At a glance
- Name & meaning: Patanjali (पतञ्जलि). The traditional story reads it as pata (“fallen”) + anjali (“palms joined in offering”) — one who fell into cupped hands.
- Other names: Gonardiya and Gonikaputra (names linked to him by tradition and some scholars); Phanindra or Sheshavatara, as an incarnation of the serpent Adishesha.
- Category: Darshan-founder — author of the root text of the Yoga darshana, one of the six classical schools.
- Father: Not recorded in any early source.
- Mother: In legend, the yogini Gonika, into whose palms he fell. This is a devotional story, not a historical record.
- Spouse / children: No reliable account.
- Disciples: No named disciples in early sources. In Tamil Shaiva tradition he is one of the eight disciples of Nandi, alongside Vyaghrapada and Tirumular.
- Era: The Yoga Sutras are dated by scholars anywhere from the 2nd century BCE to about the 4th–5th century CE; many favour the early centuries CE. The grammarian Patanjali is securely placed in the mid-2nd century BCE.
- Associated places: Chidambaram (where he is said to have witnessed Shiva’s cosmic dance); shrines at the Brahmapureeswarar temple, Tirupattur, and at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.
- Major works: Yoga Sutra (with the Yoga-bhashya, possibly his own); the Mahabhashya on Panini’s grammar (traditionally attributed); a lost medical work also bears his name.
- Best known for: “Yogash chitta-vritti-nirodhah” and the eight limbs of yoga — yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi.
Birth and family background
Almost nothing historical is known about Patanjali’s family, and honest profiles have to say so. What we have instead are sacred legends. The best known holds that he was an incarnation of Adishesha, the thousand-headed serpent on whom Vishnu rests. A pious yogini named Gonika was praying for a worthy student, her palms joined in offering, when a tiny serpent fell into them and took human form. Because he “fell” (pata) into her “joined palms” (anjali), she named him Patanjali. This is why he is often shown with a human upper body, a serpent’s lower body and a hood of cobra heads, and why yoga classes that begin with an invocation to him picture him this way.
The names Gonardiya (“from Gonarda”) and Gonikaputra (“son of Gonika”) appear in older Sanskrit literature, and some traditions and scholars have identified them with Patanjali — but this remains an argument, not an established fact.
Life and key episodes
Witnessing Shiva’s dance at Chidambaram
South Indian Shaiva tradition, especially around Chidambaram, tells that Adishesha longed to see the Ananda Tandava, the blissful dance of Shiva as Nataraja. He took birth as Patanjali and did penance, and together with the tiger-footed sage Vyaghrapada was granted the vision of the dance. Images of the two sages flank Nataraja in many South Indian temples.
A disciple of Nandi
The Tamil Tirumantiram of Tirumular names Patanjali among eight disciples who learned yoga from Nandi, the guardian of Shiva’s abode. Shrines to him exist in Tamil Nadu, including one venerated as his samadhi within the Brahmapureeswarar temple at Tirupattur.
One sage, three purifications
A popular Sanskrit verse, traced to the 11th-century King Bhoja and still recited in many yoga schools, honours Patanjali as the sage who purified mind, speech and body:
योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ।
योऽपाकरोत्तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥
“With joined palms I bow to Patanjali, foremost of sages, who removed the impurities of the mind by yoga, of speech by grammar, and of the body by medicine.” The verse is devotionally beautiful, but it is also the source of the three-in-one identification that historians question (see below).
Achievements: the Yoga Sutras explained
Patanjali did not invent yoga — meditation and breath discipline appear in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita long before. His achievement was to gather existing teaching into a precise, systematic manual of 195 or 196 sutras (editions differ), grounded in the metaphysics of Kapila’s Sankhya. The text begins:
अथ योगानुशासनम् ॥ १.१ ॥
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥ १.२ ॥
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम् ॥ १.३ ॥
“Now, the teaching of yoga. Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind. Then the seer rests in its own true nature.” In three lines he states the subject, the method and the goal.
The four padas
- Samadhi Pada (51 sutras) — what yoga is; the five kinds of mental fluctuation; practice (abhyasa) and detachment (vairagya); devotion to Ishvara as a direct route; the levels of samadhi. Here Om is named as the word that expresses Ishvara — see our page on the meaning of Om.
- Sadhana Pada (55 sutras) — the practice. Kriya yoga (discipline, self-study and surrender to Ishvara); the five kleshas or afflictions — ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life; and the first five limbs of ashtanga yoga.
- Vibhuti Pada (55 or 56 sutras) — the last three limbs, which together form samyama, and the extraordinary powers (siddhis) that may arise, with a warning that they can become obstacles.
- Kaivalya Pada (34 sutras) — the nature of the mind, karma and impressions, and final liberation (kaivalya): the seer’s freedom from identification with the mind.
The eight limbs (ashtanga)
Sutra 2.29 lists them in a single line:
यमनियमासनप्राणायामप्रत्याहारधारणाध्यानसमाधयोऽष्टावङ्गानि ॥ २.२९ ॥
- Yama — five restraints towards others: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, brahmacharya, non-possessiveness (2.30).
- Niyama — five observances towards oneself: cleanliness, contentment, discipline, self-study, surrender to Ishvara.
- Asana — defined simply as “स्थिरसुखम् आसनम्” (2.46): a posture that is steady and comfortable. Patanjali says almost nothing about specific postures; the elaborate asana systems of modern yoga come largely from later hatha yoga.
- Pranayama — regulation of the breath.
- Pratyahara — drawing the senses back from their objects.
- Dharana — fixing attention on one point.
- Dhyana — unbroken flow of attention: meditation.
- Samadhi — absorption, where only the object shines forth.
Unlike classical Sankhya, Patanjali admits Ishvara — a special purusha untouched by affliction and karma — which is why Yoga is sometimes described as “Sankhya with God”. For how repetition of a sacred word supports this practice, see japa, the practice of mantra repetition.
Writings attributed to Patanjali — and the authorship debate
Yoga Sutra. His undisputed claim to fame. The oldest commentary, the Yoga-bhashya, is traditionally ascribed to a “Vyasa”; some scholars (notably Philipp Maas) argue that Patanjali wrote the sutras and this commentary together as one work.
Mahabhashya. The “Great Commentary” on Panini’s grammar, which also discusses Katyayana’s notes. It is firmly dated to around the mid-2nd century BCE and remained the final authority of classical Sanskrit grammar for two thousand years.
A medical work (sometimes called Patanjala-tantra, or a revision of Charaka’s text) is also attributed to a Patanjali; it is lost or survives only in quotations. See also Charaka.
Are they the same person? Traditional circles say yes, following the verse quoted above. Most modern scholars think not: the Yoga Sutra and the Mahabhashya differ completely in style and vocabulary, neither refers to the other, and no known text before about the 10th–11th century identifies the two authors as one. Many scholars use “Patanjali” for both without claiming they were the same man. Readers should know both views.
Why he is revered today
- Nearly every serious yoga training reads the Yoga Sutra, and schools in the lineage of T. Krishnamacharya — including Iyengar Yoga and Ashtanga Vinyasa — open with an invocation to Patanjali.
- International Day of Yoga (21 June) has made the eight limbs widely known far beyond India.
- After centuries of relative neglect, the Yoga Sutra returned to prominence in the late 19th century, helped greatly by Swami Vivekananda.
- In South India he is worshipped at Chidambaram and other Shiva temples as the serpent-sage devotee of Nataraja.
Variant traditions and a historical note
Dating the Yoga Sutra is genuinely uncertain: estimates run from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE. Edwin Bryant notes that most scholars place it around the first two centuries CE, while Maas argues for about 400 CE. Some scholars see the fourth pada as a later addition. There were also several authors named Patanjali, including an 8th-century commentator on Charaka. The Shesha-avatara legend, the Gonika story and the Chidambaram tradition are sacred narratives that grew up around the name — treasured by devotees, but not biographical data.
Frequently asked questions
How many sutras are in the Yoga Sutras?
195 in the reckoning of the Yoga-bhashya and Krishnamacharya’s tradition; 196 in others, including B.K.S. Iyengar’s. The difference comes from one sutra in the third pada.
Did Patanjali invent yoga or asanas?
No. He systematised older teaching, and his text says very little about postures — only that asana should be steady and comfortable. Most modern asana practice comes from later hatha yoga texts.
Is Patanjali the same as the grammarian?
Tradition says yes; most scholars say probably not. The grammarian is dated to the 2nd century BCE; the Yoga Sutra is probably later.