Hatha Yoga Pradipika

The
Hatha
Yoga
Pradpik
(Sanskrit:
hahaygapradpik, or Light on
Hatha Yoga) is a classic Sanskrit manual on hatha yoga,
written by Svmi Svtmrma, a disciple of Swami
Gorakhnath. It is among the most inuential surviving
texts on the hatha yoga. It is also one of the three classic
texts of hatha yoga, the other two being the Gheranda
Samhita and the Shiva Samhita.[1]

from which Svtmrma borrowed most were

products of a Vedantic milieubearing testament to Vedntas newfound interest in yoga
as a complement to jnabut that many others were aiva non-dual works. Because of the
lack of importance given to the niceties of philosophy in hahayogic works, these two nondualities were able to combine happily and thus
the aiva tenets incorporated within hahayoga
survived the demise of aivism as part of what
was to become in the medieval period the dominant soteriological method in scholarly religious discourse in India.[5]

Dierent manuscripts of this work oer various versions of its title. The database of the A.C. Woolner
manuscript project at the Library of the University of
Vienna gives the following variant titles, gleaned from
dierent manuscript colophons: Hahayogapradpik,
Hahapradpik, Hahaprad, Hath-Pradipika.[2]

Birch has investigated the evolution of the meaning of

The text was written in 15th century CE.[3] The authe Sanskrit word haha, and in particular the key role of
thor, Svtmrma, incorporated older Sanskrit concepts
the Hahayogapradpik in popularizing a particular ininto his popular synthesis. The Hahayogapradpik conterpretation of this term. Birch noted,
sists of four chapters which include information about
asanas, pranayama, cakras, kundalini, bandhas, kriys,
In compiling the Hathapradpik it is clear
akti, ns and mudrs among other topics. It runs in the
that Svtmrma drew material from many
line of Hindu yoga (to distinguish from Buddhist and Jain
dierent sources on various systems of Yoga
yoga) and is dedicated to r (Lord) di nth (Adinatha),
such as Yajavalkyas and Vasisthas Ana name for Lord Shiva (the Hindu god of destruction and
gayoga, the Amanaskayogas Rjayoga, the
renewal), who is believed to have imparted the secret of
Vivekamrtaas adagayoga, dinths
haha yoga to his divine consort Prvat.
Khecarvidy, the Virpkanthas Amtasiddhi, and so on. He assembled it under the
name of Hahayoga and, judging from the vast
1 Recent research
number of manuscripts of the Hahapradpik,
its numerous commentaries, and the many references to it in late medieval Yoga texts, his
New research on the history of yoga in medieval India
Hahayoga grew in prominence and eclipsed
has added to information on the origins and meaning of
[4]
many of the former Yogas. As a label
Haha Yoga.
for the diverse Yoga of the Hahapradpik,
Mallinson, for example, examining the philosophical
Hahayoga became a generic term. However,
sources of Svtmrmas work, has noted that,
a more specic meaning of the term is seen in
the tenth- to eleventh-century Buddhist tantric
commentaries, and this meaning is conrmed
In its classical formulation as found in Svtby an examination of the adverbial uses of the
mrmas Hahapradpik, hahayoga is a aiva
word haha in the medieval Yoga texts preappropriation of an older extra-Vedic soteriodating the Hahapradpik. Rather than the
logical method. But this appropriation was not
metaphysical explanation of uniting the sun
accompanied by an imposition of aiva phi(ha) and moon (ha), it is more likely that the
losophy. In general, the texts of hahayoga
name Hahayoga was inspired by the meaning
reveal, if not a disdain for, at least an insou'force'. The descriptions of force fully movciance towards metaphysics. Yoga is a soteriing kundalin, apna, or bindu upwards through
ology that works regardless of the yogins phithe central channel suggest that the force
losophy. But the various texts that were used
of Hahayoga qualies the eects of its techto compile the Hahapradpik [...] were not
niques, rather than the eort required to percomposed in metaphysical vacua. Analysis of
form them.[6]
their allusions to doctrine shows that the texts
1

Notes

[1] Master Murugan, Chillayah (20 October 2012). Veda

Studies and Knowledge (Pengetahuan Asas Kitab Veda)".
Silambam. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
[2] University of Vienna. Svtmrma - Collected Information. A Study of the Manuscripts of the Woolner Collection, Lahore. University of Vienna. Retrieved 24 March
2014.
[3] Moti Lal Pandit (1991). Towards Transcendence: A
Historico-analytical Study of Yoga as a Method of Liberation. Intercultural. p. 205. ISBN 978-81-85574-01-1.
[4] See, e.g., the work of the members of the Modern Yoga
Research cooperative
[5] Mallinson, James (2014). Hahayogas Philosophy: A
Fortuitous Union of Non-Dualities. Journal of Indian
Philosophy. 42 (1): 225247. doi:10.1007/s10781-0139217-0.
[6] Birch, Jason (2011). The Meaning of haha in Early
Hahayoga. Journal of the American Oriental Society.
131: 527554. JSTOR 41440511.

External links
Sanskrit text and English translation of the Pancham
Sinh edition at sacred-texts.com (archive.org)
Hatha Yoga Pradipika Flash Version of the Pancham
Sinh edition from LibriPass
Akers, Brian. 2002. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika
PDF of selected pages from a new translation by
Brian Akers, from the publishers website
Ajta (raja-yoga.org), 2003 (1893-1995). Hatha
Yoga Pradipika. 89 pp. (PDF) Translation of
the original text with the Jyotsn commentary of
Brahmananda from Sanskrit in English by Srinivasa
Iyangar/Tookaram Tatya (1893) on behalf of the
Bombay Theosophical Society Publishing Fund,
Corrected by Prof. A. A. Ramanathan, Pandit S. V. Subrahmanya Sastri and Radha Burnier
(1972) of the Adyar Library and Research Center,
The Theosophical Society, Adyar, Madras 20, India. With interpretation and comments by Philippe
Ajta Barbier (1993) of The Raja Yoga Institute, Aalduikerweg 1, 1452 XJ Ilpendam, Holland.
Translation of interpretation and comments from
Dutch to English by Ben Meier (1995).
Downloadable PDF of the Pancham Sinh edition,
from brihaspati.net

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