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Skull
10 October 2010, 01:16 PM
This famous commentator on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (among others) lived when ???

I thought maybe 9th century, but cannot recall, nor find anything about him... Until...

Finally found something - in a book no less - flourished in 15th century.

If anything more accurate is found, let me know.

shiv.somashekhar
24 September 2012, 12:02 PM
This famous commentator on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (among others) lived when ???

I thought maybe 9th century, but cannot recall, nor find anything about him... Until...

Finally found something - in a book no less - flourished in 15th century.

If anything more accurate is found, let me know.

There is no clear consensus on this. Some (Dasgupta, etc) are inclined to identify the Yoga-sutra author Patanjali with the author of the Mahabhashya. This leads to a date of second century BCE. Others (James Woods, etc) note that the identification of these two Patanjali-s does not occur before the 10th century CE and do not find strong evidence in support of it. They date Patanjali to around the 4th century CE. Depending on one of these choices, Vyasa who wrote a commentary on the Yoga sutras is dated to either the 4th century CE or 7th/8th century CE.

Gunarathna is dated to the 14th century CE and Vijnana Bhikshu came after him. So, a 15th/16th century CE date is correct for VB.