Yoga  is a group of ancient spiritual practices originating in India. As a general term in Hinduism, Gavin Flood, the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Academic Director, defines it as referring to "technologies or disciplines of asceticism and meditation which are thought to lead to spiritual experience and profound understanding or insight into the nature of existence." Outside India, Yoga has become primarily associated with the practice of asanas (postures) of Hatha Yoga, although it has influenced the entire dharmic religions family and other spiritual practices throughout the world.

Hindu texts discussing different aspects of yoga include the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and many others.

Major branches of Yoga include: Hatha Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Raja Yoga. Raja Yoga, known simply as Yoga in the context of Hindu philosophy, is one of the six orthodox schools of thought, established by the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The History of Yoga spans from four to eight thousand years ago to the current day. From hints of its practice in the Indus Valley civilization (c. 3000 BC), the Vedic civilization (c. 1500 BC), [1] the first elucidations and detailed elaborations in Hindu texts, absorption into Buddhist and Jain philosophies, up to its modern suffusion into secular life, its applicability has stood the test of time.


Seal from the Indus Valley Civilization, showing a figure in meditation posture Older findings are some to show that "yoga" existed in some form well before the establishment of Vedas in the Indian subcontinent. As such, the history of yoga may go back to eight thousand years, depending on the perspective of the historian, and interpretation of the Mohenjo-daro seals. 5,000 year old carvings from the Indus Valley Civilization depict a figure that some archeologists believe represents a yogi sitting in meditation posture. The figure is shown sitting in a traditional cross-legged yoga pose with its hands resting on its knees. The seal’s discoverer, archeologist Sir John Marshall, named the figure Shiva Pashupati.

Yoga was first clearly expounded in the Vedic Shasta (Hindu religious texts). Those that estimate Yoga's age to be four thousand years see the history of Yoga from this point.

David Frawley, a Vedic scholar, writes: "Yoga can be traced back to the Rig Veda itself, the oldest Hindu text which speaks about yoking our mind and insight to the Sun of Truth. Great teachers of early Yoga include the names of many famous Vedic sages like Vasishta, Yajnavalkya, and Jaigishavya."

Ideas of uniting mind, body and soul in the cosmic one, however, do not find real yogic explication until the most important texts of Hinduism, the Upanishads or Vedanta, commentaries on the Vedas.

In the West, hatha yoga has become wildly popular as a purely physical exercise regimen divorced of its original purpose. Currently, it is estimated that about 30 million Americans practice hatha yoga. But in the Indian subcontinent the traditional practice is still to be found. The guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship that exists without need for sanction from non-religious educational institutions, and which gave rise to all the great yogins and yogis who made way into international consciousness in the 20th century, has been maintained in India, Nepal and Tibet.

In India, whose Hindu population combines to a staggering 800 million, Yoga is a daily part of life. It is common to see people performing Sūrya namaskāra (a yogic set of asanas and pranayam dedicated to Surya, the Sun) in the morning or body therapy based on Yoga or the medicine system of Ayurveda. The age-old tradition of Yoga has continued uninterrupted by its popularity in the west (although more established schools like the Bihar School of Yoga work from within India to produce Yoga texts to send abroad).

In addition, hundreds and thousands of sannyasins (renunciates) and sadhus (monks) wander in and out of city temples, village country sides and are to be found smattered all across the foothills of the Himalaya and the Vindhya Range of central India. For India's holy-men, Yoga is as fundamental as life and blood. To see a man meditating at the steps of a temple, or even wondering contemplatively on the roadside, is not uncommon even to the more Westernized crowds. It is same in Tibet, where Buddhist lifestyle is permeated with the Yoga or yogic practices, which is ultimately not a once-a-day routine, but a constant immersion in self-discovery.