Playing with Google’s Ngram site … exploring the usage of words & phrases in the zillions of books currently digitized by Google. Here are a few charts showing the frequency of a few popular yoga words published between 1808 and 2008.
There seems to have been a spike of mentions in the early 1900’s followed by a wave in 1980 and a recent wave in 2000. Vipassana meditation and the term “namaste” seemed only to catch the 2000 wave, but not the earlier yoga wave … seems it was yoga that caught on first and then finer aspects of the practices followed later?
yoga – earliest blips in 1810 then a spike in 1980
ashtanga – mentioned in the early 1800’s!?
bhagavad – its spikes seem to presage the spikes in yogic terms?
anusara – mentioned in the very early 1900’s!?
vipassana – no wave in 1980, but tracks the 2000 wave
meditation – always a commonly used term in many non-yogic contexts
namaste – caught on only in the recent wave
what other words might be of interest???
Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me 
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