Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis c6.96

c6.96

Some women receive initiation. These are either married women, or those who enter the sect after the death of their husbands. In Almora, in 1924, there was one, Sarasvatī (Nāthnī), a widow whose husband had been a landlord. After his death, she was initiated into the Satnāth sub-sect at Almora. She had been on pilgrimages as far as Hiṅg Lāj. She was pūjārī at a temple of Bhāirom in her own house. On her arm was a brand mark received at Koṭeśwar, and she wore the usual beads from Hiṅg Lāj. Her cocoanut begging-bowl (darya nārial) was from Bhūj in Kacch. In her rosary of thirty-two beads she wore a tāwīz, or amulet; black stones from Badrināth; and large, white stones from Hiṅg Lāj, set in silver. Another widow, at Kāma, who had made the pilgrimage to Hiṅg Lāj, was a member of the same sect.