DEB
369
There are strong grounds for believing that Gorakh Nath lived in the middle or towards the end of the fourteenth century A.D. And if the lists of reigning Mahants are correct, which there is no reason to doubt, they confirm this view. From Ratan Nath to the present day twenty Mahants have filled the Patau throne, and two steps back carry us to Gorakh Nath. Assuming that Gorakh Nath died 480 years ago, this would give something under 22 years for each reign, which is a most reasonable average, as age is by no means a requisite qualification for election, the present occupant, for instance, being quite a young man. Gorakh Nd,th was the prophet of Joginism, or the complete suspension of life and many of his successors at Patau have been celebrated for their feats in this difficult art. Like all his disciples, the present priests especially worship Bhairava, the incarnation of the highest world life, " the flame in the fire ;" draw a horizontal line of ashes on their foreheads, and wear great earrings, round like the sun, from which they get their distinctive name of Kanphata Jogis, S
the earsplit devotees.
even
buffaloes, fowls
They
are not very strict in their asceticism, eating spirits, and their profitable perhaps not dearly purchased by total abstinence
and swine, and drinking
reputation for sanctity is from beef and matrimony.
That the red sandstone temple, whose fragments are built into the edifice, dates from the period of Gorakh Nath is proved by the occurrence of the name of Gorakh Nath in a Nagri inscription on the doorway, and by the numerous fragments of statues of Bhairava which are found all over the place. As far as can be judged from the remains, this temple must have been of considerable importance, adorned by profuse sculpture, and full of stone images of various forms of Shiva and Debi.
modem
For some centuries it flourished as a resort of great numbers of pilgrims, from Gorakhpur and Naipal, and its importance was sufficient to attract the attention of the great iconoclast. An officer of Aurangzeb slew its priests, broke the images, and defiled its holy places. chiefly
Two Chhattris, Sumer Dhar and Mdlchand, avenged the desecration by m.urdering the Muhammadan in his tent by night, and in the scuffle which ensued, fell martyrs to their cause. Their victim is said to be buried under the mound known as the Surbir, and numerous pigs are sacrificed there in derision of his memory but it is probable that the name Surbir refers to Shiva, and the connection with suar, a pig, is nothing more than a happy pun.
It was not long before the temple rose a fourth time from its ruins, under the protection of the neighbouring rajas of Tulsipur, and it was not probably till after Aurangzeb's time that the place acquired any com-
mercial importance. All traditions agree in saying that till quite lately the whole pargana was a vast forest the very name Tulsipur is not more than 200 years old, and the old name D£man-i-koh is a mere Persian Trade could not have commenced till the forest representation of Tarai. had been cleared, and this is ascribed to the rajas of Tulsipur, themselves a mountain race, who were not above 100 years settled in the plains. It will be seen that the tradition has four distinctly marked periods. The first, that of Raja Kama, the inveterate enemy of Krishna and the P^ndavas,
AA
