chapter one a survey of sanskrit commentary literature in kerala

16and Mah¡deva¿¡stri (17 th century AD) commented s¡´khya but their works are notpresently available.Yogadar¿anaThe yoga system of Pataµjali is a meta-psychological technique based uponthe philosophy of the s¡´khya. As a system of practice it is as old as the Atharvavedaand some earlier upaniÀads. The Mah¡bh¡rata the Bhagavadg¢t¡ and Lalitavist¡raalso refer to Yogic practices. The literature on yoga is thus found in an unsystematicform extensively in ancient Indian works.The first systematic work on yoga,however, is Pataµjali’s Yogas£tra. Vy¡sa’s (6 th century AD) Yogabh¡Ày¡ or V¡rtik¡ isan elaborate commentary on it.V¡caspatimi¿ra’s Tatvavai¿¡rad¢ and Vjµ¡nabhikÀu’s Yogav¡rtika are thetwo famous commentaries on Vy¡sa’s bh¡Àya. Bhoja has also written a smallcommentary not so much on Vy¡sa’s bh¡Àya as on the Yogas£tra itself, known asBhojav¤tti otherwise known as R¡jam¡rt¡¸·a. K¤À¸avallabh¡c¡rya’s Kira¸a is anothercommentary on it. Other commentaries on Yogas£tra are Ga¸e¿a D¢kÀita’s V¤tti,R¡m¡nandasarasvati’s (7 th century AD) Ma¸iprabh¡, N¡r¡ya¸at¢rtha’s