Yoga

Lore & Background

Yoga may have pre-Vedic origins, but it is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin and drew from a common body of practices, including Vedic elements. Yoga-like practices are mentioned in the Rigveda and some early Upanishads, but systematic yoga concepts emerged during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the classical text on Hindu yoga, samkhya-based but influenced by Buddhism, dates to the early centuries of the Common Era. Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the ninth and 11th centuries, originating in Tantra.

Reader's Guide

Yoga's significance lies in its long history as a diverse set of practices aimed at controlling body and mind to attain liberation, as understood in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions. The term 'yoga' has a wide range of meanings, from disciplined meditation to techniques for supernatural accomplishments, though scholars note its core principles were largely in place by the 5th century CE. In the modern era, much of the yoga practiced in the Western world is a syncretised form consisting largely of asanas derived from hatha yoga and Western physical culture, differing from traditional yoga's focus on meditation and release from worldly attachments. It was introduced by gurus from India after the success of Swami Vivekananda's adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Vivekananda introduced the Yoga Sutras to the West, and they became prominent after the 20th-century success of hatha yoga. The legacy of yoga continues as a global phenomenon, with its definitions and practices remaining complex and debated among scholars.

Did You Know?

• The Sanskrit noun 'yoga' is derived from the root yuj, meaning 'to attach, join, harness, yoke'.
• Yoga is a cognate of the English word 'yoke', both derived from the same Indo-European root.
• The first use of the root of the word 'yoga' is in hymn 5.81.1 of the Rigveda.
• A person who practices yoga is called a yogi; a female yogi may also be known as a yogini.