Patanjali

Patanjali

Patañjali Tamil: பதஞ்ஜலி (Sanskrit: पतञ्जलि, ; fl. 150 BCE or 2nd c. BCE) is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas (short comments) on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī and of an unspecified work of medicine (āyurveda).

Patanjali's place of birth is held to be "Gonarda", in a "country in the eastern division", and he described himself as a "Gonardiya" throughout his life. This corroborates Tirumular's Tirumandhiram, which describes him as hailing from Then Kailasam (Koneswaram temple, Trincomalee), and he famously visited the Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, where he wrote the Charana Shrungarahita Stotram on Nataraja. In recent decades, the Yoga Sutra has become quite popular worldwide for the precepts regarding practice of Raja Yoga and its philosophical basis. "Yoga" in traditional Hinduism involves inner contemplation, a system of meditation practice and ethics.