Ashtanga yoga system was compiled from a manuscript written on a bundle of palm leaves, the Yoga Korunta. The Yoga Korunta was a collection of verses on hatha yoga was discovered in the 1930's by yoga master and Sanskrit scholar Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya and his disciple K. Pattabhi Jois while researching Sanskrit texts at a Calcutta university library.
The manuscript is dated to be between 500 and 1,500 year old.
Krishnamacharya and Jois translated and reconstructed the ashtanga yoga series (originally there were six sequences of postures) and Pattabhi Jois, with the encouragement of Krishnamacharya, took the instructions as the basis of his practice and teaching.
Pattabhi Jois is still teaching this method today in Mysore, India. Ashtanga taught by Pattabhi Jois is a form of hatha yoga which
focuses on asana (posture) and pranayama (breath control). Many people call this Ashtanga vinyasa yoga in order to distinguish
from Patanjali's eightfold system .