Editing Patanjali (section)

==Life==

Many scholars including [[Louis Renou]] have suggested that the Patañjali who wrote on Yoga was a different person than the Patanjali who wrote a commentary on Panini's grammar.<ref name="Renou">{{cite book|editor=Narendra Nath Law|title=Louis de La Vallée Poussin Memorial Volume|year=1940|location=Calcutta|pages=368–73|author=Louis Renou|chapter=On the Identity of the Two Patañjalis}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=P. V.|title=चरक-चिन्तन (चरकसंहिता का ऐतिहासिक अध्ययन) (Carak-cintan. Carakasaṃhitā kā aitihāsik adhyayan)|year=1970|publisher=Caukhamba Saṃskṛt Saṃsthān|location=Vārāṇasī|pages=23–43}}; {{cite book|last=Sharma|first=P. V.|title=History of Medicine in India|year=1992|publisher=Indian National Science Academy|location=New Delhi|pages=181–82}}; {{cite book|last=Tripāṭhī|first=Yogendra Kumār|title=न्यायसूत्र एवं चरक-संहिता|year=1987|publisher=Trividhā Prakāśan|location=Vārāṇasī|pages=26–27}}; {{cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/yogasystemofpata00wooduoft |last=Woods| first=James Haughton|title=The Yoga-system of Patañjali: or, the ancient Hindu doctrine of Concentration of Mind Embracing the Mnemonic Rules, called Yoga-sūtras, of Patañjali and the Comment, called Yoga-bhāshya, attributed to Veda-Vyāsa and the Explanation, called Tattvaiçāradī, of Vāchaspati-miçra|year=1914|publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=xv–xvii}}.</ref> In 1914, James Wood proposed that they were the same person.<ref>{{cite book |last=Woods |first=James Haughton |title=he Yoga-system of Patañjali: or, the ancient Hindu doctrine of Concentration of Mind Embracing the Mnemonic Rules, called Yoga-sūtras, of Patañjali and the Comment, called Yoga-bhāshya, attributed to Veda-Vyāsa and the Explanation, called Tattvaiçāradī, of Vāchaspati-miçra|year=1914|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=introduction}}</ref> In 1922, [[Surendranath Dasgupta]] presented a series of arguments to tentatively propose that the famed Grammar text and the Yoga text author may be identical.<ref>{{cite book |author=Surendranath Dasgupta|title=A History of Indian Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoaMFmS1_lEC&pg=PA230|year=1992|publisher=Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass (Original: Cambridge University Press, 1922)|isbn=978-81-208-0412-8|pages=230–238}}</ref>

The view that these were likely two different authors is generally accepted,<ref name=lochtefeld506>{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld |title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch|url-access=registration |year=2002 |publisher =The Rosen Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8239-3180-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch/page/506 506]–507}}</ref><ref name="White">{{cite book |author=David Gordon White |title=The "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali": A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZGrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA34| year=2014| publisher= Princeton University Press|isbn= 978-1-4008-5005-1 |pages=34–38}}</ref> but some Western scholars consider them as a single entity.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Diane Collinson|author2=Kathryn Plant|author3=Robert Wilkinson|title=Fifty Eastern Thinkers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4JCEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA81 |year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-63151-3|pages=81–86}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Michael Edwards |title=The Oxford Handbook of Civil Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeASDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA273 |year=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-933014-0|pages=273–274}}</ref>

Some in the Indian tradition have held that one Patañjali wrote treatises on grammar, medicine and yoga. This has been memorialised in a verse by [[Bhoja]] at the start of his commentary on the Yogasutras called ''Rājamārttanda'' (11th century), and the following verse found in Shivarama's 18th-century text:<ref>{{Cite book | year=1914 | title=The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali | author1=Patañjali | author2=James Haughton Woods (transl.) | publisher=Published for Harvard University by Ginn & Co. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fc4oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP18 | pages=xiv–xv }}</ref>
{{Blockquote|<big>योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन। योऽपाकरोत्तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि॥</big>}}
{{Blockquote|Yōgēna cittasya padēna vācāṁ malaṁ śarīrasya ca vaidyakēna. Yōpākarōttaṁ pravaraṁ munīnāṁ patañjaliṁ prāñjalirānatōsmi}}
{{Blockquote|English translation: I bow with my hands together to the eminent sage Patañjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine.}}

This tradition is discussed by Meulenbeld<ref name=HIML /> who traces this "relatively late" idea back to [[Bhoja]] (11th century), who was perhaps influenced by a verse by [[Bhartṛhari]] (ca. 5th century) that speaks of an expert in yoga, medicine and grammar who, however, is not named. No known Sanskrit text prior to the 10th century states that the one and the same Patanjali was behind all the three treatises.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chandramouli S. Naikar|title=Patanjali of Yogasutras|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cdZWRs3bWpwC&pg=PA13|year=2002|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1285-5|pages=13–14}}</ref>

The sage Patañjali is said to have attained [[Samadhi]] through yogic meditation at the [[Brahmapureeswarar Temple]] located at [[Thiruppattur, Tiruchirappalli|Tirupattur]], Tamil Nadu, India. Jeeva Samadhi of sage Patanjali, which is now an enclosed meditation hall, can be seen near the [[Brahma]]'s shrine within [[Brahmapureeswarar Temple]] complex.<ref>{{cite web |title=Maharshi Patanjali Siddhar Jeevasamadhi, Brahmapureeswarar temple, Thirupattur, Tamil Nadu |url=https://sannidhi.net/sannidhi/maharshi-patanjali-siddhar-jeevasamadhi-brahmapureeswarar-temple-thirupattur-tamil-nadu/ |website=Sannidhi.net |access-date=6 November 2024}}</ref>

===Grammatical tradition===

In the grammatical tradition, Patañjali is believed to have lived in the second century BCE.<ref name="arapv">{{cite thesis |type=PhD | first=Giridhar | last=Mishra | author-link=Rambhadracharya | title=अध्यात्मरामायणेऽपाणिनीयप्रयोगाणां विमर्शः |trans-title=Deliberation on non-Paninian usages in the Adhyatma Ramayana | publisher=Sampurnanand Sanskrit University | place=Varanasi, India | language=sa | year=1981 | chapter= प्रस्तावना |trans-chapter=Introduction | chapter-url=http://jagadgururambhadracharya.org/works/arapv/prastavana.php | access-date=21 May 2013}}</ref> He wrote a ''Mahabhasya'' on Panini's sutras, in a form that quoted the commentary of [[Kātyāyana]]'s ''vārttikas''. This is a major influential work on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics.<ref name="Banerji1989p233">{{cite book|author=Sures Chandra Banerji|title=A Companion to Sanskrit Literature: Spanning a Period of Over Three Thousand Years, Containing Brief Accounts of Authors, Works, Characters, Technical Terms, Geographical Names, Myths, Legends and Several Appendices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkOAEdIsdUsC&pg=PA233|year=1989|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0063-2|page=233}}</ref> The dating of Patanjali and his ''Mahabhasya'' is established by a combination of evidence: that from the Maurya Empire period, the historical events mentioned in the examples he used to explain his ideas, the chronology of ancient classical Sanskrit texts that respect his teachings, and the mention of his text or his name in ancient Indian literature.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bart Dessein|author2=Weijin Teng|title=Text, History, and Philosophy: Abhidharma across Buddhist Scholastic Traditions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bzBRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA32|year=2016|publisher=Brill Academic|isbn=978-90-04-31882-3|pages=32–34}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=George Cardona|title=Pāṇini: A Survey of Research |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=adWXhQ-yHQUC |year=1997|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1494-3|pages=262–268}}</ref> Of the three ancient grammarians, the chronological dating of Patanjali to mid 2nd century B.C. is considered as "reasonably accurate" by mainstream scholarship.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter M. Scharf|title=The Denotation of Generic Terms in Ancient Indian Philosophy: Grammar, Nyāya, and Mīmāṃsā |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qh4LAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1 |year=1996|publisher=American Philosophical Society|isbn=978-0-87169-863-6|pages=1 with footnote 2}}</ref>

The text influenced Buddhist grammatical literature,<ref>{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe|title=Grammatical Literature|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2_VbnWkZ-SYC&pg=PA163|year =1977|publisher= Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01706-0|pages=163–166, 174–176 with footnotes}}</ref> as well as memoirs of travellers to India. For example, the Chinese pilgrim [[Yijing (monk)|I-tsing]] mentions that the ''Mahabhasya'' is studied in India and advanced scholars learn it in three years.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hartmut Scharfe|title=Grammatical Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_VbnWkZ-SYC&pg=PA153|year=1977|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-01706-0|pages=153–154}}</ref>

===Yoga tradition===
{{Quote box
 |quote  = '''Self study'''
<poem>
Practice self study,
to commune with
your chosen divinity.
</poem>
 |source = — Patanjali, ''Yogasutras II.44''<ref>{{cite book|author1=David Carpenter|author2=Ian Whicher|title=Yoga: The Indian Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8M-PAgAAQBAJ |year=2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-79606-8|page=34}}</ref><ref>Stephen Phillips (2009), ''Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231144858}}, pages 151, 209, 215, 263</ref>
 |bgcolor=#FFE0BB
 |align  = right
}}

In the Yoga tradition, Patañjali is a revered name. This Patañjali's oeuvre comprises the sutras about Yoga (''Yogasūtra'') and the commentary integral to the sutras, called the ''Bhāṣya''.  Some consider the sutras and the Bhaṣya to have had different authors, the commentary being ascribed to "an editor" (Skt. "vyāsa").  According to Phillipp Maas, the same person named Patanjali composed the sutras and the ''Bhāṣya'' commentary.<ref>{{cite book|last=Maas|first=Philipp. A.|title=Samādhipāda: das erste Kapitel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert| year= 2006|publisher= Shaker|location= Aachen|isbn=978-3832249878}}</ref>

Radhakrishnan and Moore attribute the text to the grammarian Patañjali, dating it as 2nd century [[BCE]], during the [[Maurya Empire]] (322–185 BCE).{{Sfn|Radhakrishnan|Moore|1957|p=453}} Maas estimates Patañjali's Yogasutra's date to be about 400 CE, based on tracing the commentaries on it published in the first millennium CE.<ref name=maas-sama/> Edwin Bryant, on the other hand, surveys the major commentators in his translation of the ''Yoga Sūtras''.{{sfn|Bryant|2009|p={{page needed|date=December 2021}}}} He states that "most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era (circa first to second century), but that it has been placed as early as several centuries before that."{{sfn|Bryant|2009|p=xxxiv}} Bryant concludes that "A number of scholars have dated the ''Yoga Sūtras'' as late as the fourth or fifth century C.E., but these arguments have all been challenged", and late chronology for this Patanjali and his text are problematic.{{sfn|Bryant|2009|p=510, notes 43–44}}

===Tamil Saivite legend===
[[File:Patanjali.jpg|right|upright=0.8|thumb|A garlanded Patanjali statue]]

Regarding his early years, the [[Tamil people|Tamil]] [[Saiva Siddhanta]] tradition from around 10th century AD holds that Patañjali learned Yoga along with seven other disciples from the great Yogic [[Guru]] [[Nandi (Hinduism)|Nandhi Deva]], as stated in [[Tirumular]]'s ''[[Tirumandiram]]'' (Tantra 1). His Samadhi is said to be at [[Rameswaram]] Shiva temple and a shrine for him still exists in the temple.
<blockquote>
''Nandhi arulPetra Nadharai Naadinom''<br />
''Nandhigal Nalvar Siva Yoga MaaMuni''<br />
''Mandru thozhuda Patañjali Vyakramar''<br />
''Endrivar Ennodu (Thirumoolar) Enmarumaame''
</blockquote>
Translation<ref>{{cite book |title=Tirumantiram = Holy hymns : with introduction, synopsis, and notes |language=en |last=Natarajan |first=Balasubrahmanya (trans.) |year=1979 |publisher=ITES Publications |location=Madras |oclc=557998668}}</ref>

<blockquote>
We sought the feet of the [[God]] who graced Nandikesvara<br/>
The [[Four Kumaras|Four Nandhis]], <br/>
Sivayoga Muni, Patañjali, Vyaghrapada and I (Thirumoolar)<br/>
We were these eight.
</blockquote>