Patanjali (Sanskrit:पतञ्जलि,IAST:Patañjali,Sanskrit pronunciation:[pɐtɐɲdʑɐli]; also calledGonardiya orGonikaputra)[a] was the name of one or more author(s), mystic(s) and philosopher(s) inancient India. His name is recorded as an author and compiler of a number ofSanskrit works.[3] The greatest of these are theYoga Sutras, a classicalyoga text. Estimates based on analysis of this work suggests that its author(s) may have lived between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE.[3]
An author of the same name is credited with the authorship of the classic text on Sanskrit grammar namedMahābhāṣya, that is firmly datable to the 2nd century BCE, and authorship of medical texts possibly dating from 8th-10th centuries CE.[4][5] The two works,Mahābhāṣya andYoga Sutras, are completely different in subject matter, andIndologistLouis Renou has shown that there are significant differences in language, grammar and vocabulary.[6] Before the time ofBhoja (11th century), no known text conflates the identity of the two authors.[4]
There has been speculation as to whether the sage Patañjali is the author of all the works attributed to him, as there are a number of known historical authors of the same name. A great deal of scholarship has been devoted over the 20th century to the issue of the historicity or identity of this author or these authors.[7] The view that these were likely different authors is now generally accepted by Western scholars, but "glorification" of Patanjali as singular author of the yoga, grammar, and medical texts "has become an oft-repeated article of faith" "in more traditional circles" and yoga culture.[5]
Patanjali is regarded as an avatar ofAdi Sesha.[8]
Amongst the more important authors called Patañjali are:[9][10][11]
The author of theMahābhāṣya, an ancient treatise onSanskrit grammar and linguistics, based on the Aṣṭādhyāyī ofPāṇini.This Patañjali's life is dated to mid 2nd century BCE by both Western and Indian scholars.[12][13][14][15]This text was titled as abhashya or "commentary" onKātyāyana-Pāṇini's work by Patanjali, but is so revered in the Indian traditions that it is widely known simply as Mahā-bhasya or "Great commentary". As per Ganesh Sripad Huparikar, actually, Patanjali (2nd century BCE), the forerunner among ancient grammatical commentators, "adopted an etymological and dialectical method of explaining in the whole of his 'Mahābhāshya' (Great Commentary), and this has assumed, in the later commentary literature the definite form of 'Khanda-anvaya'." So vigorous, well reasoned and vast is his text, that this Patanjali has been the authority as the last grammarian of classical Sanskrit for more than 2,000 years, with Pāṇini and Kātyāyana preceding him. Their ideas on structure, grammar and philosophy of language have also influenced scholars of other Indian religions such as Buddhism andJainism.[16][17]
The compiler of theYoga sūtras, a text onYoga theory and practice,[18] and a notable scholar ofSamkhya school ofHindu philosophy.[19][20] He is variously estimated to have lived between 2nd century BCE to 4th century CE, with many scholars narrowing this period down to between 2nd and 4th century CE.[21][18][22] TheYogasutras is one of the most important texts in the Indian tradition and the foundation of classical Yoga.[23] It is the Indian Yoga text that was most translated in its medieval era into forty Indian languages.[24]
The author of a medical text calledPatanjalatantra. He is cited and this text is quoted in many medieval health sciences-related texts, and Patanjali is called a medical authority in a number of Sanskrit texts such asYogaratnakara,Yogaratnasamuccaya andPadarthavijnana.[4] There is a fourth Hindu scholar also named Patanjali, who likely lived in 8th-century CE and wrote a commentary onCharaka Samhita and this text is calledCarakavarttika.[25] According to some modern era Indian scholars such as P.V. Sharma, the two medical scholars named Patanjali may be the same person, but completely different person from the Patanjali who wrote the Sanskrit grammar classicMahābhashya.[25]
According toMonier Monier-Williams, the word "Patañjali" is acompound[27] name from "patta" (Sanskrit: पत, "falling, flying")[28] and "añj" (अञ्ज्, "honor, celebrate, beautiful") or "añjali" (अञ्जलि, "reverence, joining palms of the hand").[29][30] It means, flowing from reverence.
Many scholars includingLouis Renou have suggested that the Patañjali who wrote on Yoga was a different person than the Patanjali who wrote a commentary on Panini's grammar.[6][31] In 1914, James Wood proposed that they were the same person.[32] In 1922,Surendranath Dasgupta presented a series of arguments to tentatively propose that the famed Grammar text and the Yoga text author may be identical.[33]
The view that these were likely two different authors is generally accepted,[34][5] but some Western scholars consider them as a single entity.[35][36]
Some in the Indian tradition have held that one Patañjali wrote treatises on grammar, medicine and yoga. This has been memorialised in a verse byBhoja at the start of his commentary on the Yogasutras calledRājamārttanda (11th century), and the following verse found in Shivarama's 18th-century text:[37]
English translation: I bow with my hands together to the eminent sage Patañjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine.
This tradition is discussed by Meulenbeld[4] who traces this "relatively late" idea back toBhoja (11th century), who was perhaps influenced by a verse byBhartṛhari (ca. 5th century) that speaks of an expert in yoga, medicine and grammar who, however, is not named. No known Sanskrit text prior to the 10th century states that the one and the same Patanjali was behind all the three treatises.[38]
The sage Patañjali is said to have attainedSamadhi through yogic meditation at theBrahmapureeswarar Temple located atTirupattur, Tamil Nadu, India. Jeeva Samadhi of sage Patanjali, which is now an enclosed meditation hall, can be seen near theBrahma's shrine withinBrahmapureeswarar Temple complex.[39]
In the grammatical tradition, Patañjali is believed to have lived in the second century BCE.[40] He wrote aMahabhasya on Panini's sutras, in a form that quoted the commentary ofKātyāyana'svārttikas. This is a major influential work on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics.[12] The dating of Patanjali and hisMahabhasya is established by a combination of evidence: that from the Maurya Empire period, the historical events mentioned in the examples he used to explain his ideas, the chronology of ancient classical Sanskrit texts that respect his teachings, and the mention of his text or his name in ancient Indian literature.[41][42] Of the three ancient grammarians, the chronological dating of Patanjali to mid 2nd century B.C. is considered as "reasonably accurate" by mainstream scholarship.[43]
The text influenced Buddhist grammatical literature,[44] as well as memoirs of travellers to India. For example, the Chinese pilgrimI-tsing mentions that theMahabhasya is studied in India and advanced scholars learn it in three years.[45]
In the Yoga tradition, Patañjali is a revered name. This Patañjali's oeuvre comprises the sutras about Yoga (Yogasūtra) and the commentary integral to the sutras, called theBhāṣya. Some consider the sutras and the Bhaṣya to have had different authors, the commentary being ascribed to "an editor" (Skt. "vyāsa"). According to Phillipp Maas, the same person named Patanjali composed the sutras and theBhāṣya commentary.[48]
Radhakrishnan and Moore attribute the text to the grammarian Patañjali, dating it as 2nd centuryBCE, during theMaurya Empire (322–185 BCE).[49] Maas estimates Patañjali's Yogasutra's date to be about 400 CE, based on tracing the commentaries on it published in the first millennium CE.[18] Edwin Bryant, on the other hand, surveys the major commentators in his translation of theYoga Sūtras.[50] He states 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."[51] Bryant concludes that "A number of scholars have dated theYoga Sūtras as late as the fourth or fifth century C.E., but these arguments have all been challenged", and late chronology for this Patanjali and his text are problematic.[52]
Regarding his early years, theTamilSaiva Siddhanta tradition from around 10th century AD holds that Patañjali learned Yoga along with seven other disciples from the great YogicGuruNandhi Deva, as stated inTirumular'sTirumandiram (Tantra 1). His Samadhi is said to be atRameswaram Shiva temple and a shrine for him still exists in the temple.
Whether the two works, the Yoga Sutras and theMahābhāṣya, are by the same author has been the subject of considerable debate. The authorship of the two is first attributed to the same person in Bhojadeva'sRajamartanda, a relatively late (10th century) commentary on the Yoga Sutras,[54] as well as several subsequent texts. As for the texts themselves, the Yoga Sutra iii.44 cites a sutra as that from Patanjali by name, but this line itself is not from the Mahābhāṣya. This 10th-century legend of single-authorship is doubtful. The literary styles and contents of the Yogasūtras and the Mahābhāṣya are entirely different, and the only work on medicine attributed to Patañjali is lost. Sources of doubt include the lack of cross-references between the texts, and no mutual awareness of each other, unlike other cases of multiple works by (later) Sanskrit authors. Also, some elements in the Yoga Sutras may date from as late as the 4th century C.E.,[11] but such changes may be due to divergent authorship, or due to later additions which are not atypical in the oral tradition. Most scholars refer to both works as "by Patanjali", without meaning that they are by the same author.
In addition to the Mahābhāṣya and Yoga Sūtras, the 11th-century commentary onCharaka by the Bengali scholarChakrapani Datta, and the 16th-century textPatanjalicarita ascribes to Patañjali a medical text called theCarakapratisaṃskṛtaḥ (now lost) which is apparently a revision (pratisaṃskṛtaḥ) of the medical treatise by Caraka. While there is a short treatise on yoga in the medical work called the Carakasaṃhitā (by Caraka), towards the end of the chapter called śārīrasthāna, it is notable for not bearing much resemblance to the Yoga Sūtras, and in fact presents a form of eightfold yoga that is completely different from that laid out by Patañjali in the Yoga Sūtras and the commentary Yogasūtrabhāṣya.
TheYoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 Indian sutras (aphorisms) onYoga. It was the most translated ancient Indian text in the medieval era, having been translated into about forty Indian languages and two non-Indian languages:Old Javanese and Arabic.[24] The text fell into obscurity for nearly 700 years from the 12th to 19th century, and made a comeback in late 19th century due to the efforts ofSwami Vivekananda and others. It gained prominence again as a comeback classic in the 20th century.[55]
Before the 20th century, history indicates the Indian yoga scene was dominated by other Yoga texts such as theBhagavad Gita,Yoga Vasistha andYoga Yajnavalkya.[56] Scholars consider theYoga Sūtras of Patañjali formulations as one of the foundations of classicalYoga philosophy of Hinduism.[57][58]
TheMahābhāṣya ("great commentary") of Patañjali on theAṣṭādhyāyī ofPāṇini is a major early exposition on Pāṇini, along with the somewhat earlierVarttika byKatyayana. Patanjali relates to how words and meanings are associated – Patanjali claimsshabdapramâNaH – that the evidentiary value of words is inherent in them, and not derived externally[59] – the word-meaning association is natural. These issues in the word-meaning relation (symbol) would be elaborated in theSanskrit linguistic tradition, in debates between theMimamsa,Nyaya andBuddhist schools over the next fifteen centuries.[citation needed]
Patanjali also defines an early notion ofsphota, which would be elaborated considerably by later Sanskrit linguists likeBhartrihari. In Patanjali, asphoTa (fromsphuT, spurt/burst) is the invariant quality of speech. The noisy element (dhvani, audible part) can be long or short, but the sphoTa remains unaffected by individual speaker differences. Thus, a single letter or 'sound' (varNa) such ask,p ora is an abstraction, distinct from variants produced in actual enunciation.[59] This concept has been linked to the modern notion ofphoneme, the minimum distinction that defines semantically distinct sounds. Thus a phoneme is an abstraction for a range of sounds. However, in later writings, especially in Bhartrihari (6th century CE), the notion ofsphoTa changes to become more of a mental state, preceding the actual utterance, akin to thelemma.
Patañjali's writings also elaborate some principles ofmorphology (prakriyā). In the context of elaborating on Pāṇini's aphorisms, he also discussesKātyāyana's commentary, which are also aphoristic andsūtra-like; in the later tradition, these were transmitted as embedded in Patañjali's discussion. In general, he defends many positions of Pāṇini which were interpreted somewhat differently in Katyayana.
Unlike Pāṇini's objectives in the Ashtyadhyayi, which is to distinguish correct forms and meanings from incorrect ones (shabdaunushasana), Patanjali's objectives are more metaphysical. These include the correct recitations of the scriptures (Agama), maintaining the purity of texts (raksha), clarifying ambiguity (asamdeha), and also the pedagogic goal of providing an easier learning mechanism (laghu).[59] This stronger metaphysical bent has also been indicated by some as one of the unifying themes between the Yoga Sutras and the Mahābhāṣya, although a close examinationof actual Sanskrit usage by Woods showed no similarities in language or terminology.
The text of theMahābhāṣya was first critically edited by the 19th-century orientalist Franz Kielhorn, who also developedphilological criteria for distinguishing Kātyāyana's "voice" from Patañjali's. Subsequently, a number of other editions have come out, the 1968 text and translation by S.D. Joshi and J.H.F. Roodbergen often being considered definitive. Regrettably, the latter work is incomplete.
Patanjali is often stated as having claimed there was a hostility between the orthodox Brahminic (Astika) groups and the heterodox,nAstika groups (Buddhism,Jainism, and atheists), like that between amongoose and a snake.[60]Nathan McGovern argues Patanjali never used this mongoose-snake analogy.[61]
Patanjali also sheds light on contemporary events, commenting on the recent Greek incursion, and also on several tribes that lived in the Northwest regions of the subcontinent.
Patanjali is also the reputed author of a medical text calledPatanjalah, also calledPatanjala orPatanjalatantra.[4][62] This text is quoted in many yoga and health-related Indian texts. Patanjali is called a medical authority in a number of Sanskrit texts such asYogaratnakara,Yogaratnasamuccaya,Padarthavijnana,Cakradatta bhasya.[4] Some of these quotes are unique toPatanjala, but others are also found in major Hindu medical treatises such asCharaka Samhita andSushruta Samhita.[4]
There is a fourth scholar also named Patanjali, who likely lived in 8th-century and wrote a commentary onCharaka Samhita and this text is calledCarakavarttika.[25] The two medical scholars named Patanjali may be the same person, but generally accepted to be completely different person than the Patanjali who wrote the Sanskrit grammar classicMahabhasya.[25]
^These names of Sanskrit authors are generally identified with Patanjali.Gonardiya denotes someone from Gonarda, which has been identified by some with theGonda inUttar Pradesh.Gonikaputra means the son of a woman named Gonika.[1][2]
^abLouis Renou (1940). "On the Identity of the Two Patañjalis". In Narendra Nath Law (ed.).Louis de La Vallée Poussin Memorial Volume. Calcutta. pp. 368–73.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Raghavan, V.; et al. (1968).New Catalogus Catalogorum. Vol. 11. Madras: University of Madras. pp. 89–90. lists ten separate authors by the name of "Patañjali".
^abcMaas, Philipp A. (2006).Samādhipāda: das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert (in German). Aachen: Shaker.ISBN978-3832249878.
^Woods, James Haughton (1914).he Yoga-system of Patañjali: or, the ancient Hindu doctrine of Concentration of Mind Embracing the Mnemonic Rules, called Yoga-sūtras, of Patañjali and the Comment, called Yoga-bhāshya, attributed to Veda-Vyāsa and the Explanation, called Tattvaiçāradī, of Vāchaspati-miçra. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. introduction.
^Mishra, Giridhar (1981)."प्रस्तावना" [Introduction].अध्यात्मरामायणेऽपाणिनीयप्रयोगाणां विमर्शः [Deliberation on non-Paninian usages in the Adhyatma Ramayana] (PhD) (in Sanskrit). Varanasi, India: Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. Archived fromthe original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved21 May 2013.
^Stephen Phillips (2009),Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, Columbia University Press,ISBN978-0231144858, pages 151, 209, 215, 263
^Maas, Philipp. A. (2006).Samādhipāda: das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert. Aachen: Shaker.ISBN978-3832249878.
^Ian Whicher (1998), The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga, State University of New York Press,ISBN978-0791438152, page 49
