The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c8.18

c8.18

The Fire-altars for other optional sacrifices are prescribed to be of different shapes. Thus we find altars also of the shape of (2) *vakra-pakṣa vyasta-puccha śyena* (or "the falcon with bent wings and outspread tail"), (3) *kaṅka* ("heron"), (4) *alaja* (a kind of bird), (5) *praüga* ("triangle" usually an isosceles triangle), (6) *ubhayataḥ praüga* ("triangles on both sides," that is, a rhombus), (7) *ratha-cakra* ("chariot wheel"), (8) *droṇa* ("trough"), (9) *samuhya* ("combined"), (10) *paricāyya* ("circular"), (11) *śmaśāna* ("cemetery"), (12) *kūrma* ("tortoise"), etc. Each of these altars shall have the same area as that of the standard form of the *Śyena-cit*, that is, 7½ square puruṣas.