The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.1

c5.1

The *Vedāṅgas*, that important group of literature often referred to as the appendages of the *Vedas*, constitute an important source in the history of science in ancient India. This is evident from such subjects as phonetics (*śikṣā*), ritual (*kalpa*), grammar (*vyākaraṇa*), etymology (*nirukta*), metrics (*chanda*) and astronomy (*jyotiṣa*). These branches of study arose within the Vedic schools themselves as a necessary condition for mastering the *Vedas*. This class of literature was written in the *sūtra* or aphoristic style, a form of expression characterized by great precision, brevity and economy of words, the like of which is not met with in the entire literature of the world. The style has been developed to sum up only the pith of the learning in short sentences using nouns often compounded at great length and avoiding the use of verbs as far as possible. The style became a dominant feature of the various branches of the *Vedāṅgas* and was also adopted by the writers of the *Arthaśāstra*, the *Kāmaśāstra*, the *Nāṭyaśāstra* and so on.