Who invented Astanga Yoga?
All Yoga philosophies are the collected experience and knowledge of ancient sages from the Indian sub continent. People in the Indian sub continent have practiced Astanga Yoga for 5000 years. The knowledge was passed on verbally from generation to generation for thousands of years. Even though very ancient Indian scripts mention Astanga Yoga, in around year -200 BCE two adepts Tirumular and Patanjali, students of sage Nandi Natha, collated, coordinated and systematized Astanga Yoga into writings. Though this Indian philosophy is nowadays called Raja (Royal) Yoga, Patanjali or Tirumular nowhere mentioned this science as Raja Yoga but called it Astanga Yoga in their books “Yoga Sutra” and “Tirumantiram”. Tirumantiram was composed in Tamil by Tirumular while Yoga Sutra was composed in Sanskrit by Patanjali.
