[Footnote 1: The Yoga writer Jaigî@savya wrote "Dhâranâs'âstra" which dealt with Yoga more in the fashion of Tantra then that given by Patañjali. He mentions different places in the body (e.g. heart, throat, tip of the nose, palate, forehead, centre of the brain) which are centres of memory where concentration is to be made. See Vâcaspati's Tâtparya@tîkâ or Vâtsyâyana's bhâ@sya on Nyâya sûtra, III. ii. 43.]
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criticized; the putting of an "iti" (the word to denote the conclusion of any work) at the end of the third chapter is evidently to denote the conclusion of his Yoga compilation. There is of course another "iti" at the end of the fourth chapter to denote the conclusion of the whole work. The most legitimate hypothesis seems to be that the last chapter is a subsequent addition by a hand other than that of Patañjali who was anxious to supply some new links of argument which were felt to be necessary for the strengthening of the Yoga position from an internal point of view, as well as for securing the strength of the Yoga from the supposed attacks of Buddhist metaphysics. There is also a marked change (due either to its supplementary character or to the manipulation of a foreign hand) in the style of the last chapter as compared with the style of the other three.
The sûtras, 30-34, of the last chapter seem to repeat what has already been said in the second chapter and some of the topics introduced are such that they could well have been dealt with in a more relevant manner in connection with similar discussions in the preceding chapters. The extent of this chapter is also disproportionately small, as it contains only 34 sûtras, whereas the average number of sûtras in other chapters is between 51 to 55.
We have now to meet the vexed question of the probable date of this famous Yoga author Patañjali. Weber had tried to connect him with Kâpya Pata@mchala of S'atapatha Brâhma@na [Footnote ref l]; in Kâtyâyana's Varttika we get the name Patañjali which is explained by later commentators as patanta@h añjalaya@h yasmai (for whom the hands are folded as a mark of reverence), but it is indeed difficult to come to any conclusion merely from the similarity of names. There is however another theory which identifies the writer of the great commentary on Pâ@nini called the Mahâbhâ@sya with the Patañjali of the Yoga sûtra. This theory has been accepted by many western scholars probably on the strength of some Indian commentators who identified the two Patañjalis. Of these one is the writer of the Patañjalicarita (Râmabhadra Dîk@sîta) who could not have flourished earlier than the eighteenth century. The other is that cited in S'ivarâma's commentary on Vâsavadattâ which Aufrecht assigns to the eighteenth century. The other two are king Bhoja of Dhâr and Cakrapâ@nidatta,
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[Footnote 1: Weber's History of Indian Literature, p. 223 n.]
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the commentator of Caraka, who belonged to the eleventh century A.D. Thus Cakrapâ@ni says that he adores the Ahipati (mythical serpent chief) who removed the defects of mind, speech and body by his Pâtañjala mahâbhâ@sya and the revision of Caraka. Bhoja says: "Victory be to the luminous words of that illustrious sovereign Ra@nara@nigamalla who by composing his grammar, by writing his commentary on the Patañjala and by producing a treatise on medicine called Râjam@rgâ@nka has like the lord of the holder of serpents removed defilement from speech, mind and body." The adoration hymn of Vyâsa (which is considered to be an interpolation even by orthodox scholars) is also based upon the same tradition. It is not impossible therefore that the later Indian commentators might have made some confusion between the three Patañjalis, the grammarian, the Yoga editor, and the medical writer to whom is ascribed the book known as Pâtañjalatantra, and who has been quoted by S'ivadâsa in his commentary on Cakradatta in connection with the heating of metals.
Professor J.H. Woods of Harvard University is therefore in a way justified in his unwillingness to identify the grammarian and the Yoga editor on the slender evidence of these commentators. It is indeed curious to notice that the great commentators of the grammar school such as Bhart@rhari, Kaiyya@ta, Vâmana, Jayâditya, Nâges'a, etc. are silent on this point. This is indeed a point against the identification of the two Patañjalis by some Yoga and medical commentators of a later age. And if other proofs are available which go against such an identification, we could not think the grammarian and the Yoga writer to be the same person.