Hibernate version:
2.1.4

Hibernate's native SQL query support doesn't seem to be supporting "native" sqls. It requires me to specify "hibernate" syntax inside my native query.

Can't I just pass a native sql like:

"SELECT a.col1, a.col2, b.col3, c.col4
from table1 a, table2 b, table3 c
where a....= b.... and b.... = c....
group by ...
order by ..."

to hibernate like:

List list = session.createSQLQuery(<above query>).list();
// list is a collection of Object[]

Can anyone help in this?

no enough info...

read the doc again, you can do this in hql too using properties and classes...

To elaborate on my question: Our native application is using a bunch of complex queries, which I want to cut & paste into Hibernate without making any changes to the query syntax. In otherwords, I don't want to translate SQL queries into Hibernate. Is it possible? If so, any guidance in this would be appreciated.

You can get the JDBC connection from the session and use the query directly through that API. Any other approach will require some modifications to you query. You will not get much benefit from Hibernate but it answers your question.

1. Is there any difference between using the JDBC Connection provided by Hibernate and getting my own Connection through JNDI? Inside a stateless session bean method, I am using Hibernate Session to do some database operations (updates). For operations that cannot be performed by Hibernate (like complex native sqls), I would mix JDBC in the code. Not sure where I am heading to? Especially I am concerned with the Hibernate 1st level cache.

2. Is it possible to wrap the JDBC returned result into Hibernate objects?

1- why don't you get jdbc connexion from hibernate session ?
You can perfectly use jdbc code.
I advise you to isolate all hibernate & jdbc code inside a DAO layer.
If you mix hibernate & jdbc inside a use case, be sure to flush & clear your hibernate before coding in jdbc.
Now if you use hibernate in one use case, and jdbc in another and you follow the best practices (threadlocal pattern + 1 session per httpRequest), you don't have to worry about the 1st level cache.
If you use second level cache, all classes mapped to tables you'll will hit in pure jdbc shouldn't be cached (i'm talking about second level cache).
2- in this case use hibernate, search for sqlQuery examples, i'm pretty sure you can use it.