Monastic Wanderers

How have the premodern Shaiva ascetic sect of the Nth Yogs (known also as the Yogs with splitted ears) succeeded in maintaining its presence and importance until today? This book intends to give a general survey of this sampradya which is said to have been founded by the Siddha Gorakhnth, known for his strong link to Haha Yoga. However, rather than to Yoga, the history and expansion of the Nth sect are linked to its rich legendary corpus. Dealing first with the marks of belonging (such as the huge earrings worn by the fully initiated Yogs) which give the sect its unity, the book then focuses on its organization and explores the dialectics between the wandering Yogs and the monastic settlements. The Nth monasteries belong to two categories: the pacyati mahs, collectively owned and managed by the sectarian authorities, which ensure the permanency of the sect, and the nj mahs, owned on a personal basis and transmitted from guru to disciple, which permits innovative initiatives The book gives a detailed account of two pacyati monasteries, the Kadri Mah of Mangalore where its heads enthronement is spectacularly performed every twelve years, and the Caughera Mah of Dang Valley in Nepal, the royal foundation of which gives a glimpse of the complex relationships that can exist between monasteries and kingdoms. It then focuses on three nj mahs: Amritashram in Fatehpur (Rajasthan), Ashtal Bohar in Rohtak (Haryana) and the Gorakhpur mandir (UP). Each of them shows a different mode of adaptation to a modern context and attests of the present importance and continuity of this pluri-secular tradition of asceticism.