The Evolution of Modern Yoga

How much has yoga changed over the past 2,000 years? Daniel Simpson provides an engaging and authoritative overview of shifts in priorities that shaped new techniques, making yoga more appealing to contemporary practitioners.

Before the modern era, most yogis were men who renounced worldly life. Non-seated postures—first mentioned in texts about a thousand years ago—served as warm-ups for subtler techniques, and the ultimate goal was to sit like a stone. The average modern yoga class, by con...