History Of Yoga In India
The book proceeds chronologically and to examine the early roots of yoga you have no choice but to delve into the history of ancient india and get to grips with a very different society that had.
History of yoga in india. In the atharva veda again dating to 1200 1000 bc there is a mention of the importance of the control of breath it is difficult to pinpoint exact dates because in the beginning the vedas were only orally passed on from one generation to. Hatha yoga the most popular tradition of yoga was developed during 600 to 1500 ad. Outside india it has developed into a posture based physical fitness stress relief and relaxation technique.
The history of yoga is complex but here s a quick summary. Yoga began within a subset of larger religious and spiritual traditions. Yoga gurus from india later introduced yoga to the west following the success of swami vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century with his adaptation of yoga tradition excluding asanas.
The history of yoga is based in the indus valley civilization. The practice and goal of yoga dates back to the upanishads written between 1000 5000 bc. Its existence has been noted in oldest form of literature s like the vedas upanishads panin buddhist literature puranas etc in our indian yogic culture the first guru or rather the adi guru is considered to be lord shiva.
Yoga is an ancient path to spiritual growth and originates out of india where induism is practiced. Hatha yoga focuses on strengthening and purification of body mind. Traces of yogic practice started appearing around 5000 years ago in india.
The history of yoga in india is very long. The science of yoga has its origin thousands of years ago long before the first religions or belief systems were born. Surprisingly the practice of yoga was widely promoted by powerful families institutions and activities until india attained its independence in 1947.
We can track its development in several key hindu and buddhist scriptures and stories. Harmony of body and mind is the main objective and is achieved by practice of asanas cleansing pranayama mudras bandhas. Hatha yoga was founded by sage matsyendranath and gorakhnath.
Yoga s history has many places of obscurity and uncertainty due to its oral transmission of sacred texts and the secretive nature of its teachings. Yoga later became widely valued because of the indian nationalist movement as a way of building up pride and cultural identity. A brief history and development of yoga.
