History of Yoga: From a Millennia Ago to Today

You would certainly need to go back many millennia to find out the origins of yoga, which is an ancient practice that has been practiced in India and which signifies a union, or a way of doing things. According to whatever history of yoga is available, it is believed that it was an Indian sage named Patanjali who was the first to make a complete guide on yoga.

Yoga Sutra - The Basis of Modern Yoga

According to the early history of yoga, it is a book called Yoga Sutra that was written as many as 2000 years ago that is thought to be the basis for the yoga that is being practiced today. The Yoga Sutra contained eight limbs of yoga. In fact, yoga is know to have branched off in many directions and you can find forms of yoga that delve into meditation, or on channeling emotions and there is something to suit every person’s needs and preferences.

The trouble with studying the history of yoga is that there are many periods where the thread is broken due to the very nature of recording how yoga was practiced. Because of oral transmissions pertaining to sacred texts as well as the inherent secrecy contained in early teachings, the history of yoga from ancient times is somewhat unclear. Nevertheless, there are known to have been early recordings of yoga that date back more than 5000 years.

Four Periods

There is no doubting the fact that the history of yoga is rich, and it has four main periods in which it has developed as well as innovated. The earliest known beginnings of yoga can be traced to the Pre-Classical Period that goes back more than 5000 years. Then is the Classical Period when yoga was systemized and was written down in ancient India about the time of the second century, and this is when the noted sage named Patanjali organized yoga practice into the “eight limbed path.”

The history of yoga progressed further into the Post-Classical Period and this came about a few hundred years after Patanjali, and it was a time when the masters of yoga created many different practices that were meant to rejuvenate the body as well help a person to live longer. In fact, this was a time when the teachings of the sages that preceded them were rejected and the physical body became the focus of attention in order to gain enlightenment.

Yoga as we know it today is that part of the history of yoga that is referred to as the Modern Period and dates to about the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. This was a time when the masters of yoga could travel to distant places including the Western world and taught this form of exercise to distant audiences. The early 20th century saw a transformation in the history of yoga when hatha yoga began to find prominence in India and it was embodied most noticeably in the works of T. Krishnamacharya. It then saw another change with the opening of the yoga studio in Hollywood in 1947 by a woman named Indra Devi and the story goes on to where we see yoga today.