Yoga Report

Patanjali seems to focuse on Kumbhaka, the pause between inhalation and exhalation and that is what he calls pranayama.

Patanjali says that “retention of breath after expiration removes the obstacles to yoga”.

prANAyAma : prANA = breath; Ayama = pause, break; in later haTha yoga literature, prANa is sometimes used to indicate a subtle psychic force; however in patanjali, it is clearly used as a breath; either together with pracchhardana (expulsion) or vidhAraNa (retention); or shvAsa/prashvAsa, etc. patanjali: originally 4 types of prANAyama; later authors merge types 3 and 4 to reach three types p. 36: – bAhya kumbhaka, (hold or kumbhaka after full exhalation or recaka); – Abhyantara kumbhaka (kumbhaka after inhalation or puraka) – kevala kumbhaka – unclear – pause all at once and with ease (patanjali 3) or pause through many inhalation and exhalations (patanjali 4)

from http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/kuvalayananda-1966-prnyma-pranayama-popular.html