The beautiful soft stone figure of Patañjali is given a spectacular and detail treatment. Patanjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sutras, a major  ork containing aphorisms on the philosophical aspects of mind and consciousness, and also the author of a major commentary on Panini's Ashtadhyayi. He is known to be an incarnation of Ādi S'esha who is the first ego-expansion of Vishnu, the manifestation of Vishnu. His primeval energies and opulences, is part of the so-called catur vyūha, the fourfold manifestation of Vishnu. Thus may Patañjali be considered as the one incarnation of God defending the ego of yoga. In recent decades the Yoga Sutra has become quite popular worldwide for the precepts regarding practice of Raja Yoga and its philosophical basis. "Yoga" in traditional Hinduism involves inner contemplation, a rigorous system of meditation practice, ethics, metaphysics, and devotion to the one common soul, God, or Brahman. He was a great Natya dancer and is revered by the exponents of classical Indian dance as their patron saint.