Editing Yogi (section)

====Persecution====
In some contexts, adds White, the term ''yogi'' has also been a pejorative term used in medieval India for a Nath siddha, particularly on the part of India's social, cultural and religious elites.{{sfn|White|2012|p=8-9}} The term ''siddha'' has become a broad sectarian appellation, applying to Saiva-devotees in the [[Deccan Plateau|Deccan]] (''[[Maheśvara]] siddhas''), alchemists in Tamil Nadu ([[Siddhar|''siddhars'' or ''sittars'']]), a group of early Buddhist [[Tantra|tantrikas]] from Bengal (''[[mahasiddha]]s'', ''siddhacaryas''), the alchemists of medieval India (''rasa siddha''), and a mainly north Indian group known as the ''Nath siddhas''.{{sfn|White|2012|p=2}} The Nath siddhas are the only still existing representatives of the medieval Tantric tradition, which had disappeared due to its excesses.{{sfn|White|2012|p=7}} While the Nath siddhas enjoyed persistent popular success, they attracted the scorn of the elite classes.{{sfn|White|2012|p=7}}

[[File:17th century Hindu female Nath yogi painting.jpg|thumb|upright|17th century Hindu female Nath yogis. The earliest records mentioning female Nath yogis (or yogini) trace to 11th century.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Alf Hiltebeitel|author2=Kathleen M. Erndl|title=Is the Goddess a Feminist?: The Politics of South Asian Goddesses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQJzTr4c-g4C |year=2000|publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-3619-7 |pages=40–41 }}</ref>]]
According to White, the term ''yogi'', has "for at least eight hundred years, been an all-purpose term employed to designate those Saiva specialists whom orthodox Hindus have considered suspect, heterodox, and even heretical in their doctrine and practice".{{sfn|White|2012|p=8}} The yoga as practiced by these Yogis, states White, is more closely identified in the eyes of those critics with black magic, sorcery and sexual perversions than with yoga in the conventional sense of the word.{{sfn|White|2012|p=9}}

The Nath Yogis were targets of Islamic persecution in the [[Mughal Empire]].  The texts of Yogi traditions from this period, state Shail Mayaram, refer to oppressions by Mughal officials such as governor. The Mughal documents confirm the existence of Nath Yogis in each ''pargana'' (household neighborhoods), and their persecution wherein Nath Yogis were beheaded by [[Aurangzeb]].<ref>Shail Mayaram (2003), ''Against History, Against State'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231127301}}, pp. 40–41, 39</ref>