The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.2

c5.2

The *Kalpasūtras*, concerned principally with the rituals constituting the chief contents of the *Brāhmaṇas*, are supposed to be the first *Vedāṅga* to have received systematic treatment.a The *Kalpasūtras* are again available in four different classes, e.g. the *śrauta*, the *gṛhya*, the *dharma* and the *śulba*. The *Śrautasūtras* deal with *śrauta*-sacrifices abundantly discussed in the *Brāhmaṇas* and are naturally concerned with direction for the laying of the sacrificial fires for the fire-sacrifice (*agnihotra*), the new and the full-moon, the seasonal, the *soma* and other sacrifices. These are, as Winternitz has pointed out, our most important source for the understanding of the Indian sacrifice-cult. Through their preoccupation with the laying and construction of the various sacrificial altars and fires, these also constitute an important source of Vedic, and possibly the earliest, mathematics in India. Of special importance as far as concerns mathematics, geometry in particular, are the *Śulbasūtras* which are sometimes classified as a separate branch of the *Śrautasūtras*, but which are often found attached to the *Śrautasūtras*.