The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c8.51

c8.51

We next turn to the *Yajur-veda* which is very rightly described as the encyclopædia proper of the Vedic sacrifices. There we find a very elaborate, and in detail tedious, rite of the Agni-cayana (or "the construction of the Fire-altar") and its highly speculative philosophy.² The same mystic import is found, it is noteworthy, in the *Saṃhitā* of the different schools of this Veda such as the *Taittirīya*, *Maitrāyaṇīya*, *Kāṭhaka*, *Kapiṣṭhala* and *Vājasaneya*. This shows that the Agni-cayana and its philosophy had taken definite shapes in an earlier period. Eggeling³ has, indeed, traced the origin of the philosophy to the *Ṛg-veda*. In the *Brāhmaṇa*, the science of the construction of the Fire-altar is found in an enormously developed form. Thus five sections (*kaṇḍikā* vi-x) out of a total of fourteen, or rather more than one-third of the whole of the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* is devoted to the treatment of this science. We cannot definitely ascertain how much of this development is due to the *Brāhmaṇa* and how much of it is still older. For, according to the introductory chapters of the *Hiraṇyakeśi* and *Āpastamba Śrauta-sūtra*, it is one of the primary functions of the *Brāhmaṇa* to describe, amongst other things, the *Karma-vidhi* (or "Rules for the performance of the sacrificial rites") and the *Purā-kalpa* (or "the performance of the sacrifices in former times"). So that the *Brāhmaṇa* simply keeps up a record of the ancient traditions. Indeed in those works, all rites are traced to the gods as their originators or even to the Supreme Creator of the universe. Still the general truth is that every science has its growth and development and the science of the altar-construction cannot be an exception to it. So it will be quite natural to believe—and we have corroborative evidence of it—that the science truly attained a new stage in the time of the *Brāhmaṇa* (*c.* 2000 B.C.). The existence of different masters of this science with independent views is found even as early as the time of the *Taittirīya Saṃhitā* (*c.* 3000 B.C.).¹ More conclusive evidence of it is furnished by the *Śrauta-sūtras* which are a sort of compendiums of earlier theories. In the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*, there are clear attempts to refute some of the earlier theories of the science of the altar-construction (*vide infra*).