The Upanishad period is also knows as pre-classical yoga period. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad clearly mentioned yoga as a meditation in 900 BC to 400 BC. The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad-Gita (oldest Hindu scripture) shows the yoga history in 500 BC and 200 BC .

The Patanjali “ Yoga Sutra’s” period is also known as the Classical period of yoga. Patanjali, undoubtedly the greatest expounder of Yoga, lived sometime between 500 and 200 B.C. The life of Patanjali is an enigma to modern historians, and almost nothing is known about this great Master who epitomizes Yoga. It is only with the help of legends that one can draw inferences about him. . As per one legend, he fell (pata) into the hands (anjali) of a woman ( Mother), thus giving him the name Patanjali… The main attempt of Patanjali was to define and normalize classical yoga form and is known as Patanjali eight fold path of yoga (Eight Limbs of Classical Yoga).

Numerous sovereign yoga schools were developed during this period after the Yoga sutra period, hence the name Post classical yoga. The human body became filed of study along with the meditation which was missing is the previous years. A new system with numerous yoga exercises was developed. And thus Hatha yoga, Raj yoga and other branches emerged.