History of Yoga

The people that started yoga were of Dravidian descent, whose ancestors migrated out of Africa and settled in all parts of India, and prominently in the Indus Valley, where for hundreds of generations developed the system of thought that became yoga.

Ancient Dravidian culture was steeped in Samkhya, which became the theoretical foundation of yoga. Their belief systems did not have what would be called a "religion", but their way of life resembles what we aspire to when we devote ourselves to yoga; surrender to spirit, and honor of the earth.

It is important to note that there is great debate about the “Aryan vs. Dravidian” conflict, the “Aryan Invasion”, and to date the Dravidian Nationalism movement that seeks to restore their culture and heritage. I would like to state that I am not of Dravidian descent, but as an academic, it is not very hard to decipher that the Aryans came to India later than the Dravidians. You can say they “migrated” but there is evidence of slavery, genocide, and colonization. Even today the DNA of those in higher castes have more Aryan DNA than Dravidian. Racism in India has been prominent since the beginnings of the Aryan invasion over 2500 years ago, and it hasn’t really ever stopped.

An important part of Dravidian culture is that their culture was one of equality. There was no caste system in India before the Aryans came. Even today, Dravidians work to dismantle caste and generate equality for women. This is critically important because yoga philosophy clearly rejects the ideology of caste, and there are many reports of early practitioners of yoga leaving society, rejecting their caste, and living in caves in the mountains. There are also modern practitioners of yoga who did the same. In fact, the grandfather of modern yoga, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, rebelled against his caste in marriage as well as lifestyle. He did not believe in the concepts inherent in the caste system and was highly critical of western capitalism. Rejection of caste is also evident in the efforts of Mohandas Gandhi, who may be considered a great yogi.

There are serious racist ideologies that contributed to the national gaslighting of India through the British Invasion, and the Nazi regime. Both the British and the Nazi’s held ideas of Aryan superiority, in different ways. The British took over India, as they did so many parts of the world, under the premise that this was in the best interests of India, and that India had always been under the control of foreigners and so it was better to be under British rule. It was during the British invasion of India that the term “Hindu” became the way to describe anyone who practiced a native Indian religion, and further grouped the Dravidian cultures with others and destroyed their uniqueness as native Indians.

Hitler was very proud of his Aryan heritage, and the swastika that was the symbol of the Nazis can be found all over India, and in Hindu art and literature. The swastika is an Aryan symbol. It has been around for thousands of years, and it did not originate in India. Hitler was a great liar, but he was right about the swastika; this was an ancient Aryan symbol, and you can find that symbol in places where the Aryans took control of native people, just as we saw in the middle of the 20th century with Nazi Gemany. This is not to take sides or say something is good or bad; this is just to point out some historical facts.

Aryan thought developed within a culture of dominance, war, and scarce resources. This is also a fact. Aryan people lived in colder climates, and in times of natural disasters or scarce food resources, they adapted, or they died. They adapted by storing food, like grain. They adapted by traveling to places during different seasons. They adapted by eating meat, and in particular, using cows as food; their milk, their blood, and their bodies. Cows became sacred to Aryans because without them they would have died off. Without cows, this history would look very different.

Aryan military forces were mandatorily strong, or their people would be wiped out by other Aryans. Evolution granted Aryans larger bodies, and a biological makeup that gave them advantages in fighting. This is not very complicated; human beings evolve because of their culture, and the culture of Aryans was one of war, of travel, and domination. The Aryan belief systems were very masculine, very aggressive, and their way of life, along with their religions, was one of earthly gain. This “yang” of their culture balances out the “yin” of their natural surroundings; this is just how nature works.

I would be remiss if I didn’t address the now common question of Neanderthal influence in modern European DNA. I do not know much about this because at the time I was taking college classes on the matter (2006-2013) it was not very appropriate to talk about certain things, and the Neanderthal influence in our biology was one of those things not talked about, even though it was quite obvious even then. Without going into too much detail, it will probably come to light in future studies that the Dravidians were fairly isolated from the Aryans for thousands of years as homo sapiens came to global prominence. This is to say that because the Aryans traveled so much it is more likely that they mixed with the Neanderthals. This is just a logical conclusion; the two lived in the same places. I understand that Neanderthal DNA is found in people all over the world, just as Aryan DNA is, but I believe if you were to study it you would not find as much neanderthal DNA in Dravidian people as you would in the Aryans. Thus, it is fair to say, in my opinion, that the ancient cultures and genetics of the Neanderthals and the Aryans merged at a time when they did not have much interaction with the Dravidians. This is also to say that yoga, specifically defined as that which is described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and being a theological descendent of Samkhya, was not present in the Neanderthal or Aryan belief systems at all.

One can draw parallels to the modern capitalist way of life; the “eurocentric” point of view, and see that Aryan culture is still very active in our world today. People of Aryan descent are thriving all over the world. They live in many places that were originally inhabited by people of non-Aryan descent. The ancestors of Aryans did not achieve this haphazardly, in fact there was a great commitment to providing for the generations to come in Aryan culture. This is where the caste system, and feudalism developed; these are simply spawns of the Aryan thought complex. The concept of Aryan conquering is not new, and it is not only theory. Aryan people, from all nations of the earth, have had a culture of domination, and they have had this for thousands of years. It has given them rewards, as well as plagued them with catastrophes. They are big, strong, and aggressive. That is just the way it is because they are built that way.

There is no doubt that living in the northern hemisphere, far from the warm temperatures of the equator, creates a necessity of caring for the need for resources by traveling. If you look at the Native American tribes of the USA, you can see that the ones who lived in the North (I am from Idaho) either traveled, or traded with other groups of people, in order to survive. Some human groups went to war with other tribes to take resources from them, and other groups were more peaceful. This is just the way of things; survival requires adaptations, and at times survival begets violence when two groups of people are competing for the same resource. Thus, cultures that developed in areas with competing groups over scarce resources, often developed capacities for war.

Aryan people have lighter skin. They have lighter skin because their ancestors traveled farther north, into darkness and colder temperatures. They covered their bodies in skins, and they did not get much sunlight. Therefore, those with darker skin were unable to absorb the necessary Vitamin D from the sun, and they died, leaving behind them the lighter skin variants, and through the generations Aryan people became lighter skinned.

Of course, not all people of Aryan descent have light skin. This is not some kind of rule. This is acknowledging why people in Europe developed the way that they did, and why the native people of India developed how they did.

There is one characteristic of Aryan genetic heritage and evolution that should not escape the wonderings of yoga. Aryans were big, aggressive, and they were not dumb. Aryans had complex societal systems. They created structures, cities, and hierarchical systems of government that allowed them to distribute resources across thousands of miles. Aryans created ideas of religion that involved power structures here on earth. These religions often worked alongside governments, to create societal systems of control. Without these systems of control they could not succeed in their ambitions. While growing up and evolving within these cultures, the DNA of the Aryans developed a capacity to thrive in these environments, or perish. It was cool, to be an Aryan, and control things…. That was the way of it.

Aryans were not dumb. Humans are humans. Aryans were just as intelligent as Dravidians, they simply evolved to use their intelligence by different means, for different purposes. The consciousness that flowed through them served the purposes of their bodies, and their social surroundings. The monistic religions naturally included good and evil. Aryan heritage is brutal and it is beautiful. They are a part of nature, and we must accept that if we are to understand.

Ancient India & Dravidian Ancestral Heritage

It is very likely that the first humans to inhabit India were what we now call Dravidians. They likely thrived for thousands of years before Aryan influence. I want to make clear that I am not here to debate the chronology of Dravidian heritage. I am not an expert, I am a yoga teacher. But, it is pretty obvious that the Dravidians were descendants of Africa, just as we all are. The dark skin, and smaller bodies of the Dravidians indicates that they did not evolve far from the equator, and they did not fight in organized warfare like the Aryans. Instead, the ancient Dravidians likely lived peacefully and often in one place, with ample resources. The Indus Valley is one such place where the Dravidians clearly resided for a long time, but there is archaeological evidence that the Dravidian peoples settled as far away as Australia and other islands in the Pacific. It is important to note the logical conclusion, and the now scientific evidence, that Dravidian people evolved completely separate from the Aryans, and they evolved in a completely different environment.

Much less is known about the Dravidians than the Aryans for a few reasons. One is that they were often the conquered and not the conquerors, and therefore did not have control of the narraties of history. Another reason is that their languages were destroyed or replaced by Aryan ones; in fact very few Dravidian languages are still in existence today. Notably, Sanskrit is an Aryan language. The fact that yoga philosophy was translated into Sanskrit after the Aryan invasion is a topic that should get your attention if you want to uncover what yoga really is….

The traditions of the Dravidian peoples were so entirely distinct from Aryan traditions that to describe them using an Aryan language such as English is already to take away from what they really were. Suffice to say that we know they existed, and we know that yoga came from them.