Emerging society has considered physical fitness as one of the important indicators of health. Being physically fit has been defined as "the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies". Physical fitness refers to the maximum capacity that people have or achieve while they perform physical activity that can be measured as the level of strength and flexibility of the muscular groups in different body parts. LITERARY REVIEWIn this chapter of literary research, attempts were made to understand concept of vyayama, and asanas, from ancient Indian scriptures. Relevant slokas are presented text-wise, and a coherent discussion is provided for the same. Relevant slokas were selected from the Shastrani (Shastrani, 2004) and the multilingual E-Samhita with search option prepared by CCRAS, Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. Finally, a theoretical model which depicts the evolution of vyayama to asana has also been attempted.
