Yoga's Origins

Timeline: between 2,500-10,000 years ago (500 - 9,500 B.C.E.) (Note that B.C.E. abbreviates "Before Common Era" or the start of the Gregorian calendar. For example, the current year is 2025 C.E., abbreviating "Common Era.")

Yoga’s origin story is most commonly linked with the Indus Sarasvati civilization of approximately 5,000 years ago, located in what is now Northern India and Pakistan, around the Indus and Sarasvati Rivers. Eventually these people migrated toward the Ganges River in Central India due to drought, bringing their culture with them.

Scholars consider this a highly advanced ancient civilization. Ruins uncovered by archeologists in the 1920s include multi-storied buildings, patterned roads, sewage systems and what are thought by some scholars to be carved pictures and figures of people in meditation and yoga postures.

More recent Western research dates yoga’s origin to about 2,500 years ago, and claims the Indus civilization artifacts “… offer no conclusive evidence of an ancient yogic culture ...” (Mallinson and Singleton). Other claims made by people native to that region, still living there, date yoga practice to closer to 10,000 years ago.

Although yoga’s beginning date is debated, it is undisputed that it started in an ancient Indic culture that respected nature and valued spiritual exploration.

Question for Reflection: How might yoga have originally come into the world?

Yoga in India

Timeline: origin to present

Originally, yoga practices in India were influenced by spiritual and religious traditions where practitioners observed asceticism: deprivation (sometimes severe) of all forms of indulgence. They were exclusively men, and also called renunciates or yogis. The purpose of studying and practicing yoga for these men was to attain enlightenment, merging with the divine/universe/source/God. Eventually other people noticed and became curious, seeking their perceived wisdom.

Later, formal yoga teaching began in the form of private lessons with one student and one teacher. The first students and teachers were exclusively men. Students usually came from the royal or Brahman (higher priest) castes of India. Students searched for teachers, having to prove themselves worthy of receiving the teachings. Teachers (masters) taught mainly yoga philosophy and science, with little physical practice.

Hatha yoga became more formalized around 1,200 C.E. When practiced, yoga asana was originally taught to aid health problems or prepare the body to sit still in meditation for long periods of time. As yoga practices grew, householders (working people in the culture) started incorporating the teachings and techniques.

Yoga became more popular in larger Indian culture when yoga schools opened and began offering yoga teachings to a larger segment of the public. Many of these schools are still operating.

Sri T. Krishnamacharya (1888-1989, known as "the father of modern yoga"), after studying with various yoga teachers and finishing university studies, opened a yoga school. His students include some of the most highly influential teachers of some of Hatha Yoga: Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Krishnamacharya's son Desikachar, Indra Devi.

At the time Krishnamacharya was teaching, interest in physical fitness and physical practices increased around the globe, including the Olympic Games, calisthenics, gymnastics, bodybuilding, martial arts, Contrology (now called Pilates). The mutual influence of these physical practices on each other increased the number of yoga asanas practiced and taught.

Yoga has also found its way into Indian activism and politics. In "Embrace Yoga's Roots," author Susanna Barkataki describes the role of ascetic yogis in the Indian Independence Movement from the mid 1700s - 1947 when India won independence from British rule. "The militant yogis won many battles against the empire, and disrupted trade routes. The were so successful that the British Raj outlawed yogis from entering certain parts of India (their own homeland)."

"Gandhi, one of the leaders of the Independence Movement, took the Bhagavad Gita to jail with him and used the Gita's yogic philosophy to fuel the methods used to create the foundations for independence."

More recently in India, and not without controversy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a yoga practitioner and advocate for the practice. An early act by Modi was proposing the United Nations found International Yoga Day, observed on June 21 since 2015. Critics say this action is not purely to highlight secular yoga for everyone's health and well-being, but to align yoga with a Hindu nationalist agenda and create divisiveness, particularly between Hindu and Muslim people.

Yoga Goes Abroad

Timeline: starting in the late 1800s - 1960s; continuing today

Gurus and yoga teachers from India began bringing yoga to America in the form of lectures and performances. The first notable event took place at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where Swami Vivekananda drew crowds with his lectures about yoga and the universality of the world’s religions. This sparked Americans' interest in yoga.

In the 1960s awareness of yoga grew through popular culture, such as rock band The Beatles’ association with Transcendental Meditation (TM) teacher Mararishi Mahesh Yogi, and Lilias Folan’s PBS TV show “Lilias, Yoga, and You.”

Many styles of yoga have been developed in the last 40 years, but it is still most closely associated with physical fitness in America. Diverse styles of Hatha yoga are now practiced, ranging from very gentle to very vigorous. It is worth noting that the physically demanding asana that is popular in the United States was originally taught to adolescent boys in India as a way to expend extra energy. After about age 21, the practice then shifted to be less physically strenuous.

The yoga that is practiced here in the West (Western Hemisphere) is not the same tradition of yoga that has been passed down for thousands of years in India. Because of the emphasis on asana, sometimes it is called “Modern Postural Yoga” by scholars. The controversial book “Yoga Body” (published 2010) by Mark Singleton presents evidence that asana-based yoga has little or no connection to ancient Indian yogic teachings, and instead owes its roots to modern Indian nationalism as well as European bodybuilding, calisthenics and gymnastics.

Yoga in California

Timeline: 1920 to present

Dating back about 100 years, California was one of the first places in the United States where yoga took root, was embraced and grew.

The guru Paramahansa Yogananda founded the Self Realization Fellowship in Encinitas in 1920, in the Kriya Yoga of Meditation lineage.

Indra Devi (born Eugenie Peterson) opened a yoga studio in Hollywood in 1948. Devi, a student of Krishnamacharya, taught gentle Hatha yoga asanas and pranayama as physical exercise.

Soon after, Devi's friends Magana and Walt Baptiste opened a yoga school in San Francisco in 1952. Their son, Baron Baptiste, founded the Baron Baptiste Power Yoga method of Hatha yoga. This style of yoga is still taught and practiced today.

The California Yoga Teachers Association started Yoga Journal in 1975 in the Bay Area. The magazine's publication, along with events and multimedia products, has had a important role in yoga's popularity in the U.S. and around the world.

Many notable, influential late 20th century American yoga teachers of the past 50 years studied in or were based in California, including Rodney Yee, Bryan Kest, Ana Forrest, the late Maty Ezraty, Erich Schiffmann, Shiva Rea, Judith Hanson Lasater, and many, many more. Some of these teachers are still teaching today.

Current Data on Practice in the U.S.

2016 Yoga in America Study

The 2016 Yoga in America Study, a survey of more than 3,700 people, reported that 36.7 million Americans practiced yoga at the time. This was up from 20.4 million practitioners in 2012 – in just four years, the number of American yogis nearly doubled!

Yoga was an estimated $16.8 billion industry in the U.S. according to the 2016 YIAS, with consumer-practitioners spending money on classes, clothing, equipment, books, videos, retreats, and trainings.

2022 National Health Interview Survey (CDC)

Every five years the National Health Interview Survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) includes questions about complementary health, including yoga. The most recent survey showed yoga went from being practiced by by 5% of the adult population in 2002 to 16% (about one in 6 people) in 2022.

Who is practicing in the U.S.? Women are more than twice as likely as men. People with higher incomes were more likely to do yoga. People from all racial and ethnic backgrounds reported practicing yoga, with Asian and Caucasian people most likely to practice.

People in the United States spent $12.7 billion in 2022 on "mindful movement;" mainly yoga, but also pilates and tai chi (Global Wellness Institute).

What's Next?

It's important to name our yoga teachers and lineage, especially when sharing a direct teaching from them. This is one way to be a careful steward of yoga practice.

Questions for Reflection:

How does it feel to be part of this ancient, living tradition?
What would you like to see for yoga in the future?

Sources:

Embrace Yoga’s Roots by Susanna Barkataki, published by Ignite Yoga and Wellness Institute, 2020

Roots of Yoga translated and edited by James Mallinson and Mark Singleton, published by Penguin Classics, 2017

The Yoga Handbook by Stephanie Keach, Asheville Yoga Center founder; published by Stephanie and Sunny Keach, 2003

"Rough Translation: Why Many Muslims in India Feel Yoga Has Been Weaponized," (Stacy Vanek Smith for NPR, 9/18/2017)

"Who's practicing yoga in America? The CDC has answers," (Pien Huang for NPR; published 6/12/2024)

"2016 Yoga in America Study," Conducted by Yoga Journal and Yoga Alliance