Who Invented Yoga In India? Read Its Origin


By Jasreet Kaur21, Jun 2024 08:00 AMjagranjosh.com

Who Invented Yoga?

Yoga began in ancient India and has been practiced for thousands of years. Yoga has many health benefits. Tap to read who invented yoga in India.

Pre-Vedic Period

Yoga-like practices before the Vedas are suggested by artefacts from the Indus Valley Civilization, indicating meditation and postures that would have dated to about 3000 BCE.

Vedic Period

The Rigveda has yoga references only in a religious sense where it is described as a sacrifice that aims at divine harmony between 1500-500 BCE.

Upanishads

Upanishads introduced meditation, breath control and sense withdrawal as spiritual disciplines for enlightenment, thereby giving an intellectual turn to yoga around 800-400 BCE.

Bhagavad Gita

It describes different paths of yoga including devotion, action and knowledge as gateways towards self-realisation and attaining union with God; composed around 500-200 BCE.

Classical Period – Patanjali

Patanjali’s Sage systemised Yoga in his work on Yoga Sutras detailing the Eight Limbs of Yoga around 200 CE.

Modern Period

Even though yoga was practiced before the Vedic era, the great Sage Maharshi Patanjali used his Yoga Sutras to standardise and codify the forms.

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