How Yoga Came to Be: Unraveling its Ancient Roots.
- Michelle GN
- Apr 21, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: May 12, 2024
If you're here, odds are you've either hit up a few yoga sessions or you're mulling over the idea. But in the midst of downward dogs and warrior poses, you might be wondering: what exactly is yoga, and where did it come from?
Well, let's start at the very beginning - the roots. Yoga is one of the six major orthodox schools of Indian philosophy [1], with a history that stretches way back. Picture this: we're talking about the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, also known as the Harappan Civilization [2], spanning parts of present-day Pakistan, northeast Afghanistan, and northwestern India between 3000 and 500 B.C.E. [3].
Back then, the Vedic religion was wide spread among the Indo-Aryan folks. They had rituals, hymns, and traditions galore, all bundled up in scriptures called The Vedas - a hefty collection of religious texts written in Vedic Sanskrit. The word "yoga" even makes its debut in the Rig Vedas, the oldest known Vedic text and one of Hinduism's four sacred canonical texts.
Fast forward a bit to around 700 to 400 B.C.E., the Upanishads step onto the scene. In one of these texts, the Taittiriya Upanishad, yoga is mentioned, and makes reference to taming the senses and mastering your mind [4].
By 500 B.C.E., the Vedic era was winding down, making way for what scholars call the second urbanization phase from 800 BCE to 200 BCE. It was like a cultural explosion, with Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism making their debut. Big names like Mahavira and Gautama Buddha were leading the way, exploring spiritual liberation alongside, but separate from, the Vedic religion [6]. Ideas like Karma, Samsaras (the cycle of death and rebirth), and Mokshas (escaping that cycle) started popping up, believed to have roots in the Śramaṇa tradition [7]. Though there is still debate among scholars, most agree that the Śramaṇa traditions influenced and where influenced by the Vedic religion.
What's cool is that yoga grew up amidst this vibrant mix of cultural traditions - Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism - all tracing their roots back to the same source. Each with its own unique sets of holy texts, teachings, and distinct philosophies, but they share common spiritual principles, theories, and practices.
As time marched on, yoga was firmly stablished during the Classical Ages, roughly from 400 BCE to 400 CE. This era saw epic tales like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, alongside the compilation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. These texts, along with the Bhagavad Gita tucked inside the Mahabharata, are the holy grails of modern yoga understanding [2].
In our next chat, we'll dive deep into yoga as laid out in the Bhagavad Gita and its relationship to Patanjali's Ashtanga yoga. And hold onto your yoga mats, because we've got more to come - we'll explore Tantra, the evolution of Asanas and the subtle body through Hatha Yoga, and even how yoga took a road trip to the West. Exciting stuff ahead!
[1] Light on Yoga, B. K. S. Iyengar, 1977
[2] The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West is a cultural history of yoga by Alistair Shearer, published by Hurst in 2020.
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