Patanjali

Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana’s vārttikas (short comments) on Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī and of an unspecified work of medicine (āyurveda). Patanjali’s place of birth is held to be “Gonarda” (Thiru-Gona-Malai), a “country in the east” and he described himself as a “Gonardiya” throughout his life.