In fact, there exists a pairing of philosophies. And it is like this : Yoga with Sāmkhya, Vaiseshika with Nyaya, and Vedanta with Mimamsa.

Of all these philosophical systems, Sāmkhya is considered the oldest. And its influence can be felt in every other system. Its founder Kapila is admired and respected by one and all. Most importantly, what he said is atheistic !! Yoga (which can be easily interchanged with the word Tantra) has just taken the philosophy of Sāmkhya and translated it into a theistic viewpoint, and made it into a practical system of life for everyone.

Vedic or Brahmanic tradition is not against women or the lower castes. In fact, if you look at the number of women who are found debating in the Upanishads, it is very high ! Probably, the most important of the Upanishads – Brihadaranyaka is a series of conversations between Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi. Then we have sages who were born into familes of very lowly occupations : both Valmiki who composed Ramayana and Vyasa who composed Mahabharata and who compiled the Vedas were born into very low castes, and even mentioned to be of dark skin colour !

If at all an Aryan invasion has happened in India, it was more a series of immigrants coming down to settle down in a culturally and technologically superior land. Not much unlike how Indians and Chinese students flock to the US universities today.

The Vedas and Tantra come from the same single root, and that root has its origin in the Indus valley civilization. And it is from that root that Indian mathematics and science germinated.

Now, Sāmkhya literally means "enumeration" in Sanskrit, and its philosophy is tied to enumerating every object in nature with respect to causal relationships. To understand it properly, one have to use the completely non-intuitive system of enumeration that was developed in India – through the use of zeroes.

The 3 gunas of Sāmkhya stand for 3 choices that a finite number has on the axis of integers : to increase (rajas), to reduce to a zero (sattwa) and to stay the same (tamas). These 3 choices are very non-intuitive, especially that of sattwa (becoming zero) which paradoxically is the best bet towards reaching to infinity. The trimurti (literally, 3 forms) pantheon of Hindu gods are just a representation of infinity with respect to the 3 qualities : Brahma (sattwa), Vishnu (rajas) and Shiva (tamas).

So, Shiva is not a human being, but a representation of the cosmos ! He is indeed a historical personality, but only with respect to cosmic history (or the history of the very universe). This is because Indian tradition says that in the beginning, there was neither being nor non-being. And the very first being to have arose from this state of utter neutrality is Shiva. This is what makes him the very first Yogi.

About the human tradition of the Yogic system and its origins, we have to look for Sāmkhya. The meditation seal of Mohenzo Daro gives one possible upper limit to the date of origin. It is from Sāmkhya that both the Vedic and Tantric traditions have arose. From the same source, they diverged into two rivers, which again split into a million more. This is how things work in India : from one, many.. unlike in the USA where it is from many, one.

History is typically written by people in power – that fact gets glossed over by Western scholars, as does the Brahmanical dogma that has oppressed women and lower castes and disenfranchised them from spiritual practices.

Women who practice yoga should take note – if you buy into the ultra conservative Hindu Nationalist idea that yoga comes out of Vedanta, you are colluding with a legacy of oppression. Men too! We all want freedom, that's the point of yoga. And yoga history needs to be freed too.