History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.259

v7.c94.259

The above examples show that in the times of the Sūtras (i. e. several centuries before the Christian era) the conception of prāṇāyāma had been so developed as to hold that it was a sort of penance and religious rite for removing the taint attaching to acts and omissions that were condemned by the then society. At this stage prāṇāyāma appears merely to have been a religious act independent of any theory about its being one of the eight aṅgas of yoga.