The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c2.2

c2.2

I am happy that the authors of the present monograph have presented the full critical texts and translations of the four *śulba-sūtras* by Baudhāyana, Āpastamba, Kātyāyana and Mānava and modern commentaries on them. A carefully prepared introduction has dealt with: the genesis of these texts as part of the ritual literature (*Kalpasūtras*) constituting one of the six *Vedāṅgas*; the vexed question of the antiquity of these *sūtras*; the philosophical significance of performing fire sacrifices on various types of altars; and other related questions. Regarding the dating of Baudhāyana, Mānava, Āpastamba and others a balanced view has been maintained between the opinions of European sanskritists like Bühler, Keith, Macdonell, Renou and Filliozat and those of Indian scholars like Kane and Ramgopal. Though the date of Baudhāyana, the earliest of *sūtra* writers, still varies over a range of two to three centuries, there is no doubt that the tradition of altar construction and the related sacrifices goes back to the period of the *Saṃhitās* and the *Brāhmaṇas* antidating the *sūtras*, as the numerous passages in the *Taittirīya*, *Maitrāyaṇī*, and *Kapiṣṭhala Saṃhitās* and the *Śatapatha* and other *Brāhmaṇas* amply indicate.