The Dharma-sutra yoga discourse
Having investigated the milieu from which early yoga branched we now return to a different Brahmin text genre, which also occasionally mentions yoga. The Brahmins developed a new textual genre – the Dharma-sutras – between 400 and 100 BC.210 Four of these sutras are extant today. In these texts different Brahmins set out to discuss and define the details of religious correct ways of living, living according to the law of the universe. Sutras were prose written in a sparse style omitting all unnecessary words. They are reminiscent of present day bullet point presentations and headlines.
Why did the Brahmins begin to discuss the details of righteous living like: what to do during the day, marriage regulations, regulations of rites of passage, funerals, what to be eaten and not to be, how to wash yourself, and what to do if you had been (socially or religiously) polluted? One part of the answer could be the significant change that their village and clan based societies were undergoing with the advent of the Axial Age civilisation. Some Brahmins might, under the new circumstances, have changed their style of living. Another part of the answer could be that the Brahmins were under social pressure and needed to draw up lines of demarcation between themselves and others. Other but similar social groups might have given them competition.211
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat Yoga inspiration . Arrange the blanket so that the lower edge comes to the small of your back, Yoga inspiration with your buttocks on the floor. Relax and experience your body being fully supported by the floor. As you inhale, move your sitting bones down toward the floor and apart, which will arch your lower back. Contract your abdomen in and up and lengthen your tailbone toward your heels without flattening your lower back. With your pelvis thus stabilized, raise your right leg and hook a belt around the foot. Hold one end of the belt with each hand. Gradually straighten the leg, firming the muscles on all sides and elevating your heel.
