Tapas, austerity or ascetic heat, is the third niyama, the discipline of voluntarily accepted hardship, fasting, physical discipline or endurance undertaken to burn away impurity and strengthen the will. Patanjali associates its practice with the destruction of impurity and the perfection of the body and senses. Earlier Vedic literature already uses the same word for the creative heat of ascetic practice, a continuity the Yoga Sutras draw on rather than invent.
Facts
Disputed
Origin PeriodDated for the Yoga Sutras themselves to between the second century BCE and the fourth or fifth century CE, though the word and concept are already present in Vedic literature many centuries earlier: an early dating follows the tradition's own attribution to a single ancient sage, while a late dating, argued by scholars such as Philipp Maas, reads the surviving text as a composite assembled together with its own earliest commentary. 1 The Yoga Sutras' date is disputed among scholars, from a single ancient author around the second century BCE to a later compilation as late as the fourth or fifth century CE; the debate turns on whether the text and its earliest surviving commentary were composed together or centuries apart. Attributed Author / CompilerTraditionally attributed to Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras; scholarship debates whether this is the same Patanjali credited with the Sanskrit grammatical treatise of that name. 1 Whether the Patanjali credited with the Yoga Sutras is the same figure credited with the Sanskrit grammatical treatise of that name, and whether the text as it stands is the work of one author or a later compilation, are both disputed. Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailPatanjali associates its practice with the destruction of impurity and the perfection of the body and senses (Yoga Sutra 2.43); the term continues a much older Vedic usage for the creative heat of ascetic practice rather than introducing a new concept. 1 Origins
Place of OriginIndia; nothing internal to the text fixes a specific region of composition. 1 Origin of the NameSanskrit tapas, heat, from the root tap, to burn or to heat; applied since Vedic literature to the generative heat produced by ascetic exertion. 1 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceAusterity or ascetic heat, the discipline of voluntarily accepted hardship, fasting, physical discipline or endurance undertaken to burn away impurity and strengthen the will; the third niyama. 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and CommentaryEdwin F. Bryant
Opposes
Originates in Language
Source The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and CommentaryEdwin F. Bryant
Same As
Hindu Niyama virtue linked to its own doctrine article, matching the Yama pattern above.
Sources
1. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary
Edwin F. Bryant, North Point Press, 2009
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