No one knows exactly when yoga was created but it’s believed to be between 5000 and 10000 years ago. The reason for this is that initial Yoga scribes were written in ancient texts and on palm leaves. These were easily damaged and lost so trying to find dates for these early scribes is very difficult. Yoga also has a secretive nature to its teachings, historically. The history of Yoga can be categorized into four historical sections, Pre-Classical Yoga, Classical Yoga, Post-Classical Yoga and Modern Yoga.
Pre-Classical Yoga represents the beginning of yoga dating back more than 5000 years ago in Northern India by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization. The word Yoga was first mentioned in the Rig Verda which, is one of a collection of sacred texts known as the Verdas. The Verdas contained rituals, songs and mantras used by the Vedic priests who were known as Brahmans. During the Pre-Classical period yoga was refined and developed and practices and beliefs were documented in the Upanishads. The Upanishads is a huge collection of work with over 200 scriptures, which took ideas from the Verdas and internalized them. This internalization taught the sacrifice of ones ego through self-knowledge, karma and wisdom.
The first presentation of yoga was called the Yoga-Sutras created by Patanjali and symbolized the Classical Yoga period. This text described the journey of Raja Yoga, otherwise known as Classical Yoga. Patanjali is considered by many as the father of Yoga and his Yoga-Sutras still influence most styles of modern yoga. Patanjali organized yoga into an eight limb path containing stages towards obtaining enlightenment.
A few centuries after Patanjali yoga practices were designed to enhance the body and prolong life. This period became known as the Post-Classical era in yoga’s history. Yoga masters rejected the teachings of the Verdas, they used the physical body as the tool to achieving enlightenment. Tantra Yoga was developed with techniques used to cleanse the body and mind, breaking the knots that trap humans in physical only existence. These body centered practices created physical and spiritual connections that led to the beginnings of Hatha Yoga.
The Modern Yoga period started in the late 1800’s when yoga masters travelled to the West and began to attract attention. In 1893 at the parliament of religions in Chicago Swami Vivekananda conducted lectures on the practice of yoga. In 1924 the first Hatha yoga school was established in Mysore in India and in 1936 the Devine Life Society was founded on the banks of the holy Ganges River. In 1947 Indra Devi opened a yoga school in Hollywood and this accelerated the importation of yoga to the West.
