By Team Ayurved Sutra
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WHO WAS PATANJALI
The great sage and master, Patanjali was the founder and father of modern Yoga. He was considered to be a fully self-realized avatar, who had mastered the mind, the body, its senses, and even this physical world. He was also a profound knower of knowledge which made him an amazing philosopher and teacher of how to master your life. Patanjali codified, or compiled in a systematic way, the art and science of Yoga in the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras succinctly outlines the art and science of Yoga for Self-Realization.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are 196 Indian sutras (aphorisms) that constitute the foundational text of Ashtanga Yoga, also called Raja Yoga. According to some sources, the Yoga Sutras were compiled around 400 CE by Patanjali. In fact, tradition of Yoga is ancient, Vedic and there are references of Yoga in many scriptures including Mahabharata( Krishna, Karmyoga and Geeta). Patanjali is also author of Mahabhasya. Whether the two works, the Yoga Sutras and the Mahabhasya, are by the same author has been the subject of considerable debate. According to weikipedia research references, the authorship of the two is first attributed to the same person in Bhojadeva’s Rajamartanda, a relatively late (10th century) commentary on the Yoga Sutras,as well as several subsequent texts. In addition to the Mahabhasya and Yoga Sutras, the 11th-century commentary on Charaka by the Bengali scholar Cakrapanidatta, and the 16th-century text Patanjalicarita ascribes to Patanjali a medical text called the Carakapratisamskrtah (now lost) which is apparently a revision of the medical treatise by Charaka.Patanjali is one of the 18 siddhars in the Tamil siddha (Shaiva) tradition.
