Buddhism adopted certain yogic practices even in its nascent stages. Buddha is said to have lived in India between 563 and 483 BCE. Buddhism proposes that all worldly suffering can be alleviated if one renounces the material world. 

The yogic tradition, with its focus on the inner self, was hence adopted by Buddhism. The common essence of both yoga and Buddhism is the attainment of enlightenment through discipline. Buddhism refers to this enlightenment or realisation as Nirvana. 

While the history of yoga goes far back in time, the physical aspects of the yogic practice were first detailed by sage Patanjali between 400  and 500 CE. The sage was a scholar of the Hindu belief system, and he elaborated on the transcendental aspects of the yogic theory. His work, the Yoga Sutras, is widely known for the information it contains about asanas or the physical component of yoga centered around postures. 

The Yoga Sutras is important to the discipline as it contains over a hundred memorable aphorisms related to yoga. The text has given birth to numerous translations. Many important spiritual figures like Swami Vivekananda brought the text back into the limelight as they tried to revive the yogic practices.