Yoga And The History Of Yoga In Brief

The history of yoga is one which spans to the days of ancient India, where yoga was part of the spiritual arena. Unlike today where millions of yoga practitioners are into yoga for the health, physical and mental well being yoga is known to arm yoga practitioners with, the history of yoga indicates otherwise.

Yoga in Brief

Yoga is known to be a body of practices which the Hindus actively participate in. With origins hailing form India, it is safe to state that yoga, and the history of yoga, has been around for a while now.

Given the many benefits of mind and body which are attributed to the practice of yoga, the activity has become quite popular today. Typically, yoga entails stances or positions, in which a yoga practitioner enacts as he or she aims to achieve a sense of balance in mindset, clearing away all thoughts from whimsy.

From yoga classes, to yoga self-help books, learning yoga is now quite easy to attain, given the many learning avenues to which students could take. Also, the popularity of yoga has paved the way for various yoga equipment, like yoga mats, yoga balls, yoga bags, and yoga apparel.

The History of Yoga in Brief

The history of yoga is known to be one which spans to years before, from 4 to 8 thousand years. The reason why it has prevailed until today would be the simple applicability of the practice.

When talking about the history of yoga, one can not fail to mention the different seals which were discovered to have been around during the Indus Valley Civilization, dating 3300 to 1700 BCE. The most popular seal, named by discoverer John Marshall, would be the Pashupati Seal, and is known to represent an older or ancient representation of Shiva in yoga stance.

The form in the seal is known to suggest “a form or pose of ritual discipline”, which could be said to suggest that what it depicted was the precursor to what yoga then came to be, this according to archaeologist Gregory Possehl. With regards the history of yoga, the general view with regards the symbol depicted on the seal would be that of supporting Possehl’s theory. Though many argue against it, like Gavin Flood, who states that such views towards the seal are speculative, many archeologists are convinced that the seal’s symbol has a lot to tell regarding the history of yoga.

Bottom line, with the presence of the Pashupati Seal, the history of yoga is one which is truly spanning in time, dating back to years and years in the past.