Yoga is an ancient practice originating in India over 5,000 years ago, rooted in spiritual, mental, and physical disciplines.
Yoga[a] (UK: /ˈjəʊɡə/, US: /ˈjoʊɡə/;[1] Sanskrit: योग 'yoga' [joːɡɐ] ⓘ; lit. 'yoke' or 'union') is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain liberation (moksha),[2][3][4][5][b] as practiced in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions.[6][7] Modern forms of Yoga are practiced worldwide,[8] often entailing posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique.[9][10]
Yoga may have pre-Vedic origins,[c] but is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin, and drew from a common body of practices, including Vedic elements.[11][12] Yoga-like practices are mentioned in the Rigveda[13] and a number of early Upanishads,[14][15][16][d] but systematic yoga concepts emerged during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism.[17] The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the classical text on Hindu yoga, samkhya-based but influenced by Buddhism, dates to the early centuries of the Common Era.[18][19][e] Hatha yoga texts began to emerge between the ninth and 11th centuries, originating in Tantra.[f]