by JASON BIRCH and JACQUELINE HARGREAVES
Over the last hundred years, various scholars have noted evidence indicating that the Sūtra and the Bhāṣya sections of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra were compiled by a single author called Patañjali. In recent years, Dr Philipp Maas has found further evidence in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra and other Sanskrit works, and has argued convincingly for it.1
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| A sage, Vyāsa? Maharashtra, 18th century. Painted on paper. According to register, Recto Album Leaf, Folio 38. 1974,0617,0.14.37. The Trustees of the British Museum. |
Over the last hundred years, various scholars have noted evidence indicating that the Sūtra and the Bhāṣya sections of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra were compiled by a single author called Patañjali. In recent years, Dr Philipp Maas has found further evidence in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra and other Sanskrit works, and has argued convincingly for it.1
However, the claim that the Sūtra was composed by Patañjali and the Bhāṣya by Vyāsa became the predominant view after the composition of the fourteenth-century Sarvadarśanasaṅgraha, which is the first source that clearly states the separate authorship of Patañjali and Vyāsa.
A good example of this view being expressed in a work on yoga is seen in the following two verses of an unpublished commentary on the Yogatārāvalī called the Rājatarala by Rāmasvāmipaṇḍita:
I meditate on the primal, boundless lord Śeṣa (i.e., Patañjali), who is born from the consciousness conceived by multitudes of the best yogins. The dirt of his feet is greatly honoured, his eyes are wide like lotuses, he composed the venerable Yogasūtra and his special abode is the heart lotus.We praise Vedavyāsa, whose dwelling is the heart. He arose as a partial incarnation of Viṣṇu, composed the Yogabhāṣya and his feet should be worshipped by multitudes of yogins.2
The Rājatarala (The Central Gem on Rājayoga) quotes the Śivayogapradīpikā (circa late 15th century) by name, which means it was composed after the 15th century. The fact that it synthesises teachings on Patañjali’s yoga with those of Haṭha and Rājayoga traditions suggests that it was written sometime during the 16th - 18th centuries, which was the era when this synthesis appears in other compilations on yoga, such as the Yogacintāmaṇi, the Yogasārasaṅgraha, the Yogasiddhāntacandrikā and so on.
Nearly all yoga compendiums of the 16th - 18th centuries, which we have consulted, mention Vyāsa as the author of the Bhāṣya. A possible exception is the seventeenth-century Yuktabhavadeva (1.297 – 300), which quotes a passage from both the Sūtra and the Bhāṣya as the work of Patañjali.
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| Krishna and the Pandavas being told by the sage Vyāsa where to obtain the horse for the sacrifice (aśvamedha). British Library Manuscript: Or12076 f4v The Razmnāmah, the Persian translation by Naqīb Khān of the Mahābhārata. Sub-imperial Mughal, 1598. |
NOTES
1 See Philipp Maas, "A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy" in: Eli Franco (ed.), Periodization and Historiography of Indian Philosophy. Vienna: Sammlung de Nobili, Institut für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde der Universität Wien, 2013. (Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, 37), p. 53-90.
2 Rājatarala
yogīndravṛndaparikalpitacitprasūnaṃ saṃpūjitāṅghrikamalaṃ kamalāyatākṣam ||
śrīyogasūtrakṛtam ādyam anantam īśaṃ śeṣaṃ viśeṣanilayaṃ kalaye hṛdabje ||9||
vedavyāsaṃ hṛdāvāsaṃ vāsudevāṃśasaṃbhavam |
yogabhāṣyakṛtaṃ yogivṛndavandyapadaṃ numaḥ ||10||
R1 = Yogatārāvalīvyākhyā (Rājataralaḥ), ms. B378 (f. 2), Oriental Research Institute, University of Mysore.
R2 = transcript of ms. 72330, Adyar Library and Research Centre, Chennai. See Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, Vol 8, Compiled by Parameswara Aithal, 1972, p. 311.
‘+’ = missing letter.
9a prasūnaṃ ] emend. : prasūna R1, R2. 10c saṃbhavam ] R2 : saṃbava+ R1. 10d vandyapadaṃ ] emend. : vandyaṃ padaṃ R2 : vandyaṃ pa++ R1. 10d numaḥ ] R2 : +++ R1.
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