TheAmaraugha and theAmaraugha Prabodha (Sanskrit: अमरौघ, अमरौघप्रबोध) are recensions of a 12th centurySanskrit text onhaṭha yoga, attributed toGorakṣanātha. TheAmaraugha Prabodha is the later recension, with the addition of verses from other texts and assorted other materials. The text's physical practices imply aBuddhist origin for haṭha yoga.^[2]

TheAmaraugha is a 12th centuryŚaiviteSanskrit text onhaṭha yoga, attributed toGorakshanath.^[4] It was most likely written by someone in asiddha lineage who held the belief that the teaching of the four yogas stemmed from Gorakshanath.^[5] It was composed in South India, probably atKadri, Mangalore inKarnataka, since the text invokes the sage Siddhabuddha of Kadri, a disciple of the Buddhist and Hindu saint and yogiMatsyendranātha. The text's Shaivite point of view is demonstrated by mentions of the godŚiva, also named Śambhu, and theŚivaliṅga.^[2]

Jason Birch comments that theAmaraugha seems to have modified aBuddhist method to create a technique "for movingkuṇḍalinī and attaining a Śaiva form of Rājayoga."^[2] If it was indeed written at Kadri, just at the time when Buddhist groups were switching to Śaivism, he writes, then the text captures the moment that both haṭha and rāja yoga take shape as Śaiva and Vajrayāna siddha traditions collide. In the process, the physical technique has survived basically unchanged, whereas the theory underlying it within esoteric Buddhism was dropped. This left early haṭha and rāja yoga rather simple in doctrine, unlike Buddhism.^[2]

TheAmaraugha is closely related to the 11th centuryAmritasiddhi, aVajrayana tantric Buddhist work, describing the same physical yoga practices, but adding Shaivite philosophy, subsuming haṭha yoga underrāja yoga, and reducing the use of Vajrayana terms.^[6] TheAmaraugha is the earliest text that combines haṭha yoga with rāja yoga.^[6] Birch considers it likely that rather than being based on the doctrinally more complexAmritasiddhi, and for some reason cutting down on the theory it provides, both works may derive from some earlier source.^[6][7]

TheAmaraugha was used bySvātmārāma when he wrote the 15th centuryHaṭha Yoga Pradipika.^[6][8] Svātmārāma borrowed twenty-two and a half verses from theAmaraugha, constituting almost everything it has to say about haṭha yoga. He supplemented these old practices with many additional practices including yoga postures orasanas, the six purifications orshatkarmas, the eight retentions of the breath orkumbhakas, and ten body seals orbandhas.^[9]

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  Relationship ofAmaraugha to other earlyhaṭha yoga texts^[10]

The text of theAmaraugha defineshaṭha yoga as the type ofyoga—as distinct fromlaya yoga,mantra yoga, andrāja yoga—which manipulates the breath and thebindu.^[11][12] Birch notes that much of the content is shared between the two recensions,Amaraugha andAmaraughaprabodha, but that the latter adds an assortment of materials including verses from other texts.^[13]

Verse 3 defines Rājayoga in terms reminiscent of the definition of yoga in Patanjali'sYoga Sutras.^[14]

The method of reaching the state of meditative absorption,samādhi, is essentially by retaining the generative fluid,semen- orbindu. Among early Shaivite haṭha yoga texts, celibacy and the semen-preserving practice ofVajroli mudra are described only in theShiva Samhita; its practice is omitted from theAmaraugha, theYogabīja, and theYogatārāvalī.^[15] TheAmaraugha says thatVajroli is attained, presumably with samādhi, when the mind has become pure and thesushumna nadi, the central channel of thesubtle body, has been unblocked to allow breath to flow freely.^[15] TheVivekamārtaṇḍa and theGorakṣaśataka, both of which describe haṭha yoga techniques in detail, do not mentionVajroli mudra.^[15]

Birch comments that theAmaraugha's haṭha yoga indicates a change from the older view that its method consisted of forcing generative fluids upwards, to gettingkuṇḍalinī to move.^[16]James Mallinson andMark Singleton note that the two models are not just different but incompatible, something that does not prevent theHaṭha Yoga Pradīpikā from including accounts of both of them.^[11]13th or 14th century texts influenced by theAmaraugha, including theYogabīja, theYogatārāvalī, and theGorakṣaśataka, take the kuṇḍalinī model further.^[16]

• Birch, Jason (2019)."The Amaraughaprabodha: New Evidence on the Manuscript Transmission of an Early Work on Haṭha- and Rājayoga".Journal of Indian Philosophy.47 (5):947–977.
• Birch, Jason (2024).The Amaraugha and Amaraughaprabodha of Gorakṣanātha: The Genesis of Haṭha and Rājayoga.Institut Français de Pondichéry;École Française d'Extrême-Orient.ISBN 978-81-8470-250-7.
• Mallinson, James;Singleton, Mark (2017).Roots of Yoga.Penguin Books.ISBN 978-0-241-25304-5.OCLC 928480104.

• 12th-century books
• Sanskrit books
• Hatha yoga texts

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata