Hindi Sahitya Sammelan’s Gorakhbani

Abstract

Hindi Sahitya Sammelan is dedicated to the promotion of Hindi language, literature and Devanagari. Hindi Sahitya Sammelan was the first to launch the scheme of awards etc. on the works of Hindi writers to encourage them. His Mangalaprasad Award, started in 1910, has considerable prestige in the Hindi world. The conference also encouraged women writers. For this he started Seksaria Mahila Purotshik. It cannot be denied that the disappearance of Avasiluk and Kafirbodh from twentieth century Hindi literature has left an indelible mark on our modern understanding of the Nath sect. The erasure of these teachings has created a much less diverse portrayal of the community in the modern imagination of India and has served to further saffronize our understanding of the sect. It has also significantly reduced the complex historical background that the literary evidence supports. And yet, we are still unsure how both of these teachings came to be lost. Under this study, the importance of Avalisiluk and Kafirbodh as well as Gorkhabani has been discussed in Hindi literary history. The study has much to teach us about the pre-modern Nath sect. These unique codes reflect how different communities of Nath yogis viewed their identity, the many ways in which they interacted with early-modern Muslims, and how they wished to present themselves publicly to others.