Where did yoga come from?

Yoga is an ancient Indian body of knowledge. It is one of six classic Indian arts and deals with the way to achieve personal enlightenment. Its origins are lost in the ancient history of India but it is known to be at least 3000 years old. The Bhagavad Gita which probably dates back to 200 BC is one of the best known ancient books on the subject. In it the god Krishna takes on the form of Arjuna's charioteer and explains Yoga philosophy to him in the alegorical context of a battle between his family and their rivals. There is also a text from roughly the same period called Yoga Sutras by the author Patanjali which presents the whole subject in 186 short sentences known in Sanskrit as sutras (from the sanskrit word for a thread). This short work would have been required reading for any Yoga student in classical times. There are several excellent translations available. Patanjali has given us the best definition of Yoga yet. It is simply "Yoga is that which stills the mind".