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The History of Yoga: From the Indus Valley to Montreal

The History of Yoga: From the Indus Valley to Montreal

Sahil Thakur
6 days ago
5 min read

Yoga is at least two thousand years old as a documented practice, and possibly older, but no one can name its exact beginning. The yoga most of us do in a studio today, with lots of postures, is much more recent than the ideas behind it. Here is the long story, told simply, with the parts scholars still argue about marked clearly.

Key takeaways

  • Yoga has no single founder and no single start date. It grew over many centuries, in many traditions.

  • The famous Indus Valley "yogi seal" is a lovely idea, but its meaning is still debated and unproven.

  • The word yoga appears in early Indian texts such as the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita uses it too.

  • Postures became a bigger part of yoga in later hatha texts and, most of all, in the 20th century.

  • How yoga reached Montreal is a local story we haven't researched yet, so we don't tell it here.

Imagine a very long conversation

Picture yoga as a conversation that started before anyone wrote it down. Each century, someone joins in, repeats a line, changes a word, argues with the person before them. Nobody holds the original. That is closer to the truth than any tidy timeline, and it is why honest historians say "perhaps" so often.

Before the texts: the Indus Valley question

The Indus Valley civilisation flourished in what is now Pakistan and northwest India. Its mature phase is usually dated to roughly 2600 to 1900 BCE (Britannica). Among its small stone seals is one often called the "Pashupati seal." It shows a seated figure surrounded by animals.

Its identification as an early yogi or "proto-Shiva" was proposed in the 1920s–30s and is still debated; Geoffrey Samuel's The Origins of Yoga and Tantra (Cambridge University Press, 2008) is a good place to read the careful version. The writing of the Indus people has never been deciphered, so we cannot say what the figure meant.

So: a beautiful mystery, not a proven origin.

The first words: Vedas and Upanishads

The Vedas, the oldest Indian sacred texts, speak of ascetics, chanting and breath. Scholars debate how much of that counts as "yoga" in the later sense. The word yoga itself, meaning something like "yoking" or "discipline," shows up as a practice in the Upanishads. One often-cited example is the Katha Upanishad, usually dated to the last few centuries BCE, perhaps the earliest text to teach yoga by that name (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). It describes holding the senses and mind steady.

Around the same period, yoga ideas appear in Buddhist and Jain traditions, and in the great epic, the Mahabharata. Inside that epic sits the Bhagavad Gita, which describes several paths of yoga: action, devotion and knowledge. Britannica notes the Gita was composed perhaps in the 1st or 2nd century CE, though other scholars argue for earlier dates. Read more in Britannica's entry on the Bhagavad Gita.

The Yoga Sutras: a map of the mind

The Yoga Sutras, attributed to Patanjali, gave yoga a clear structure, including the eight limbs. They focus on steadying the mind. Posture gets very little space: the text only asks for a seat that is steady and comfortable. The date is disputed. Britannica gives two possibilities, the 2nd century BCE or the 5th century CE, in its entry on hatha yoga.

Hatha yoga: the body joins the path

Around the end of the first millennium CE, teachers began to describe a method called hatha, which used the body more directly: cleansing practices, breath control and physical techniques. According to scholars James Mallinson and Mark Singleton, the first text to formalise hatha yoga under that name is the Dattatreyayogashastra, probably composed around 1200 CE. A c. 10th to 11th-century text called the Vimanarcanakalpa (Vimānārcanākalpa) is among the earliest to describe a posture that is not simply sitting, the peacock pose. The better-known Hatha Yoga Pradipika, by Svatmarama, dates to about the 15th century. It describes only a small set of postures, mostly seated.

You can find Mallinson and Singleton's work in the Penguin Classics book Roots of Yoga.

The 19th and 20th centuries: yoga goes global

Here is a surprise for many students. The Asian Art Museum's description of the touring Smithsonian exhibition on yoga's art history points to "scant evidence that postures were the principal feature of any pre-modern tradition of yoga." That fits what scholars say: the posture-focused yoga we know grew mainly in 20th-century India, then travelled.

Some key moments, kept short:

  • 1893 and 1896: Swami Vivekananda spoke in Chicago, then published Raja Yoga, presenting yoga as an inclusive, almost scientific path.

  • 1920: Paramahansa Yogananda arrived in Boston and taught meditation.

  • 1930s Mysore: T. Krishnamacharya taught energetic, flowing postures. Some of his students, including B.K.S. Iyengar and K. Pattabhi Jois, became hugely influential.

  • 1966: Iyengar's book Light on Yoga reached readers around the world.

And now, a studio in Montréal

Today, yoga sits in studios, community halls and living rooms across Montreal. People come for movement, calm, company or curiosity. Whatever brings you, you are stepping into that long conversation. You don't need to know every date to take part.

A note on how we talk about history

Yoga is sacred to many people, especially in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions. We try to tell its story with respect, and to say plainly when we don't know. If a teacher gives you a very tidy "5,000-year-old" story, it is fair to ask what evidence it rests on.

Safety note

This is a history post, not exercise advice. If you try any practice you read about, go gently, and check with your teacher or health professional if you have an injury or health condition.

FAQ

How old is yoga?

It depends what you mean. Written references to yoga as a practice go back around 2,000 to 2,500 years. Some scholars think earlier practices existed, but evidence is thin.

Did yoga come from the Indus Valley?

Possibly some ideas did, but the "yogi seal" is debated and cannot be proven. Its meaning is still debated.

Is the yoga we do today the same as ancient yoga?

Not exactly. Today's posture-heavy classes are largely a modern development, while older traditions focused more on meditation, breath and ethics.

Who invented yoga?

No one person did. Yoga grew over centuries through many teachers and traditions.

Come practise with us

If this made you curious, we would love to see you at Yogshala Montreal. Message us at breathe@theyogshala.org or call 514-575-0009. And if you want to study yoga's history, philosophy, anatomy and teaching in depth, our Yogshala 200-hour Hatha Teacher Training runs from January 5 to April 18, 2027, in person in Montréal-Ouest and online. Certification is issued by Yogshala. Details are here.

Message us about the January training: the Yogshala 200-hour Hatha Teacher Training starts January 5, 2027.

With warmth,

Sahil

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