घेरण्ड संहिता (महर्षि घेरण्ड - सप्ताङ्ग हठयोग सटीक)

xiv INTRODUCTION
The early texts of Hatha Yoga showed no trace of
Vedanta; their doctrinal framework was Tantric. As Hatha
Yoga and its proponents, the Nathas, gained in popular-
ity and patronage, the religious orthodox, amongst whom
Vedanta had become the predominant ideology, had to sit
up and take notice. As they had done with other heterodox
movements that threatened their hegemony (e.g., renunci-
ation and vegetarianism) they claimed Hatha Yoga as their
own. This process culminated in the eighteenth century
with the compilation of several new Upanishads and the
rewriting of some older ones; these are now known collec-
tively as the Yoga Upanishads. The unknown compiler(s)
used verses from established works on Hatha Yoga to create
the texts. The Vedantic and Vaishnava leanings in this book,
combined with its use of verses from established works on
Hatha Yoga, suggest that it probably resulted from a similar
process. In the light of this, as well as the fact that errors in
the manuscript of 1802 c.e. imply an established manuscript
tradition, the absence of citations in seventeenth-century
commentaries, and the location of most of its manuscripts
in Bengal, we may hazard a guess that the Gheranda Samhita
was composed in Bengal around 1700 c.e.
The Sanskrit text presented here is based on the edition
of Swami Digambarji and Dr. M. L. Gharote, first published
at Lonavala, Maharashtra, in 1978, for which they collated
fourteen manuscripts and five printed books, including the
Adyar Library edition of 1933, which formed the foundation
of their edition. The best known edition of the text is that
of Chandra Vasu, which was first published in 1915. It was