Story of Patañjali

A celebrated commentator in Sanskrit. Patañjali is one of the best commentators of Pāṇini’s Vyākarṇasūtras. Pandits are of opinion that he got his name Patañjali to mean that people should worship (añjali) at his foot (pāda). He was such an adorable person. Pandits believe that Patañjali is the author of Yogasūtra and Carakasaṃhitā. A few believe that Patañjali was the incarnation of Ādiśeṣa. But modern scholars are of opinion that Patañjali, the commentator and Patañjali the author of Yogasūtras are two different persons.

In his book on Patañjalicarita, Rāmabhadradīkṣita writes about the birth of Patañjali:—"Once Goṇikā, daughter of a sage, prayed to the Sun-god for a son At once Ananta, King of the serpents, fell on her palm in the form of a sage. The ascetic girl brought up that sage as her son. After some years the sage went to Cidambara and prayed to Śiva to bless him with enough knowledge and wisdom to write a commentary on Kātyāyana’s Vyākaraṇavārttika (explanatory rules on Pāṇiṇi’s sūtras). Śiva blessed him and the sage wrote the commentary. Many disciples went to him to learn the commentary and the sage accepted them all as disciples and promised to teach them provided they would abide by a condition, namely, that nobody should remove a curtain he would place between him and the disciples while teaching. The teaching went on for some time. He would reply to their doubts but the replies were peculiar and ambiguous and the disciples, getting disappointed, removed the curtain one day. The sage cursed them all. One of the disciples was away from the place then and the sage cursed him for leaving the place without permission during the course of study. He begged for relief and the sage was pleased. The Guru said if he could teach his commentary to one who would say logically that the Bhūtakarmavācyakṛdanta (past participle of a verb) of the root 'Pac' was 'Pakva' he would be released from the curse. Candragupta who came from Ujjayinī gave the correct answer and he was taught the Mahābhāṣya. Bhartṛhari was the son born to Candragupta of a Śūdra woman.

Patañjali, according to Professor Goldstucker, was a courtier of King Puṣyamitra and was alive when Menander attacked Sāketa. This would mean that Patañjali lived before B.C. 150.