Mathematics in Ancient and Medieval India c6.3

c6.3

The sacrifice was the prime religious avocation of the Vedic Hindus. The culture of astronomy was chiefly needed to fix the proper time for the sacrifice. The *Kalpasūtra*¹ contains, besides other matters of ritual, the rules for the proper construction of sacrificial altars. It was perhaps in this connection that the study of problem of geometry as also arithmetic and algebra began in ancient India. Geometry was then the science of altar construction. The *Śulbasūtra* (meaning ‘the rules of the cord’ ) is a part of *Kalpasūtra*. The *Śulbasūtras* of Baudhāyna, Āpastamba, Katyāyana, and Mānava are the main sources of our knowledge of geometry¹. We thus find that in Vedic India, the astronomy in one hand and geometry on the other were cultivated under different circumstances by different classes of priests having different duties apportioned to them.