The author of the nucleus or core of the Yogasūtras is actually unknown as a historical figure. The Indian tradition calls him Patañjali. But this Patañjali is not a verifiable individual. He – or it – is a process of oral recitation. The wording of these recitations or the “Urtext” is submerged under secondary, accidental, ancillary tendencies made by later editors, re-editors and revisers. Their manipulations resulted in interpolations (i.e. additions) and dislocations (misplacements). Not only had words and single sūtras (maxims) been added and misplaced, but even whole passages of paragraphs. Textual criticism, based on literary content and the stylistic forms, leads to the reconstruction of several editions. Accordingly, the text of the Yogasūtras is divided into five parts.
It begins with Part P, named after the progenitor Patañjali, which essentially contains the well-known Major Eightfold Path to yogic redemption from reincarnation. This is followed by Part B, which is not the work of Patañjali, but of an imitator, and deals with the lesser-known Minor Eightfold Path, the highlight of which are the eight clarifications (prasādana, Yogasūtra 1,32-39). Two further revisions deal, on the one hand, with the supernatural abilities, the siddhis, by an editor called the ‘conjurer’ (Part C), and on the other hand, with a collection of miscellaneous details in Part D, a kind of postscript by a ‘gatherer.’ Part E contains the numerous later and minor additions scattered throughout the text of Parts P and B. A text-historical stemma illustrates the complex development of today’s vulgate text, which was gradually expanded over the course of more than two millennia.