That’s what Swami Niranjananand Saraswati says:
Patna: Yoga is commonly believed to be a practice started by Sadhus and Sanyasis of India in the ancient times, but it is not true. One will be surprised to know that first yoga exercise had been introduced in Baghdad in Iraq and later in Iran and Moracco. This was stated by Munger-based Yoga Ashram and Bihar School of Yoga head Swami Niranjananand Saraswati while delivering a lecture at Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library on Sunday.
From there, he said, this was practised in Christian states and then came to India where Sadhus and Sanyasis preserved it. Swami said all the literatures published by his institutions are also translated in Persian and sent to Iraq and Iran which are certified by the governments of those countries. Every year people from those countries also come to Munger, he added.
We weren’t there so we don’t know! But the yog-historians out there please feel free to chime in.
Read the full article [Times of India]