Yoga has a very long history and in terms of legacy it is as old as human civilisation. Its history is also linked with the vedas and upanishads.
Yoga had a special place during the Indus Valley Civilisation (2000 B.C). The stone seals restored from the sites of the Indus Valley Civilisation depict the practice of Yoga during old days.
The word yoga is frequently referred in all the four Vedas Rigveda, Yujurveda, Samveda and Atharvaveda.
Moksha is the ultimate goal of yoga, which is well explained in the Upanishads. The teaching of Buddha (Arya Asthangic Marga) and Jainism (five great vows) are the two pillars of yoga tradition. These two had greatly contributed to the development of yoga.
The epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata have numerous references about yoga. The Bhagavad Gita is considered as a classical treatise on yoga.
There is also description of Yoga in Shad Darshans. Maharishi Sage Patanjali had codified the comprehensive system of Yoga around second century B.C. Patanjali gave the concept of eight limbs of yoga called as Ashtang Yoga.
Nath culture also played an important role in the development of the Hatha Yoga Tradition. Hatha Yoga deals with day-to-day health related problems and emphasised on the human body and mind. The famous scriptures of Hatha Yoga are Hatha Yoga Pradeepika, Gheranda Samhita, Hatha Ratnavali, Shiva Samhita, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati, etc. Nineteenth century gurus, such as, Ramakrishna Parmahansa, Swami Vivekananda, Maharishi Aurobindo and Ramana Maharishi preached yoga to the masses.
