Goraksha Shataka

The Goraksha Shataka (“Goraksha’s Hundred”), attributed to the Nath master Gorakhnath, is among the earliest manuals of hatha yoga — the compact bridge between the tantric kula practice and the systematized yogic body of the later texts.

Content

In roughly a hundred verses (recensions vary), the text teaches the prerequisites of practice, the six cleansing actions (shatkarma), the pranayamas and their signs of success, the locks (bandha) and the arousal of kundalini through the nadis, and the Nada-yoga of inner sound — all framed in the Nath metaphysics of Shiva-Shakti union within the body. The closely related Goraksha Paddhati is a longer redaction of the same material.

Significance

The Goraksha Shataka is a primary witness to hatha yoga’s formation: its techniques pass into the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which quotes the Nath tradition throughout. For the history of the body in Indian religion it is the crucial early document.

Verification notes

• Attribution is traditional; recensions (Goraksha Shataka proper, Goraksha Paddhati) complicate the text history, with scholarly dating to the 11th–13th centuries.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).