Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Adinatha
हठयोगप्रदीपिका
Where the text names Shiv, and what it does not say
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika opens by saluting Adinatha, a name for Shiv, as the one who taught hatha yoga, and names him again as the teacher of the mudras and of countless methods of absorption. This page lists each place the text says so, from the full 1914 translation, and separates that from the popular Adi Yogi story, which the text does not contain.
The text
The Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a manual of hatha yoga in four chapters: asanas, pranayama, mudras and samadhi. Its author, Swatmarama, names himself in the opening verses. The 1914 translation's modern editor describes it as written about the 15th century CE by a disciple of Goraknath and as possibly the oldest extant text on hatha yoga. Those are the editor's statements, not a date this site has checked. The translation used here is Pancham Sinh's (Panini Office, Allahabad, 1914), which is in the public domain.
The opening verse
Verse 1 of chapter 1, in Pancham Sinh's rendering: "Salutation to Adinatha (Shiva) who expounded the knowledge of Hatha Yoga, which like a staircase leads the aspirant to the high pinnacled Raja Yoga." The parenthesis naming Shiva is the translator's. Verse 2 then salutes Swatmarama's own guru, Srinatha, and says hatha yoga is taught only for the sake of raja yoga.
The line of siddhas
Verses 4 to 8 of chapter 1 say Matsyendra, Goraksha and others knew hatha vidya and that Swatmarama learned it by their favour. They then list the Siddhas "said to have existed in former times", with Adinatha first: Matsyendra, Shavarananda, Bhairava, Chaurangi, Minanatha, Goraksha, Virupaksha, Bileshaya, Manthana, Bhairava again, Siddhi, Buddha, Kanthadi, Korantaka, Surananda, Siddhapada, Charpati, Kaneri, Pujyapada, Nityanatha, Niranjana, Kapali, Bindunatha, Kakachandishvara, Allama, Prabhudeva, Ghoda, Choli, Tintini, Bhanuki, Naradeva and Khanda Kapalika. Verse 9 says these mahasiddhas, by the power of hatha yoga, break the rod of death and roam the universe. Spellings differ between editions, and the translator's own rendering of the names varies. Bhairava appears twice in the list. The text says nothing more about him.
Every place the text names Shiv as teacher
Chapter 1, verse 35: Shiva taught eighty-four asanas, of which the author says he will explain four he calls essential. Chapter 1, verse 60: moderate eating is food eaten with the offering of it to Shiva. Chapter 3, verses 7 to 8: the ten mudras, said to destroy old age and death, were explained by Adinatha and are loved by all the Siddhas. Chapter 3, verse 128 repeats that they were taught by Adinatha, here called Shambhu, and verse 129 says the one who teaches them as handed down from teacher to teacher should be regarded as the Lord in human form. Chapter 4, verse 1: salutation to Shiva as guru, appearing as nada, bindu and kala. Chapter 4, verse 66: Adinatha taught one and a quarter crore methods of laya, or absorption, all still existing, of which the author names listening to the inner sound as the chief. Chapter 4, verse 46: the khechari mudra is beloved of Shiva. Chapter 4, verse 48: the seat of Shiva is between the eyebrows, where the mind dissolves.
What the text does not say
The popular story of Shiv as the Adi Yogi teaching yoga to seven sages does not appear in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika. The text says only that Shiv, as Adinatha, expounded hatha yoga and the mudras. It does not name the seven sages, and it gives no account of when or where he taught. A word search of all three volumes of the Shiva Purana translation used for this site finds the seven sages only in the episodes where Shiv sends them to test Parvati and arrange her marriage, and in the Purana's cosmology and genealogy. It does not find them as students of yoga. The Purana's own yoga transmission runs through the twenty-eight Yogacharya avataras, ending in Lakulisha.
A note on practice
This page is about what the text says of Shiv, not a guide to the practices. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika itself says the knowledge should be kept secret and taught by a teacher, and the 1914 translator's introduction says a practising teacher is essential. This site gives no instructions for any practice in it.
Read the source chapters
Source note
Read in full from Pancham Sinh's 1914 translation of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Panini Office, Allahabad), in the public-domain edition scanned at sacred-texts.com with the Sanskrit alongside. All verse numbers follow that edition; its editor warns that the versification does not match the printed Sanskrit exactly, especially in chapter 3, so verse numbers may differ from other editions. Only the passages naming Shiv were studied for this page. The Akers translation (YogaVidya, 2002) was not consulted.