History of Yoga
Prof - Deptt of Jain Philosophy
Shri Lalbahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University
New Delhi 110016
Yoga has a long history. It is an integral subjective science. The origins of yoga are a matter of debate.[1] There is no consensus on its chronology or specific origin other than that yoga developed in ancient India. Suggested origins are the Indus Valley Civilization (3300–1900 BCE)[2] and pre-Vedic Eastern states of India[3] the Vedic period (1500–500 BCE), and the śramaṇa movement.[4]According to Gavin Flood, continuities may exist between those various traditions.This dichotomization is too simplistic, for continuities can undoubtedly be found between renunciation and vedic Brahmanism, while elements from non-Brahmanical, Sramana(Jain) traditions also played an important part in the formation of the renunciate ideal.[5]
The
very earliest indication of the existence of some form of Yoga practices in
India comes from the Harappan culture which can be dated at least as far back
as 3000 B.C. A number of excavated seals show a figure seated in a Yoga
position that has been used by the Indian Yogis for meditation till the present
day. One of the depicted figures bears signs of divinity worshipped as the Lord
of Yoga. The
importance of these findings goes a long way towards certifying the pre-Aryan,
pre-Vedic inroads of Jainism across Asia. Professor A Chakravarti has suggested
that the Harappa and Mohenjodaro figures of the Yogi and the bull indicate a
connection with the very first Tirthankara, Rishabha, and a “cult of ahimsa”
which was the faith of those residents of theearly Indus-Valley.”[6] It
has been theorised that the images from Mohenjodaro of the naked yogis reflect
a pattern that would be repeated later on in Jain sculpture.[7]
Richard Lannoy writes[8]-
“Another familial motif is that of a nude main represented as a repeat motif in
rigidly upright posture, his legs slightly apart, arms held parallel with the
sides of his body, which recurs later as the Jain Tirthankara, repeated row
upon row. The hieratic style favoured by that religious community… its rigid
conformism, and its utilitarian outlook, so resemble the Harappan culture that
it appears more than likely that the prehistoric traits were handed down over
many centuries.”
At
the time of excavations at Mohenjadaro, Stuart Piggot wrote: "There can be
little doubt that we have the prototype of the great god Shiva as the Lord of
the Beast (Pashupati) and prince of Yogis.[9] The
origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, it
is mentioned in the Rigveda[10] but
most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient
India's ascetic and śramaṇa(Jain and Buddha)movements.[11] The
chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly
credited to Hindu Upanishads[12]and
Buddhist Pāli Canon,[13]probably
of third century BCE or later.[14]
[1]Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to
Hinduism, Cambridge University Press,Pp87-90
[2]Crangle, Edward Fitzpatrick (1994), The
Origin and Development of Early Indian Contemplative Practices, Otto
Harrassowitz Verlag,Pp-6-7
[3]Zimmer, Heinrich (1951), Philosophies
of India,
New York, New York: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-01758-1Bollingen
Series XXVI; Edited by Joseph Cambell.Pp 217,314
[4]Samuel, Geoffrey (2008), The
Origins of Yoga and Tantra, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-69534-3,2010
[5]Gavin
Flood: "These renouncer traditions offered a new vision of the human
condition which became incorporated, to some degree, into the worldview of the
Brahman householder. The ideology of asceticism and renunciation seems, at
first, discontinuous with the brahmanical ideology of the affirmation of social
obligations and the performance of public and domestic rituals. Indeed, there
has been some debate as to whether asceticism and its ideas of retributive
action, reincarnation and spiritual liberation, might not have originated
outside the orthodox vedic sphere, or even outside Aryan culture: that a
divergent historical origin might account for the apparent contradiction within
'Hinduism' between the world affirmation of the householder and the world
negation of the renouncer. However, this dichotomization is too simplistic, for
continuities can undoubtedly be found between renunciation and vedic
Brahmanism, while elements from non-Brahmanical, Sramana traditions also played
an important part in the formation of the renunciate ideal.”
-Flood, Gavin D. (1996), An Introduction to
Hinduism, Cambridge University Press,Pp77
[6]Life
Force, author: Michael Tobias, Publisher: Jain Publishing Company, Fremont,
California, 1991,Pp21
[7] Ibid
[8] The
Speaking Tree--- A Study Of Indian Culture And Society, London, Oxford
University paperback, 1974, p. 10
[9]http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Yoga_and_Hindu_Philosophy.htm/
retrieved on 5/11/2016 11am
[10]Karel
Werner states that the existence of accomplished Yogis in Vedic times cannot be
doubted, citing the Kesin hymn of the Rigveda as evidence of a Yoga tradition
in the Vedic era.
[11]Samuel
2008, p. 8.
[12]Mark
Singleton (2010), Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice, Oxford
University Press, ISBN
978-0-19-539534-1, pages 25–34
[13]Werner, Karel (1998). Yoga And Indian
Philosophy (1977, Reprinted in 1998). MotilalBanarsidass Publ. ISBN 81-208-1609-9.Pp119-20
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