Early Physical Yoga

As published by the Sanskrit Reading Room

Stimulating the Goddess: James Mallinson on the Gorakṣaśataka

By Daniel Simpson

(A recording is available here; contact srr@soas.ac.uk for the readings)

The Gorakṣaśataka – or “Hundred Verses of Gorakṣa” – is one of the earliest texts to teach the physical methods of haṭha yoga, although its author does not use that term. Among the text’s innovations are dynamic ways of controlling the breath in prāṇāyāma and other techniques to awaken a subtle inner power called Kuṇḍalinī, which is raised up the spine to attain liberation.

As part of his research for the ERC-funded Haṭha Yoga Project, James Mallinson is preparing a critical edition of the Gorakṣaśataka (among other texts). He read from his edition on Tuesday 19th November at the last of this term’s collaborations between the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies and the Sanskrit Reading Room.

Despite the text’s influence on yogic practice, it is far less well known than a later compilation, the Haṭhapradīpikā, which borrows its teachings. Almost one third of the Gorakṣaśataka’s 100 verses appear in that text, including passages about deep breathing known as ujjāyī, whose rasping sound is widely heard in modern yoga classes. Less often taught today are such esoteric methods as sarasvatīcālana, “the stimulation of Sarasvatī,” by which the coiled serpent goddess Kuṇḍalinī is roused from her slumber and made to ascend. Dr. Mallinson’s reading included the verses that teach this technique.

Interpreting the Gorakṣaśataka can be challenging. There are only three surviving manuscripts available – all obtained from libraries in Tamil Nadu – and the most insightful of these has decayed; the last quarter is missing. Dr. Mallinson calls it the “closest to an archetype of all the witnesses,” estimating that it dates from the seventeenth or eighteenth century, when it would have been copied from Grantha script to devanāgarī. The other two are probably less than 300 years old.

The final folio of manuscript ‘T’ in James Mallinson’s critical apparatus (Thanjavur Sarasvati Mahal Library B.6389; breaks off at 77c)

The original text can be tentatively dated to the thirteenth century. It is unlikely to be much earlier than the twelfth, or any later than the fourteenth. The author is unknown, but the opening line ascribes the teachings it presents to the sage Gorakṣa, whose name is often linked to early texts on haṭha yoga. The reference to him as siddharāja (“King of the Siddhas,” or master practitioners) may have been added in subsequent centuries to bolster a lineage – like some of the verses on non-dual philosophy.

The text begins by saying that its methods lead to signs of success in a matter of days. However, some of its finer points need clarification from a guru who has mastered them. The target audience is named as “renouncers” (viraktāḥ), who are said to seek “freedom from existence” (bhavamukti). They are advised to devote themselves fully to a teacher “whose sight, mind and breath are always steady” (dṛṣṭirmano marudyasya […] nityaṃ sthirāṇi).

The primary goal is to conquer the breath. If its flow can be suspended at will, it helps steady the mind. A trio of practices hones this capacity: a moderate diet, a firm seated posture and physical methods to activate śakti, the energetic goddess who flows through the body dissolving the mind. She can either be stirred by restraining the breath (prāṇarodha), or by stimulating Sarasvatī (sarasvatīcālana), which is where things get complicated.

It is not exactly clear how the stimulation works. Later texts borrow the verses describing this practice and say it takes place in the lower abdomen. This is based on misreading “her channel” (tannāḍīm), which refers to the tongue despite it not being named as such. Confusion is compounded by other yogic texts – such as the Amṛtasiddhi – that describe Sarasvatī as a synonym of Suṣumnā, the subtle central channel through which energy ascends from the root of the spine to between the eyebrows. However, the technique involves wrapping a cloth around Sarasvatī’s channel (i.e. the tongue) and vigorously pulling it from side to side for over ninety minutes to make Kuṇḍalinī move. This lifts the base of Suṣumnā so that prāṇa can enter along with awakened Kuṇḍalinī.

To add another twist to Sarasvatī, the Gorakṣaśataka says the ancients also know her as Arundhatī, which the Haṭhapradīpikā lists as a name for Kuṇḍalinī. To make sense of these sorts of divergences, Dr. Mallinson said it would be helpful for someone to do a PhD that mapped the yogic body, providing translators with an encyclopaedic overview. There were several other tips for reading yogic texts, which can have quirky grammar. Some optatives had to be read with no sense of “might,” and an imperative with no accompanying vocative needed explaining. “It looks odd, and it is odd, but it’s not really a problem,” Dr. Mallinson noted, adding wryly: “Years of reading these texts, I’m sure it’s made my Sanskrit worse.”

To hear for yourself why this isn’t the case, please access the audio recording of the session, available here.

Daniel Simpson teaches yoga philosophy at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, at Triyoga in London and online. He earned his M.A. from SOAS in Traditions of Yoga and Meditation.

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FURTHER READING

Mallinson, James. 2012. “The Original Gorakṣaśataka,” in David Gordon White (ed.), Yoga in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 257-72. PDF copy available here.