Author The colophons of manuscripts of the
Yoga Sutras attribute the work to
Patanjali, though according to Larson chapter 4 is a later addition, and cannot be attributed to Patanjali. The identity of Patañjali has been the subject of academic debate, because an author of the same name is credited with the authorship of the classic text on Sanskrit grammar named
Mahābhāṣya, that is firmly datable to the second century BCE. Although some scholars argue that this is the same Patanjali who authored the
Yoga Sutras, the two works are completely different in subject matter, and
Indologist Louis Renou has shown that there are significant differences in language, grammar and vocabulary. Before the time of
Bhoja (11th century), no known text conflates the identity of the two authors.
Dating The text of the
Yoga Sūtras has been variously dated to be between 500 BCE and 450 CE, but latter dates are more commonly accepted by scholars. Philipp A. Maas assessed Patañjali's
Pātañjalayogaśāstra's date to be about 400 CE, based on synchronisms between its arguments and those of the
Yogācāra Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu (4th–5th centuries CE), on tracing the history of the commentaries on it published in the 1st millennium CE, on the opinions of earlier Sanskrit commentators, on the testimony of manuscript colophons and on a review of extant literature. This dating for the
Pātañjalayogaśāstra was proposed as early as 1914 by Woods and has been accepted widely by academic scholars of the history of
Indian philosophical thought.
Edwin Bryant surveyed the major commentators in his translation of the
Yoga Sūtras. He observed that "Most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era (circa first to second century), but that it has been placed as early as several centuries before that." Bryant concluded that "A number of scholars have dated the
Yoga Sūtras as late as the fourth or fifth century CE, but these arguments have all been challenged [...] All such arguments [for a late date] are problematic." Michele Desmarais summarized a wide variety of dates assigned to the
Yoga Sūtras, ranging from 500 BCE to the 3rd century CE, noting that there is a paucity of evidence for any certainty. She stated the text may have been composed at an earlier date given conflicting theories on how to date it, but latter dates are more commonly accepted by scholars.
Text - Pātañjalayogaśāstra Scholars hold that the
Yoga sutras and the
Yogabhasya, a commentary on the sutras, were written by one person, and form an integral work. According to Philipp A. Maas, based on a study of the original manuscripts, Patañjali's composition was entitled
Pātañjalayogaśāstra ("The Treatise on Yoga according to Patañjali") and consisted of both
Sūtras and Bhāṣya. According to Maas and Wujastyk, Patanjali compiled yoga from older traditions in
Pātañjalayogaśāstra, and added his own explanatory passages to create the unified work that, since 1100 CE, has been considered the work of two people. The practice of writing a set of aphorisms with the author's own explanation was well known at the time of Patañjali, as for example in Vasubandhu's
Abhidharmakośabhāṣya (that, incidentally, Patañjali quotes). These research findings change the historical understanding of the yoga tradition, since they allow us to take the Bhāṣya as Patañjali's very own explanation of the meaning of his somewhat cryptic sūtras. This commentary is indispensable for the understanding of the aphoristic and terse Yoga sutras, and the study of the sutras has always referred to the
Yogabhashya. While the
Yogabhashya was probably written by Patanjali, it has traditionally also attributed to the legendary Vedic sage
Vyasa who is said to have composed the
Mahabharata. The
bhasya has also been attributed by some to Vindhyavasin (late 4th century CE), who reinterpreted the samkhya-philosophy due to his knowledge of Buddhist philosophy; his reinterpretation is closely related to the
Yogabhasya, which builds on this reinterpretation.
Compilation of sources The
Yoga Sutras are a compilation of sutras from various traditions and sources, with "an apparent lack of unity and coherence." Larson notes that Yoga, Buddhism, Jainism and Ajivika share related origins, and argues that the
Yoga Sutras draw from three distinct traditions from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE, namely "(1) one or more
Samkhya traditions, (2) one or more Buddhist traditions, and (3) an emerging philosophical Yoga tradition that is compiling various older ascetic and religious strands of speculation." Patanjali's Yoga Sutras may be a "hybrid formulation, a conflation" of these three traditions. From the old Samkhya philosophy the Yoga Sutras adopt the "reflective discernment" (
adhyavasaya) of
prakrti and
purusa, its metaphysical rationalism, and its three
epistemic methods to gaining reliable knowledge. From Buddhism the sutras adopt the
nirodhasamadhi philosophy, the pursuit of altered states of awareness and an ontology of 'naive realism' (
Sarvastivada) or representationalism (
Yogacara). Like Samkhya, the Yoga sutras are physicalist or materialist, but unlike Samkhya, "it rigorusly rejects any notion of substantive transcendence." The third stream that the Yoga Sutras conflate are elements of older traditions of
ascetic meditation, including "the
kriya yoga sections of Book Two (YS II.1-27), the
yoganga sections of Books II and III (YS II.28-III.55), some
karma yoga sections in Book IV (YS IV.7-13), and various sutras having to do with the issue of God (
isvara-pranidhana). According to Larson, "many of these strands come probably from contexts such as the
Moksadharma and
Bhagavadgita portions of the epic, some passages from the early
Puranas, the socalled middle verse
Upanisads (
Katha,
Svetasvata and
Maitri, and from oral traditions of regional teachers and any number of local
asramas.
Structure of the text Beginning in the early 20th century, scholars have dissected the sutras into the constitutive layers. Book I consists of two texts, I.1 or I.2 to I.16 or I.22, the remainder of the book forming a second text. Book II.1-27 is the Kriya yoga text, while Book II.28-III.55 describes
astanga yoga. Hauer regards Book IV as one text, treating
nirmanacitta ("individual mind"), while Deusse discerns four "appendices," namely IV.1-6 (
nirmanacitta, "individual mind"), IV.7-13 (
karman, action, and
vasana, subtle traces), IV.14-23 (
vastu, reality,
citta, mind, and
purusa) and IV.24-33 (
kaivalya, release). Frauwallner discerns two main traditions, namely the astangha yoga of Book II and III, which aims to attain "mental alertness and clarity," and the "way of suppression of mental functioning" of Book I. Frauwallner rejects Book IV as a later addition. According to Feuerstein, presupposing an inherent homegeinity of the text, the
Yoga Sutras are a condensation of two different traditions, namely "eight limb yoga" (aṣṭāṅga yoga) and action yoga (
Kriya yoga). The
kriya yoga part is contained in chapter 1, which forms an introduction, chapter 2
sutras 1–27, chapter 3 except
sutra 54, and chapter 4. The "eight limb yoga" is described in chapter 2 sutras 28–55, and chapter 3 sutras 3 and 54. According to Feuerstein, the Yoga sutras main component is the Kriya yoga, with astangha yoga forming a "long insert or quotation of an 'Eight-limbed Yoga'portion." While Larson is appreciative of Feuerstein's attempt to treat the Yoga sutras as a uniform text, he also notes that "it is doubtfull that most researchers would concede that the YS overal centers on
kriyayoga." Scholars seem to agree, though, that the
yoganga-portion, the eight-limb yoga, is a distinct unit, though there is no agreement as how far it extends into Book III. Larson takes into account the
Yogabhasya and Vacaspatimitra's commentaries when describing the basic structure of the Yoga sutras. Book I describes levels of awareness relevant for yoga, namely "one-pointed or content-filled awareness and suppressed or content-free awareness, and the means for attaining these levels of awareness: 'practice' (
abhyasa) and 'renunciation' (
vairagya). Book II treats practical exercises "needed to train those who have not yet reached" those levels of awareness; these exercises include kriya yoga and the first five limbs of astangha yoga. Book III describes the results acquired from the attainment of these levels of awareness, resulting from
dharana,
dhyana and
samadhi. Book IV treats the final goal of yoga, namely
kaivalya, content-free or seedless samadhi, and liberation.
Other commentaries A well-known commentary on the
Yoga Sutras was written by
Vachaspati Mishra, who had also written commentaries on other schools of Indian philosophy such as Vedanta, Samkhya, Nyaya, and Mimamsa. After Vyasa, it is believed that Vachaspati Mishra's commentary is the "next most authoritative." Other commentators include
Bhoja Rāja,
Vijñānabhikṣu, and Rāmānanda Sarasvatī. Vijñānabhikṣu, according to Bryant, wrote the "most insightful and useful commentary after that of Vyasa's." Bhoja Rāja and Rāmānanda Sarasvatī's commentaries follow the previous commentaries, without expanding much on what their predecessors have said.
Hariharānanda Āraṇya, in contrast to the above figures, is a modern commentator on the text. Bryant explains that, even though "his is a standpoint exposed to Western thought", it is still "thoroughly grounded in tradition". ==Contents==