REVIEW ON ?HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA? - AN AUTHORITATIVE TEXT ON YOGA

Yoga is a branch of ancient Indian philosophy among Shad Darshan and sister concern of Sankhya Darshan. Hatha Yoga Pradipika is an authoritative text on Hatha Yoga, written by Swami Swatmaram Yogi. It is the oldest surviving text on Hatha Yoga, written possibly in 15th century CE by Swatmaram Yogi. It is complete, comprehensive and detailed descriptive text along with knowledge of Raja Yoga too, but emphasis of the text is upon Hatha Yoga and Hatha Yoga is mentioned as the path of Raja Yoga. Swatmarama Yogi has named the chapters of the text as Upadesha. Text is complete in itself with four chapters. Present paper will highlight the important contributions of this text and its relevance in present era.