There is no written record of the beginning of the history of yoga, only that dates back to ancient times and was passed on from one generation to the next by word of mouth. Not until much later was it written in text on palm leaves. So, it is not easy to tell how, when or where this form of exercise and breathing actually began. Many of the written records on it have been lost, damaged or destroyed by the passage of time, thereby making it hard to pinpoint the exact date when it all began.

Eight Thousand Years Old

It is believed that yoga began about eight thousand years ago, though some put its true age at about only four thousand years back, though the first records of yoga date back to about three thousand BC. It was about this time that people living in the Indus Valley civilization began to practice yoga and it continued until 1500 B.C. when the Vedic civilizations also practiced it.

However, depending upon which historian's version you believe, the history of yoga can variously is put at between four thousand to eight thousand yeas go and this is borne out when one looks at the seals from Mohenjo-daro which is an ancient city settlement from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization and which show figures of sitting yogis. Such a figure was called the Shiva Pashupati and the name refers to the archaeologist that discovered these seals.

There is no doubt however that yoga was being practiced during the time that the Rig Veda was being used and so by the time that the Upanishads, from about between eight hundred to one hundred BC came into existence, it had been widely practiced. These writings delved on different aspects of yoga including control of the breath, union of six limbs, meditation and sensory inhibition, concentration and ecstasy and examination.

Yoga also found favor among the Buddhist and Jain philosophies and the popularity of it extended to a number of cultures. Of course, if one looks at modern times it has truly gained in popularity all around the world in the past five decades or so. One of the more modern forms of this exercise regimen is known as Bikram yoga that has been developed quite recently. Its founder was Bikram Choudhury after whom this form of yoga has been named.

In the western world, the form of yoga that is most popular is the one known as Hatha and its origins date back to about the fifteenth century. In the past fifty years it has been popularized in the U.S. It has also been shorn of its spiritual content to suit western tastes.