Legend of Dharmanath

There is a legend how Dharmanath, the founder of Dharma-panth, appeared. This story is outlined in "Navnath bhakti-sagara", also it’s modifications can be found in other sources. For example in "Shankara-digvijaya" it is described how Matsyendranath entered the body of dead king and so on. 

Once upon a time in Prayaga there was a king Trivikram, and he died young and had no son. Everyone in the kingdom was in mourning that there would be no successor. At this moment, Gorakshanath with Matsyendranath visited Prayag. The locals told Gorakshanath their story and what happened. Gorakshanath turned to his Guru and asked: "How can we help them?". Matsyendranath was initially against helping in any way. However later, thinking about it a little he decided that if his worthy disciple Gorakshanath asked him, then so be it and he would help the inhabitants of this kingdom.

They came to the temple of Shiva and Matsyendranath asked the priest to give him a separate room in the temple, where he would enter samadhi, temporarily leaving his body. And so that no one entered the room, his body would look like a dead body for a long time, but it will not decay. The priest agreed, and Matsyendranath, concentrating, dissolved all the pranas in sushumna, and exited his body.

At that time, Trivikram’s body was already being carried to the shmashan, but everyone was shocked to see that the body began to show signs of life, and finally king became alive. Matsyendranath in the body of the king took over the governance of the kingdom, and moreover, the queen conceived a child from him. When the child was born, he was given the name Dharmanath.

Gorakshanath at that time sent a priest to look after the body of the Guru, and he himself left on a journey, during which he saved Chauranginath and other events occurred. However, when the queen visited Shiva temple, the priest told her that Matsyendranath was in the body of her deceased husband, and his very body was in the temple. The queen understood that as soon as Matsyendranath leaves her husband body and returns to his own body, her husband would die. Then she arranged everything the way that everyone in the temple left and ordered her servants to cut Matsyendranath’s the body into parts so that Matsyendranath could not come to life and leave her husband’s body. Queen's servants scattered the parts of Matsyendranath's body in the forest so that they could not be found. But, since in the past Matsyendranath subjugated Yakshinis, they gathered collected parts of his body and gave them to Parvati and Shiva Adinath on Kailash.

When Gorakshanath returned to Prayag, he learned that his Guru had been killed, he also entered samadhi and tried to find out where the parts of the Guru's body were. He saw it all and left to Kailash, on the way he was hampered by Yakshinis, but he won. Having received the parts of his Guru's body he used his knowledge of mrta-sanjivini, able to revive a corpse.

In the end, he revived his Guru, after which Matsyendranath left the body of Trivikram and the queen understood what happened. After that, she asked for forgiveness from Gorakshanath and Matsyendranath, and told Dharmanath that his father was Matsyendranath. Dharmanath then wanted to become disciple of Matsyendranath, but Matsyendranath and Gorakshanath told him that they would leave him to rule the kingdom for 12 years, and then would return for him. During this time, Dharmanath managed to conceive a son and left a successor who would rule, and when Gorakshanath, Matsyendranath, Chauranginath and Adabandanath came to Prayag, Dharmanath left the kingdom and departed with them. Together they went to Badrinath where Dharmanath practiced his sadhana and achieved yogic realization. And later he founded Dharma-panth.

There are other stories about Dharmanath, for example, there is a temple Dinodhar in Gujarat, where also was nath-yogi Dharmanath, with other legends. Someone thinks that Dharmanath actually lived in Indraprastha (present-day Delhi). Some think that they were all different characters and some believe it was the same yogi.