The Yoga Yajnavalkya (, Yoga-Yājñavalkya) is a classical Hindu yoga text in the Sanskrit language. The text is written in the form of a male-female dialogue between the sage Yajnavalkya and Gargi. The text consists of 12 chapters and contains 504 verses. Like Patanjali's Yogasutras, the Yoga Yajnavalkya describes the eight components of yoga; however, it has different goals. The text contains additional material that is not found in Yogasutras, such as the concept of kundalini. The Yoga Yajnavalkya contains one of the most comprehensive discussion of yoga components such as the Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, and Dharana. The text was influential in the development and practice of the yoga traditions of India before the 12th century. Author The text is attributed to Yajnavalkya, a revered Vedic sage in Hinduism. He is estimated to have lived in around the 8th century BCE, and is associated with several other major ancient texts in Sanskrit, namely the Shukla Yajurveda, the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Dharmasastra named Yājñavalkya Smṛti, Vriddha Yajnavalkya, and Brihad Yajnavalkya. He is also mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, as well as in ancient Jainism texts such as the Isibhasiyaim. These references to Yajnavalkya in other texts, in addition to the eponymous Yoga Yajnavalkya, may be to different sages with the same name. The actual author of Yoga Yajnavalkya text was probably someone who lived many centuries after the Vedic sage Yajnavalkya, and is unknown. Ian Whicher, a professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba, writes that the author of Yoga Yajnavalkya may be an ancient Yajnavalkya, but this Yajnavalkya is not to be confused with the Vedic-era Yajnavalkya "who is revered in Hinduism for Brihadaranyaka Upanishad". David White, a professor of Comparative Religion at the University of California, suggests that the author – a 9th- to 12th-century South Indian with the name of Yajnavalkya – was "the author of two works that combined the eight part practice with teachings on Hatha Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy": the Yoga Yajnavalkya and the Yogi Yajnavalkya-smriti. This issue has since been clarified in a 2017 study of the two works. According to Dominik Wujastyk – a scholar of Sanskrit literature, Indology and the history of Yoga philosophy and practice, the Yoga Yajnavalkya is an early text on yoga. Many versions of its manuscripts have been discovered, with two pre-10th-century CE palm leaf manuscripts in Sanskrit, while many more versions