Is Yoga the Next Red Herring of Indian History?
Scholars, practitioners and laymen are suddenly looking for textual sources of Yoga. But is this a good way to find evidence for a tradition that may have roots in India thousands of years ago. No language or written texts exist beyond 3000 years, while Hinduism and many of its practices are known to exist prior to that and exist in India only in oral traditions. Therefore, efforts find evidence and date yoga based on textual sources seems to be futile, if not vain, which may not lead to a fruitful conclusion.
It is no surprise for anyone following Indian history to notice that a new red herring is brought to the table of Indian Historians at the turn of every century. Aryan invasion now modified to Aryan migration is the first of such juicy subjects, which have preoccupied scholars for over a century. As scholars of India became wary of the controversy and were finally getting ready to forsake that topic of Aryan migration, the question of 'Is Hinduism a religion,' 'imagination,' or anything else, is brought forward which still continues to baffle a number of novice scholars of Hinduism, and Indian History. Both of these subjects may seem different at first look, but closely connected. First it is the foundation of Hinduism (Vedas are the basis or basic texts of Hinduism) that was in question. Vedas were probably gifted to India by some alien migrants. Indian's don't know who gave them their beloved Vedic texts, and the aliens forgot to mention it or say where they come from. How gracious of them. There are very few takers for this theory now. That is a major issue for some scholars, which leads to the next major controversy, which is partly manufactured to fill this void. The next big controversy 'could Hinduism be classed as a religion?' No Aryans leads to no Hinduism! India is successfully pronounced a country without religion. Who does that benefit? One can only imagine.
Now that the controversies surrounding these two theories have subsided, a new wave of theories began floating around about the origins and dating of Yoga. It seems there is tremendous work being poured into understanding Yoga and its beginnings. I would not be surprised to see similar theories and controversies making their appearance once again under the new guise.
