sparaig: > The oldest detailed description of siddhis I can find > is Krishna describing them to Uddhava in the Uddhava > Gita, which apparently dates at least to 1000 BCE. > 1000 BC would be pre-buddistic, therefore non-historical.
The Uddhava Gita came later, after the historical Buddha, after the formation of the Bhakti sects, during the Indian Gupta Age. "An Outline of Indian Literature" by J.N. Farquhar Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi Probably the oldest fakir tradition in India is the cult of Dattatreya: "It was Gorakshanath who changed removed the aghori traditions and made the Nath sampradaya in the acceptable civil form of today. Dattatreya must have been a very powerful sage existing before this time and over the centuries sometime he was defined to the form of Dattatreya. The three heads have come definitely later in the last 900 years or so..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dattatreya
