Pre-Classical Yoga

Yoga is said to have been around for over 10,000 years. The beginning writings of yoga have been said to have been written on palm leaves which by now would be destroyed or lost. Although from past to present yoga can be split up into four different time periods of development, practice, and innovation.
The era of Pre-Classical yoga were first discovered by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India over 5,000 years ago. Yoga was a word first mentioned in the oldest sacred texts known as the Rig Veda. The Vedas were a collection of everything that pertained to the essence of Yoga. It contained songs, mantras, and rituals to be used by the vedic priests who were more commonly known as Brahmans Over time yoga slowly started to become refined by the Brahmans and Rishis. Both groups documented over 200 scriptures of their own practices, and beliefs in what they called the Upanishads. Of the 200 scriptures the most known scripture was the Bhagavad-Gîtâ, which was composed around 500 B.C.E. “The Upanishads took the …show more content…
The religion Hinduism, works with three different styles of yoga; Classical, Ashtanga, and Hatha. It also considers yoga to be a philosophical school within its religion. Hinduism has six different schools of astika, those of which also accept the vedas as a way of knowledge. Ashtanga yoga is discussed in the books written by Patanjali. The text written by Patanjali is considered to be the central text of Yoga school in the Hindu philosophy. This style of yoga used to be more commonly referred to as Raja yoga, which was also known as the “Yoga of Kings”. However, this term became more popularized through the findings and teachings of Swami Vivekananda, and became more commonly known as Ashtanga Yoga. Ashtanga yoga incorporates a systemic types of exercises, and ways to improve the body, mind, and