“Yoga would never have met such an audience if it had not fulfilled the expectations of the West”

Interview. Practiced by nearly 300 million people around the world, yoga is, for many of its followers, much more than a simple sporting activity. Addressing the totality of the being, it engages the body as much as the mind. Ysé Tardan-Masquelier directed Yoga. The encyclopedia (Albin Michel, 736 pages, 39 euros), a fascinating yoga saga which “Does not say how to do yoga, but how it was made, who invented and reinvented it over the course of a long history, how it permeated Indian culture and why it went global in the West ”, explains the specialist of the Indian world. Story of a success story which does not hide anything from the excesses, in particular marketing, of which yoga has sometimes become the object.

What does the word “yoga” mean?

In the Vedic texts, which constitute the original base of Indian traditions since they were composed approximately between the XV^e and the VIII^e century BC, this word refers to the action of hitching a horse to a chariot – in an epic context – or an animal to a cart to travel. It is a question of “putting under the yoke”, of “joining” energies in such a way that they agree on a unified path – “yoke”, “junction” and “yoga” moreover share the same etymology. .

“The word” yoga “will be associated with the idea of ​​interior discipline, of the path of life”

This meaning very quickly became metaphorical. Thus, the poets of the Vedic hymns “harness their thoughts” to compose the beautiful poem which will travel far and wide, reach fame and glory. Little by little, the word “yoga” will be associated with the idea of ​​interior discipline, of the path of life. It is found in ancient Buddhism, Jainism and in the first texts of the Hindu tradition, in particular in the Bhagavad-Gita, to II^e century BC.

Does yoga really take root, as we often think, in time immemorial?

The historian cannot confirm this. At the most, it can go back to the period of construction which precedes the birth of yoga properly speaking, in the course of the I^er millennium BC. Some researchers have hypothesized an original indigenous form of yoga that dates back to two or three millennia BC. At present, we do not know.

What did yoga consist of at its origins?

In the Vedic period, that is to say at the end of II^e millennium BC, ascetics practiced fairly austere exercises – inverted positions or very long seated, combined with breathing exercises or fasting, for example. Although rare, the testimonies on these ascetics become more frequent in the centuries which follow, in particular at the time of the expedition of Alexander the Great (IV^e century BC), who is said to have encountered ascetics in India. Called “gymnosophists” – literally the “naked sages” – by the Greeks, they were able to sit for a very long time in direct sunlight, surrounded by fires increasing the temperature even further, or other heroic exercises.

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