Meditation in the Hindu tradition can be discerned from a variety of sources. These include sculptural depictions that date from 3500 BCE, as well as a variety of texts that refer explicitly to meditation starting with the early Upaniṣads (c. 800 BCE). The quintessential Hindu manual on meditation, the Yogasūtra (see Yoga), was composed by circa 200–400 CE.

Early depictions of what seem to be meditating figures were found in the excavations of Indus Valley …