The Science of the Shulba: A Study in Early Hindu Geometry c8.81

c8.81

This is, in fact, the square pit, with the earth from which the *Uttara-vedi* is constructed. Hence both have the same cubical content. This measurement of the pit reappears in the *Sulba*. It is, perhaps, particularly noteworthy, that in the above we find an instance of the use, in former times, of a ruler (in the body of the straight wooden pin, called the *śamyā*) to draw a straight line from a given point in a specified direction. It is not said how those directions, or rather the cardinal directions passing through a point were used to be determined. Was a pair of compasses also in use then?