Origins of Yoga

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Warrior, Cobra, Downward Dog. If you do Yoga today, those are poses you’re surely aware of. But where and when did Yoga originate?

In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr Jim Mallinson to uncover the ancient roots of yoga - a tradition stretching back over 3,000 years. From the meditative practices of the Indus Valley Civilisation to the spiritual seekers of early India, they discover how yoga evolved from a path of divine discipline and self-realisation into one of the world’s most influential philosophies and practices.

The Origins of Buddhism

The Chinese Zodiac

Presented by Tristan Hughes. Audio editor is Aidan Lonergan, the producer is Joseph Knight. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.

All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds

The Ancients is a History Hit podcast.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener survey here:

https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey guys, I hope you're doing well. Welcome to this latest episode of The Ancients.
0:06.7	And we're good here. As you'll probably tell, I'm walking the dog. I'm walking gunner.
0:11.1	He's doing good as well. Oh no, here he comes right now. You might be able to hear the
0:14.6	running of a spaniel any second now, berserk running. There he is.
0:19.9	Anyway, enough of an insight into my life at the moment.
0:22.9	Today we're going to ancient India and we're exploring the story of the origins of yoga.
0:29.9	Now, as you're going to hear, yoga back then, it was very different to what we used to today.
0:35.7	Yeah, good boy.
0:36.6	Forget yoga studios, forget wellness
0:38.4	and being good to your body. You've got to think uncomfortable positions and hardcore ascetic
0:43.9	practices linked to holy men. We're going to be talking about all things like the Indus Valley
0:49.0	civilization, the Vedas, Nirvana, the Mahabharata, even Alexander the Great, all play their part in the story
0:56.7	of early yoga with our guest, Dr. Jim Malinson. Jim, he's the Bowden Professor of Sanskrit
1:02.6	at the University of Oxford. He came into our ancients HQ to record this episode. He's a lovely
1:07.7	man and I really do hope you enjoy. Let's go.
1:11.1	Warrior, Cobra, downward dog. If you do yoga today, those are poses you're surely aware of.
1:30.9	Today, yoga has become one of the fastest growing wellness movements in the world.
1:36.4	And its origins stretch back to ancient times, more than 3,000 years ago, in fact.
1:42.4	But, as you're going to hear, that yoga was very different
1:46.6	to what we're used to today. So what do we know about the emergence of yoga in ancient India?
1:53.2	Can we trace its origins all the way back to the Bronze Age, to the Indus Valley civilization?
1:59.2	How did yoga develop? And who were these people who dedicated their
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.