1878.] 
130 
G. A. Grierson— The Song of MdniJc Chandra. 
It is quite natural that the Buddhists should claim him as their saint, 
but in reality he was nothing of the sort. He was a teacher of the Saivci 
religion, and one of the reputed founders of the sect of Yogis. "Whether 
the Yogis of Bangpur are an off-shoot of the Xipali converts, or whether 
Gorakshanath and his fellows came from north-eastern Bangal, or from 
Asam, where the Tdsupata cultus , whose followers finally became Yogis , 
was established I cannot pretend to decide. I am inclined to believe in 
the former hypothesis, for they themselves have a tradition, that they came 
from the icest, having formerly been pupils of Sankaracharya, who were ex¬ 
pelled by him for indulging in spirituous liquor. Besides, they reject, to the 
present day, the authority of Brahmans, and have their own priests ; and this 
is just what would he expected from people coming from Buddhistic Xipal. 
They rose too to power under a dynasty of Palas, most of the members of 
which family were Buddhists. Be that as it may, this much however 
is certain, that at the time of Manik Chandra, the Yogis practised a 
S'aiva religion and worshipped a deified teacher of their sect, also worship¬ 
ped in Xipal, named Gorakshanath. Gorakshanath moreover, had already 
supplanted S'iva himself, and was alone worshipped by his followers. 
The poem annexed bears abundant witness to this. At every Nodus 
whether Vindice dignus or not, he is brought in as a deus ex machina ; 
Sixth in descent from Matsyendra Xath, in the time of spiritual teachers, comes 
Goraksha Xath, who, according to this, ought to have flourished in the 8th century. 
There must however he some mistake here, for it is known that Goraksha Xath was a 
contemporary of Kabir, and held a controversy with him which is extant (Gorakh 
Nath lei Goshthi, W. I. 213), and Kabir lived in the loth century. Hence, unless the 
list of teachers in the Hatha Fradipa (W. I. 214) is incorrect, Matsyendra Xath must 
have lived at a much later period than that tentatively assigned to him by Wilson. 
Another Xarendra Deva reigned in Xipal in the 12th century, and it is possible that 
it is he who introduced Matsyendra Xath, in which case the discrepancy would not be 
so outrageous. But, here another difficulty arises, we find that we must date Goraksha 
Xath’s pupils’ pupil as flourishing in the 14th century, a fact which agrees better with 
the theory of Xarendra Deva II; but then, what becomes of Kabir ? 
We have seen that Matsyendra Xath taught Fdmpata SUivism, and it is a well 
known fact that the Kdnphdtd Yogis , to which sect those who sing the MdniJc Chandra 
song belong, are the representatives at the present day of that form of religion. The 
above account in no way tallies with the tradition mentioned later on, in the text, that 
the Yogis were errant pupils of Sankaracharya, nor is such a story home out by the 
S'anJcara Yijaya. In chapter 41, Sankara successfully combats the Yoga doctrine, but 
he treats his opponents with a respect which he would never extend to backsliding 
disciples (S. Y. c. 41. Bibl. Indica, Ed. p. 198). 
That the Yogis rapidly became an important sect is evident from the numerous 
temples dedicated to Goraksha Xath, not only in Xipal but in the Panjab and Xorth 
West Provinces. We read that the Emperor Akbar consorted with them. He was ini¬ 
tiated into their learning, and, on one occasion, ate with them, at one of their festivals. 
