ashtanga

"eight limbs" (ash + anga ) meaning the eight parts or stages into which the sage Patanjali divided Yoga when he traveled throughout India about 200 B.C.E., studying everything that he could find by the name of Yoga. He then wrote a structural and functional analysis of the techniques, called the " Yoga Sutras," which to this day as still considered to be the single most definitive treatise on the subject.