The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c6.16

c6.16

The *Śulba-sūtra* of Kātyāyana, also known as *Kātyāyana Śulba-pariśiṣṭa* or *Kātīya Śulba-pariśiṣṭa*, is divided into two parts. The first part is composed in the style of the *sūtras* or aphorisms, as those noted above, while the second part is composed in verses. The earlier part is again subdivided into seven *kaṇḍikās* (or "short sections") containing altogether 90 *sūtras*. It teaches the geometrical propositions, the different measures employed in the work, and the relative positions and spatial relations for the different constructions of the *Agnis*. This manual does not treat of the construction of the *Kāmya Agnis*. It is because that subject has been treated in a different chapter of the *Kātyāyana Śrauta-sūtra*.¹ The second part comprises nearly about 40 or 48 verses.² It gives mainly a description of the measuring tape (*rajju*), the gnomon, the attributes of an expert altar-builder and also a few general rules for his conduct. Some of the processes of construction described in the earlier part together with a few other new matters, though of comparatively minor importance, also appear there. I think the title *Kātyāyana Śulba-pariśiṣṭa* or ("The Appendix to the *Śulba of Kātyāyana* ") was originally designed for this part and should be kept reserved to it, even now. For it is really a sort of an appendix to the earlier part, the *Kātyāyana Śulba* proper. The commentator Rāma is also of the same opinion as we are. And the same differentiation is found to have been scrupulously maintained by Yājñika Deva, the commentator of the *Kātyāyana Śrauta-sūtra*. Kātyāyana observes that the second part, especially the recapitulations in it, was meant to help those whose intellects are too poor to be able to fully grasp the inner meanings of the compositions in the sūtra style. Compared with the works of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba, the *Śulba* of Kātyāyana presents some interesting features as it exhibits the whole body of geometrical knowledge required for the Vedic altar-builder in a more systematic form.