Amritasiddhi

A folio from a medieval copy of the Amṛtasiddhi. The text is tripartite, the first line in Sanskrit, the second a transliteration into Tibetan dbu can letters, and the third a translation into Tibetan dbu med letters.

Amṛtasiddhi ("Perfection of Immortal Nectar"). The earliest known text on Hatha Yoga. It was probably composed somewhere in India by the late 11th century CE.

Ian Baker states:

The first Vajrayana Buddhist text to describe specific Hatha Yoga methods is the Amṛtasiddhi or "Perfection of Immortal Nectar" which, despite its Saivite overtones was transmitted in Tibet from the 12th century onwards. The Amṛtasiddhi is widely held to be the source of the Indian Hatha Yoga tradition and makes the first known reference to the yoga techniques of Mahamudra, Mahabandha, and Mahavedha. Within the context of the Amṛtasiddhi, these yogic locks were used for drawing vital energies into the body's central channel and controlling their upwards and downward flow. Described as a "Magical Wheel of [yoga movements for realizing] Immortality", the yoga exercises of the Amṛtasiddhi were transmitted within Tibet's Shangpa Kagyu lineage from the time of Nyenten Chokyi Sherab, who had repeatedly learned them from an Indian master. In the Amṛtasiddhi, the practitioner imaginatively transforms into the Hindu deity Shiva, who is often presented within Vajayana as having been converted into a Buddha by the Buddha Vajrapani. Within the Trika Shaivism of Kashmir, Shiva is synonymous with pure consciousness and non-dual awareness.

Sources

• Baker, Ian (2019), Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices, Inner Traditions 
• Mallinson, James; Szántó, Péter-Dániel (2021), The Amṛtasiddhi and Amṛtasiddhimūla: the Earliest Texts of the Haṭhayoga Tradition, Pondicherry: Institut français de Pondichéry, école française d'extrême-orient, ISBN 978-81-8470-242-2 
• Szántó, Péter-Dániel (15 September 2016), A Brief Introduction to the Amrtasiddhi (PDF), SOAS, retrieved 2 February 2019