Yoga Timeline

Indus Valley

  • 2800 BCE: Indus Valley, Mohenjo-daro ("Pashupati") clay seal

The Vedic period: 1500–1000 BCE

  • Vedas (Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur and Atharva)
  • 1500–1000 BCE: Rg Veda

Classic: 1000 BCE – 200 CE

  • Vedanta
  • Upaniṣads
  • 5th cent. BCE: Buddha
  • 4th cent. BCE: Ramayana
  • 50 BCE – 50 CE: earliest depiction of the yogapaṭṭa (in Madhya Pradesh)
  • 1st cent. CE: Buddhacarita, earliest references to āsana as a posture or seat
  • 2nd cent. CE: Bhagavad Gita
  • 1st-4th cent. CE: Patanjali, Yoga Sutra

Medieval: 200-1800 CE

  • 3rd cent.: Kāmasūtra
  • 6th cent.: Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā Nayasūtra, the earliest tantric teaching on āsana
  • 8th cent.: Pātañjalayogaśāstravivaraṇa, descriptions of how to practice 12 āsana (seated)
  • 13-14th cent: Vasishtha Samhita and Yoga Yajnavalkya (earliest descriptions of non-seated āsana in a Hatha yoga text)
  • 15th cent.: Hatha Yoga Pradipika (15 āsana)
  • 17-18th cent.: 100+ āsana begin to appear in texts
  • 1785: Bhagavad Gita translated from Sanskrit to English by Charles Wilkins

Modern: 1800 CE

  • 1805: William Emerson published an English translation of the Bhagavad Gītā
  • 1849: Thoreau became the first American to identify himself as a yogi
  • 1875: Theosophical Society
  • 1895: Vivekananda: Led the first "yoga retreat" in U.S. (De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga, 121)
  • 1896: Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, the beginning of "modern yoga"
  • 1919: Yogendra brings yoga asanas to the United States
  • 1930s: Standing Postures
  • 1945: Theos Bernard, Hatha Yoga, 1st American book on the physical discipline
  • 1946: Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi
  • 1953: Indra Devi, Forever Young, Forever Healthy
  • 1950s: Vipassana movement
  • 1960s: Postmodernism
  • 1965: President Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationalization Act
  • 1966: Iyengar, Light on Yoga (200+ āsana)
  • 1968: The Beatles went to India
  • 1969: Swami Satchidananda opened the Woodstock music festival
  • 1970s: Mindfulness
  • 1974: Time: Yoga "is rapidly becoming as much a part of American life as organic apple pie."
  • 1975: Start of Yoga Journal
  • 1975: Columbia High School (New Jersey) starts Transcendental Meditation (Quiet Time)
  • 1994: U.S. News and World Report, "Yoga Goes Mainstream"
  • 2003: Dharma Mittra, Asanas: 608 Yoga Postures
  • 2010: Singleton, Yoga Body
  • 2011: Encinitas Union School District (EUSD) begins a pilot yoga in schools program (district-wide 2012)
  • 2013: Jennifer and Stephen Sedlock sue EUSD
  • 2014: Narendra Modi addresses United Nations General Assembly
  • 2015: Daniel Lacerda, 2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses
  • 2021: Alabama reverses ban on school yoga