This sociological theory of social status competition for symbolic capital implies that yoga initially moved into Brahmin clans mainly in urbanised regions. Why? One reason is that the Brahmins were under strong competitive pressure. The Sramanas tended to move and settle along trade routes and near towns, and such locations were increasingly dominated by hegemonic Kshatriya culture.214 In this social environment of the Axial Age early-yoga slowly became included in some Brahmins discourses as these issues already occupied the elites, forcing some Brahmins to deal with these matters.
Human systems – institutions and discourses – are like nature itself dynamically adaptive. So in this way, many of the competing Sramanic discourses – either directly or indirectly through ruling elites – would find their way into the thoughts, practices and Sanskrit scriptures of the Brahmins, today our main source for early-yoga. But the process of discourse adaptation was certainly a two-way street as many central Brahmin ideas also found their way into Sramana discourses..
Avoiding pitfalls: Take care in the placement of your legs Yoga gloves . Press into the sides of the upper shins firmly enough with your hands to balance the Yoga gloves strong outward push with your thighs. Keep breathing! INSTRUCTIONS TWO VARIATIONS: Seated variation Sit on a firm chair with your legs parallel and hip-width apart. With both hands on one hip and thigh, manually turn the thigh in and broaden the hip to the side. Perform the same action on the other side as well. This adjustment sets your foundation and allows for the actions that follow to be most effective. In Anusara Yoga this is called Manual Inner Spiral. See Appendix III for more information about the Inner Spiral.
