A Brief History of Yoga

 When you hear the word ‘yoga,’ chances are that an image of people twisting in one presumably painful yoga posture after another might pop up in your head. Yes, postures or asanas are an important part of the teachings of yogic philosophy and yogic practice, but they aren’t all that there is to it. So, how well do you really know yoga? The world celebrates International Day of Yoga every year in June, so let’s unravel the mysteries surrounding this system of techniques from ancient India.

In the hierarchy of ancient vedas from Indian philosophy, there are four vedas developed by yoga gurus- Rigveda, Samveda, Yajurveda and Atharvaveda. These are followed by four upvedas or sub-vedas – Ayurveda, Arthaveda, Dhanurveda, and Gandharvaveda. Further down the line are six upangas or components – Shiksha, Kalpa, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Chandas, and Jyotisha. These are further classified into six sub-components – Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Sankhya, Mimansa, Vedanta, and Yoga.

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj, which means union of the individual yoga practitioners and universal consciousness. The Rigveda is one of the oldest and most sacred books in human history, having been written 8-10 thousand years ago. Classical yoga is a part of this Vedic literature and was propounded by Maharishi Patanjali nearly 5000 years ago. In Patanjali’s yoga sutras, he elucidated eight limbs of yoga practice, namely -  Yama (social ethics), Niyama (personal ethics), Asana (postures), Pranayama (life force), Pratyahara (turning the senses inwards), Dharana (one-pointed focus), Dhyana (meditation), and Samadhi (merging with the self).