How have the premodern Shaiva ascetic sect of the N?th Yog?s (known also as the Yog?s with splitted ears) succeeded in maintaining its presence and importance until today? This book intends to give a general survey of this samprad?ya which is said to have been founded by the Siddha Gorakhn?th, known for his strong link to Ha?ha Yoga. However, rather than to Yoga, the history and expansion of the N?th sect are linked to its rich legendary corpus. Dealing first with the marks of belonging (such as the huge earrings worn by the fully initiated Yog?s) which give the sect its unity, the book then focuses on its organization and explores the dialectics between the wandering Yog?s and the monastic settlements.

The N?th monasteries belong to two categories: the pañc?yati ma?hs, collectively owned and managed by the sectarian authorities, which ensure the permanency of the sect, and the n?j? ma?hs, owned on a personal basis and transmitted from guru to disciple, which permits innovative initiatives

The book gives a detailed account of two pañc?yati monasteries, the Kadri Ma?h of Mangalore where its head's enthronement is spectacularly performed every twelve years, and the Caughera Ma?h of Dang Valley in Nepal, the royal foundation of which gives a glimpse of the complex relationships that can exist between monasteries and kingdoms. It then focuses on three n?j? ma?hs: Amritashram in Fatehpur (Rajasthan), Ashtal Bohar in Rohtak (Haryana) and the Gorakhpur mandir (UP). Each of them shows a different mode of adaptation to a modern context and attests of the present importance and continuity of this pluri-secular tradition of asceticism.