History of yoga

The History of Yoga is often emphasized to derive from prehistoric roots, and develops out of Vedic asceticism (tapas). Ideas of uniting mind, body and soul in the cosmic one find expression already in the Upanishads and the later Brahmanas (such as the Shatapatha Brahmana), commentaries on the Vedas.

Yoga as a Hindu philosophy ("darshana") is first expounded in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This earliest school of Yoga retrospectively came to be known by the retronym Raja Yoga to distinguish it from later schools.