Patañjali

Patañjali is named as the author or compiler of the Yoga-sūtra (Yogasūtra / Pātañjalayogaśāstra), the root text of the classical Yoga darśana. The work systematizes yoga as the disciplined stilling of mental activity (citta-vṛtti-nirodha), built on a Sāṃkhya-like dualism of consciousness (puruṣa) and nature (prakṛti), and outlines the eight 'limbs' culminating in samādhi. Almost nothing reliable is known of the man. His dates are among the most disputed in Indian philosophy, ranging from roughly the 2nd c. BCE to c. 400 CE (Philipp Maas argues for c. 400 CE based on parallels with the Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu, and that the sūtras and the Bhāṣya may be by one author). Crucially, the once-standard identification of this Patañjali with the grammarian Patañjali of the Mahābhāṣya (c. 2nd c. BCE) is now generally rejected by scholars on grounds of language and content — a conflation that does not appear before Bhoja in the 11th century. He must therefore be treated as a near-legendary figure.