al-Din Ganj-i Shakkar.

Carl W. Ernst 36
but the authors are obscure.88 These texts Sufi

Gangohi,

remaining

yogic

appropriated

by

tradition form a literary equivalent to the submission of yogis to Sufis (like that of Ajaypal toMucin al-Din Chishti) in the later hagiographic legends.89
The and with process of inter-religious on an the fringes date. appropriation of The society Persian was appear not to have entirely been and one-sided, open to however. friendly Yogis other Muslims ascetics from exchanges

early

merchant

traveller

Buzurg

ibn Shahriyar,

around 953, commented writing Musulmans and show them much writing
than was

that the Kapalika ascetics of Ceylon "take kindly to The Tibetan Buddhist historian Taranath, sympathy".90 in the thirteenth century, was critical of the Nath yogis for following Shiva rather
and what The culture more, went "They on used to to say that they their and Mughal were not even with opposed Sufism A mural to and on a encounter emperors.

the Buddha,

the Turuskas with the

(Turks)".91 Indo-Muslim

yogis

mythologise

represented

by Turkish

Nath

yogi temple inNepal

Legends disciples about of yogis,

displays the submissive visit of the Ghurid

the humiliation and the of hostile reconstruction Muslims, of yogi the temples

sultans in the twelfth

of Muslim their rulers after destruction

century.92 to become

efforts

by Muslims
These of Mughal the legendary From up a a fair special their

(especially by the lateMughal

stories should than of probably be authority rather as historical stories Sufis about late

emperor Awrangzeb,
seen as part of of evidence about

d. 1707), are common.93

of rhetorical to inversion judge from destruction,

triumphal

a tradition temple

proliferation conversations of

such

Awrangzeb.94 years, orders the and yogis their al-Rida also Islamic Ratan, undoubtedly origins. or They simply picked had Baba

with

over the

the Sufi known

amount interest

information

in a relatively

figure

as Abu

Ratan,
his own

who was buried

the account, of the Islamic he had

in the Punjabi village of Bhatinda

lands been of as one born who over claimed Methuselah-like years six hundred Muhammad he was Although such as the able

in 1243. He
longevity; previously and had

is well

known
to heard him reports his

throughout

according had to meet hadith

in India, gone

rumours in person from

appearance became with accepted his no

the Prophet Thus

in Arabia, at this

and

follower.

late date by some

to relate Islamic

the Prophet was

intermediary. by others,

challenged famous

scholars, and

authenticity

Ibn Hajar

al-cAsqalani,

he was

88 Bashir Husayn, Fihrist-i makhtutat-i Sherani (Lahore, 1969), III, p. 566; Munzavi, Muhammad III, p. 842, citing also Rieu, II, p. 486. Other MSS are cited by C. A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey (London, 1972), II, p. 438, no. 3. 89 On the general problem of pseudonymous authorship in Sufi texts, see my "On Losing One's Head: Radical in Works attributed to Attar", in Leonard Lewisohn (ed.), Farid al-Din cAttar and the Persian Sufi Hallajian Motifs Tradition (London, forthcoming). 90 Marvels of India, French trans. L. Marcel Devic [1883-86], English trans. Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, The Book of the Peter QuenneD (New York, 1929), p. 132. 91 Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India, trans. Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya (Simla, 1970), p. 320. 9~ in colour in the unnumbered is reproduced Bouillier, Ascetes et wis, pp. 68?65 (tms mural plate on the second-to-last page before p. 129). 93 Ibid., pp. 116-118; Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis (Delhi, 1982), pp. 70 (Awrangzeb as rejected 92, 94?95, 105, 144 (Akbar as initiate). See also the account of a Nath yogi's relationship disciple of Gorakhnath), in David S. "The Wonders of Sri Mastnath", with Shah cAlam II (d. 1809), translated by David Gordon White, Lopez, Religions of India in Practice (Princeton, NJ, 1995), pp. 399-411. 94 Carl W Ernst, "Admiring theWorks of the Ancients: The Ellora Temples as viewed by Indo-Muslim Authors", in David Gilmartin and Bruce B. Lawrence (eds), Beyond Turk andHindu: Rethinking Religious Identities in Islamicate South Asia (Gainesville, FL, 2000), pp. 198-220.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 37

as patron saint of the gardeners' in Istanbul.95 of a later date

adopted

guild

Yogis

confidently

told the Zoroastrian

the main reasons for

author of the Dabistan

the successful

and that he had initiated the Prophet philosophy

The and Yogis these

had in fact been Gorakhnath, into the practices of hatha yoga; this was one of that Baba Ratan
Islam. Here of is the full account of the yogis'

spread

of religious history, according to the Dabistan:

are a famous people and take group in India. "Yoga" in Sanskrit God. means They "to unite" call God (Persian payvastan), alak (Hindi alakh,

themselves

to have one

attained of God,

"pure"),

in their belief

the chosen

rather his Essence, saints, angels, claim

is Gorakhnath. ones.

Likewise,

Machhindernath to them, Brahma

and Cauranginath and Vishnu

are among are some

the Siddha [merely] of them

and Mahesh just as today

and disciples This sect from from group

of Gorakhnath, consists of twelve claim

According are students [the yogis] to be connected to each of these. but they these]. Panth and iswhat teachings attained they call a

that is, perfect

(Jirqa). It is their the prophets him. The

[the author panths... that the masters of all religions, are students of Gorakhnath;

enumerates

communities, whatever

coming is attained

and saints belief of

they have

this group but from

is that Muhammad fear of the Muslims having

student

of Gorakhnath, the Hajji,

that Baba Ratan nourished they are

that is, Gorakhnath, taught and

was trained by a (peace be upon him) cannot say it. Rather they they say this, been the nurse of the Prophet, and having the path but when of yoga. When with Hindus, in their according among Muslims, they practice the they of

the revered Messenger, scrupulous of this group. about None fasting of

the Prophet prayer, things

ritual

religion eat pork Muslims and every

the forbidden of Hindus

according and others.... sect may to one

to the custom

is prohibited or beef and Christians, even if every

sect, whether to the religion

In the belief be of connected the twelve

of this group,

path proceeds they have

from Gorakhnath, the path that

to Gorakh, orders

still in their view

travelled

is connected

of yoga.96 Islamic Nath into Gorakhpur its own gives narrative the is still following

The alive

Nath today.

Yogi A

tradition recent visitor

of

incorporating to the central

prophets temple at

surprising I visited things,

account:

the Gorakhnath a hall adorned as well was in fact

Mandir with...

with statues

my of

wife

in February claimed

1998. There by was the Nath

we

saw, among Statues

other were that in

the masters

of Muhammad, Muhammad some Puranas

as of Abraham a Nath yogi,

(and Jesus, and

etc.). Below was

lineage. a small board explaining a Shaiva centre,

that the Mecca

in fact

known

asMakeshvar.97

This

particular

incorporation

of Muhammad

into Hindu

tradition

has

not

been

publicised,

however.

95 "Baba Ratan, the Saint of Bhatinda", Journal of the Punjab Historical Society, 2 (1913-14), J. Horovitz, cAbd al-Hayy ibn Fakhr al-Din al-Hasani, Nuzhat al-khawatir wa bahjat al-masamicwa al-nawazir (2nd pp. 97-117; I:i 12-18. Manuscripts of a collection of Persian translations of his hadith transmission ed., Hyderabad, 1386/1966-), are noticed by Munzawi, III: 1544, no. 2838. 96 Shah [Muhsin Fani, attr.], Dabistan al-madhahib (Bombay, 1262/1846), pp. 149-150. Instead of "Baba Mobad amistake caused by misplacing two dots. This error is the lithograph text erroneously reads "Baba Rin", Ratan", both in the recent Tehran edition and in the highly inaccurate repeated, moreover, Manners, trans. David Shea and Anthony Troyer, Troyer; cf. The Dabistan or School of Williams 1901), pp. 239-240. Jackson (Washington, 97 Letter of David DuBois, 4 June 2003. 1843 translation of Shea and reprint ed. abridged by A. V.

Carl W. Ernst 38
Yogis normally had made a further from making observation to their to their Zoroastrian acquaintances: interlocutor, the spiritual which power

they of

refrained

Muslim

mosques could be easily explained by the striking resemblance of the mihrab (prayer-niche) and the minaret towers to the yoni (vulva) and lingam (phallus) of Shaivite worship, for which
reason these the prayer-niche prominent of yogis and minaret features were were always found together.98 for the The of yogis Islam. without reasoned The that architectural and various

responsible

spread at Mecca

accounts

saints who

had miraculous

experiences

becoming

Muslims,
in this subordinated firmly scholar,

including the famous story of Guru Nanak,

category of them Indian to mythologies, figures which and and third Indian

founder of the Sikhs, evidently belong

the sacred Nath sources is in any to the of case Islam and Ratan stories a name hadith

relativised

categories." in Indian generation

ensconced he figures

in yogic as a Nath

tradition, in the

unrelated

long-lived

after Gorakhnath.100

relationship between Islam and yoga is further complicated by the participation in the Nath Yogi tradition. Out of the thirteen principal Nath sub-orders of Muslims The
described Muslims Handi by Briggs, despite Pharang being and one, the Rawal or Nagnath from also Muslim order, Shiva. Two located of the in the Punjab, consists of the originally the Jafir Pirs, derived are six minor as their sub-orders, names

in composition,

suggest;

although
not eat with "miscellaneous

they are Kanphatas

them.101 and The

and undergo
Indian vagrants",

the customary
which figures listed gave

initiations,
all yogis that

the Hindu
under over the

yogis do
of of cent

1891

census,

category

disreputable

indicating

17 per

yogis were Muslims,

cent.102 but they It is difficult are still an

though by 1921 the proportion

to interpret these index figures of without interesting continuing

of Muslims
more existence

had fallen to less than 5 per

of the social yogis context, in recent of of Muslim

knowledge

times; it is impossible to tell whether

Muslims Beyond shrines, or Qa'im a samadhi both who the as were ranks drawn of the and both and into yogis the

they were originally yogis who

ranks of the yogi Muslims Ratan followers orders. also Naths who formed disciple, have of

became

Islamised, or
with as him dual Kaya

themselves,

relationships known built this kind for of

yogi Nath

pilgrims has a tomb,

as administrators. and Hindu can find

al-Din, and

Muslim one

separately religious

numerous

examples

shrine for yogis in the Punjab and in the Deccan.103 The important yogi shrines of Hinglaj (now in the province of Baluchistan in Pakistan) and Amarnath (in the Indian Himalayas)
have those for centuries In the several Hindu pilgrimage recently been been case in the custody of Muslims, the famous local Muslim shepherds' percentage the attempts ice who lingam regulate in the who to the cave pilgrimage there was rites apparently this prodigy over the has the in of Amarnath, ago by The a good by

places.

discovered to their

centuries acquaintances. and take

shepherds, descendants of the

announced this day preside their groups

annual more

revenue,

though

position to harass

threatened

of Kashmiri

militant

98 Dabistan, p. 157; trans. Shea and Troyer, p. 251. 99 Ibid., p. 147 (Akamnath); trans. Shea and Troyer, p. 235. 100 gj-iggs^ Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, p. 92. 101 Ibid., pp. 66,71. 102 Ibid., pp. 4-6, with 1891 figures of 214,546 yogis in all India and 38,137 Muslim yogis in the Punjab, 1921 figures of 629,978 Hindu yogis and 31,158 Muslim yogis. 103 Ibid., p. 66; J. J. Roy Burman, Hindu-Muslim Syncretic Shrines and Communities (New Delhi, 2002).

and

Situating Sufism and Yoga 39

At Hinglaj, pilgrims to to India indicate These the is told Muslims at a site near they were which that at one in order Karachi, Hindus; time to aMuslim perform the pilgrims we the woman the rituals. would told of in charge of the

pilgrims.104 shrine on mark with their of

story

required return Shiva,

to become proper, that

Consequently, receive how the a brand they Sufi dealt

remade

are not elite circles

circumcision.105

examples,

fall outside

orders,

illustrate the difficulty of drawing firm lines separating Muslim

yogic allows The striking tradition. different ambiguous identification In institutional to claim terms, ownership between dual-use without Sufism of and shrines any yoga exhibit sense may of groups

and Hindu
a profound

identities in the
ambiguity that

contradiction. be the summarised esoteric in the initiators

relationship of

finally and

the founder-figures

the Nath

tradition

of Islamic lore, which

When examine you have

is announced
this station,

Nectar. for the first time in The Pool of

and this condition becomes 1) The respire; characteristic how of you, it breathes it breathes closely while it

reached things with

three

thought its mother's not enter

and discrimination: womb does not

embryo,

is in the placenta, though and the water does water, it to reach fish its heights. The

2) the fish, how

in the

it; 3) and the tree, how is Shaykh who reached Gorakh, who

it attracts water is Khidr

in its veins be upon

and causes him), the who

embryo

(peace

is Shaykh Minanath and they

[Matsyendranath], have

is Jonah, the water

and

the tree is Shaykh

Caurangi,

is llyas,

are the ones who

of life (V. 4). case and loosely

The recalls

precise ancient a

significance Indian goal

of

this

identification of the embryo's

is elusive breath The case, the

and as

problematic. with Khidr

The

first

associations breathing In

dispensing with

inhalation rests the

exhalation, on his

of yogic with

exercise.106 the second

comparison fish clearly

association

water.

explains

association

of Matsyendra
belly Gorakh of a fish.

("lord of the fish") with

The third case tradition is more as a

the Prophet Jonah, who

Caurangi of Matsyendra (Caurangi Nath,

spent three days in the

Nath) figures alongside comes up in and his name

obscure. disciple

in the Marathi

various lists of Siddhas.107 llyas (Elijah) is one of the figures in Islamic lore who was granted immunity from death, and he is often pictured as flying in heaven like a bird and sitting in a
tree. Tibetan devoted of was to tradition the preserves traditions There relating Caurangi as a was to Caurangi is described he in the biographical as a suffered and probably and prince falsely literature accused and yoga on by the site of eighty-four by his in the siddhas.

improper left under

advances a tree the

stepmother; forest, but

punishment, subsequently The parallel of Caurangi identifications Thus between

dismemberment initiated rests into loosely

saved here

Matsyendra tree

with

assistance

of Gorakh.108 restoration case, the these of the

as the witness deathless control,

to the miraculous abode. expressed In any through theme

s limbs, revolve breath the Sufi

as the paradisal the practice and yogic meditative traditions.

of Elijah's breath practice

three

around control and

allegories.

is the underlying

comparison

Saba Naqvi Bhaumik, 1994. "Journeys End", Indian Express, 7 August 105 109-110. Briggs, Gorakhnath and theKanphata Yogis, pp. 106-107, 106 Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, pp. 110, 395, 419; cf. also the Chinese concept of embryonic breathing, ibid., pp. 59-62. Das Gupta, Obscure Religious Cults, pp. 203, 208; cf. p. 200 for an etymology. 108 Keith Dowman, trans., Masters ofMahamudra: Songs and Histories of the Eighty-Four Buddhist Siddhas, SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies (Albany, 1985), pp. 81-90.

Carl W. Ernst 40 The rhetorical

but and

effect of
such

identifying
claim

Islamic prophets with

could seems amount to have to arisen making

Hindu
the

yogis
claimed quarters.

is one
tradition A Muslim

of

appropriation, dependent

a radical Discomfort

inauthentic.

in several

objection appeared in a polemical text of uncertain date entitled Huff at al-Hind or The Proof in story form. One of the of India, which takes the form of aMuslim critique of Hinduism as text criticisms of the is directed against the Nath yogis, follows: "Yet they have no proof which which the Yogis have they can show or establish, except idle tales and verses (caupad) ascribed to them [the Naths]. They also say, 'We talk of Gorakh and you of the Prophet Khidr; we talk of Cauranga and you of Ilyas;we ofMacchendar and you of the Prophet Yunus [Jonah]'. This also is false: nay, it is unbelief
which but Nath, occurs the figures originated On in The are Pool ofNectar, omitting that the among the other in precisely same. It is possible as away comparison manner. the

The (few/r)".109
the this references identification,

comparison
to breath like control

is briefer than that

and meditation, of Ratan through of The

the mythology to Islam the this as translator issue

the yogis hand, the the

of constructing may There have

their originated

relationship with to decide seen

narrative. Pool but

ofNectar, the

reverse of

is no way was

at present, not

inevitable

triumphalism

comparison

evidently

problematic,

only by Muslims but also by Hindus. A similar reference to The Pool ofNectar occurs in the Dabistan-i madhahib or The Academy
of Religions, in Persian in to which brief reference India has already been Shah, made. The Dabistan author was written belonging by Mobad a Zoroastrian

seventeenth-century

to the school of Adhar Kayvan. This

treatise, in which Sufism, Ishraqi

text is a highly
and

complex
strands

philosophical
of Indian

and mystical
thought

Illuminationism,

religious

and practice
Zoroastrian

(including yoga) form

tradition; the work

the basis for an original mystical

for instance, extensive descriptions

reinterpretation
of Zoroastrian

of

contains,

techniques
authoritative William it, seeing

corresponding
work for on instance,

to yogic meditations.
religion critical to during but nineteenthhistory

The Dabistan was highly

the and as early period twentieth-century but a fraud.

regarded as an
by Sir scholars rejected Iranian

comparative

of Orientalism,

Jones

its creative

approach

religious

nothing

Modern

scholars in especially have been particularly harsh in their criticism of this work. Much
the into fanciful the vocabulary standard early that this text attributed an of to ancient event that Iranian current remarks sages was philologians as follows incorporated regard concerning dictionaries In any case, of Persian, the author

of
as

an embarrassment.110

the Dabistan

The Pool ofNectar:

I saw the Amritakunda; Life). There it was also translated into Persian, and entitled Hawd al-hayat (The Pool of for

it is said, "Gorakhnath

is an expression

for Khidr,

and Machhinder

[Matsyendra]

109 Mihrabi, Hujjat al-Hind, trans. Digby, "Encounters", p. 4. Digby dates this text to around 1400 and locates it in the Deccan, but Munzavi (II, pp. 952-954, no. 1613; II, p. 1086, no. 1852) dates this to the period of Shahjahan, although the oldest of the nine MSS he describes (no. 4642, in a Peshawar library) is dated to the ninth/fifteenth (no. 1809). (no. 221) and 1055/1645 century. Marshall gives two dates: "not later than 1084/1673" 110 See H. Corbin, "Adar Kayvan", Encyclopedia Iranica, III, pp. 183-187, along with the editor s critical addendum the "Dabestan-e Madaheb", ibid., VI, pp. 532-534, where directly refuting Corbin; cf. also Fath-Allah Mojtaba'i, is discussed as well. A brilliant new interpretation of the Dabistan and the Zoroastrian evidence for authorship "Contested Memories: is provided by Mohamed of the Adhar Kayvan movement Tavakoli-Targhi, historiography Iranian Studies, 29 (1996), pp. 149?175. of Iran's Pre-Islamic History", Narrative Structures and Allegorical Meanings

Situating Sufism and Yoga 41

Yunus is baseless; in the Amritakunda [Jonah]". This opinion or Brahma so frequendy the name of Alakh appears, which as often as they speak of Gorakhnath,

is correct.111

The quotation
the Persian

from The Pool ofNectar

of Muhammad

(corresponding
Ghawth, but

to V. 4 of the Arabic
to omit

text) follows
the reference

translation

it is abbreviated

to Caurangi
archetypal yogic alakh tradition or

and llyas. Evidently

with viewed Brahma. figures from Gorakhnath Either

the author of the Dabistan felt that the identification

Islamic sacred history was mistaken, better since contemporary to either rejected as a manifestation the author of

of
as

yogis

of divinity,

referred informants,

the god

the Dabistan,

or his yogi

the identification
Islamic prophet

of the Sufi and yogic

as the equivalent

traditions as ultimately
of Gorakh was not his equal

implausible, because
in spiritual power;

the
this

alleged

contemptuous
no mere between contest prophet. these for

dismissal raises the rhetorical stakes by declaring

So while two groups, rather breath the control was of admittedly competing of an construction an rhetorical acknowledged about fasting

that Gorakh
likely point narratives common

is divine and
of contact part of a was

the most

supremacy among Muslims,

than

explanation yogis]

origin. but when

"When

they [the Nath

are scrupulous

and ritual prayer, -

with Hindus,

they practice

the religion of this group". Dabistan

Conclusion How Let can we us sum up situate Indian Sufism Sufis and in the of the preceding other as discussion? distinguishable

meaningfully the evidence.

yoga,

light

and Nath

yogis

regarded

each

groups, with
roles as

overlapping
leaders.

interests in psycho-physical
While some yogic practices

discipline
were to

and with
a certain

often competing
extent compatible

spiritual

with

Sufi disciplines, it is historically impossible to derive one entire system from the other. Different Indian Sufi groups, particularly the Chishti and Shattari orders, incorporated certain yogic practices into their repertory of techniques, but this addition did not fundamentally
alter Sufi the texts probably through account character and of existing Sufi practices; to Arabic single Sufis and stories, of yogic The this Hindi formulas source yogis mantras, for instance, origin. were The infrequent Pool of Nectar about to in clearly the most Islamicate of the other subordinate important languages. group, of Qur'anic for

was yoga take

literary and

the diffusion both felt took the the

of knowledge need form periodically of

alike

acknowledgement figures and the

competing scholar, yogis with

narratives, pseudonymous the esoteric themes All without to what I would

including Sufi prophets

conversion authorship of Islam.

liminal texts,

like Baba identification on the

Ratan

the hadith

of primordial of Sufi

repeated

insistence

identification

and yogic

reveals these

a stubborn

sense suggest

of difference. that we that must find a way to describe and adapted yoga by dividing into this certain their sense of difference practices, worldview? into three

observations

essentialism. extent suggest did

If it is true Sufis show can

Sufis to

assimilated incorporating best

yogic own

resistance answer this

that we

question

the material

111 Shah [Kaykhusraw Isfandiyar, attr.], Dabistan-i madhahib, ed. Rahim Riza-zada Dabistan, p. 153; Mobad as lak). The English 1 (2 vols., Tehran, 1362/1983), I, p. 162 (where Alakh ismisspelled Malik, Adabiyyat-i Dasatiri, incorrect at this point. translation of Shea and Troyer is hopelessly

Carl 42

W.

Ernst

separate and yogis priation even this

categories: notion

yogic

practices, as a

yogis religious

as individuals doctrine. With

belonging regard Sufis,

to an both to from

identifiable yogic practices

group, and appro yogis, and

the abstract

of yoga there

as individuals, of certain

is a variable material approval to a of single the

spectrum control,

among chants,

ranging

complete

yogic to wary

(breath and

meditation

techniques, it is not possible this

goddesses) range of

even

complete A of critical

rejection; issue that Pool for

to reduce process of the

reactions is the

formula. strategies most

assessing adopted

assimilation Indie data in

character garb.

translation text, The

Sufis

to present

Islamicate

Our

notable

of Nectar,

presents

a number

of identifications between
the three A yogis with Islamic Vishnu. Equivalents prayer prayer. Yet Sufi some literature the out and extremely discussing extremely or mentioned, in detail with brahmin

Islamic and Indie personalities;

prophets, we are also told to aMuslim for or a couple invocation, scholar of minor and

in addition to the identification of

is Abraham, a yogi and Moses (murtad). or counted to duca or is and is an ascetic term fapa

that Brahma (calim),

is equivalent

are also provided to cazima

practices; homa or

the Hindi sacrifice

is equivalent 112

is equivalent

important practices important

yogic of

terms the yogis, technical the

are

entirely the term

missing yoga

from is scarcely yantra

this account.

In all this

ever mentioned.113 and cakra are

Likewise, not at have spelled length been

terms phenomena All

mantra,

(diagram), they terms refer for

although numerous

to which these critical and

are described yogic practice terms;

examples. to Islamicate

completely

subordinated

categories

represented

by Arabic

mantra
riyada

is replaced by dhikr, yantra by shakl (shape), cakra by mawdac (place), and yoga itself by
(asceticism). readers While Only with Pool the benefit of Nectar of and Indological kindred recognition resources, texts, can we which plausibly of the were unavailable restore existence the to Indie of the of The there

premodern originals.

seems

to be

a clear

among

Sufis

Nath Yogis as a sociological group, and of their practices as distinctive,

of Sufi yoga without system. Sufism to our The teaching irrelevant much It would as a separate understanding old Orientalist denying and influences was powerful enough yogic there safe to to make practices is no say Sufi the independent could concept was be existence precisely effort. because In short, be The assimilated of yoga

the discursive tradition

of into something a Sufi called

perspective separate concept nothing of

as a no

completely yoga

probably entity. of

that

there

likewise of

hatha

highly

abstract

language

essentialism

contributes

this phenomenon debate about yoga

of historical as the of source

difference. of Sufism by was based on a "strong

misreading", of origins and see about in the

the

apparent

significance only Islam, by modern continue

a tradition scholars. to fuel

triumphant about

announcement textual authority, as one can

detected of of

Anxieties such grandiose

the very recent not

existence attempt

projects, to unveil that the

"Christoph but reading of

Luxenburg" in Syriac, of

(a pseudonym) proposing

the Qur'an entire Islamic

as a text, tradition that the

written on a

in Arabic, faulty virgins to be featured

in this way

is based

a Christian are page

lectionary in of reality the New

Luxenburg's white York raisins Times,

announcement was which considered does not

"white-eyed" enough

the Qur'an on the front

important

112 See Ernst, "Islamization of Yoga", Chart 4, for these translations. 113 "the endless sound Shah Kalim Allah in passing refers to the postures of yoga (baithak-i jog) and also mentions . . which . in yoga (jog) they call anahid [anahita]" (Kashkul-i Kalimi, pp. 30, 39). But these mentions (sawt-i sarmadt), of yoga (jog) are extremely rare.

Situating Sufism and Yoga 43

often with views that of large German Sufism is most and yoga tomes on Semitic of Meanwhile, contest for Despite historical. the New the position their Against

happen

philology.114 spirituality that

Age of

essentialism the mysticism to the history

as forms because of these

authentic, neither

it is least

authoritative. is particularly

appeals such

religions,

approaches

strong misreadings,
sacred Doniger An texts or favours

and their quest to find the essential origins of religion either in debunked
universalism, provisional I think, we form can of offer alternate forms of interpretation. Wendy

in a bland a more

categorisation: of diffused but rather from narratives a banyan with no common must origin an that

appropriate the family

metaphor,

for the network used to favor, subsequent The

is not original one

tree that folklorists sends down

tree, which (other

have

root but longer

so many was

roots pattern

its branches roots

variants)

can no

tell which resemblances,

the original. or the web to that

of banyan spider.115 traditions to the

is rather

like a Venn

diagram In this attention constructions the can future be

of family

of an invisible

sense,

polythetic

approaches difference and

categorising is not For held

religious hostage

offer

flexibility

and

an

to historical of will be source to

all-or-nothing an of

comparativist important task for that

influence. these public

religious

studies

scholars,

explain

non-essentialist spheres beyond

interpretations the academy.

religion

in a way

relevant

to the broader

York Times (2March 2002). Luxenburg's book was also the subject of an article in Newsweek (25 July 2003), which was banned in Pakistan. For a critical review of Luxenburg's book, see Francois de Blois inJournal of Qur'anic Studies, 5 (2003), pp. 92-97. For the importance of the debunking of the Qur'an as a theme in recent Euro-American culture, see Ernst, Following Muhammad, Chapter 3. The Implied Spider, p. 139. For a Venn diagram-style of Chishti Sufism, see Ernst and Doniger, description Lawrence, Sufi Martyrs of Love, pp. 2?4.

114 New