The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.s1.1

c5.s1.1

There is a good deal of uncertainty and differences of opinion about the place and time of the *śulbakāras*. The *Śrautasūtras* and the *Śulbasūtras* are silent about these questions as are other Vedic and post-Vedic texts. Georg Bühler who considered the question of date and time of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba was inclined to believe that both of them hailed from the Andhra country.a He argued that the followers of Baudhāyana and Āpastamba had lived in south India since early times, that Baudhāyana manuscripts had been found in the south, and that the *Mahārṇava*, an early work mentioned Andhra country as the native place of Āpastamba. Bühler also pointed out that the name of Āpastamba had been found on several land-grants of the south and that both Baudhāyana and Āpastamba referred in their *Dharma-sūtras* to the manners and customs of the people of their times inhabiting the northern parts of India,—a reference rather unusual for authors hailing from the north. Recently Ramgopal has shown that, in their *Śrautasūtras* and *Dharmasūtras*, Baudhāyana gave ample evidence of his close familiarity with *Āryāvarta*, the doab between the Ganges and the Yamuna and its surroundings and Āpastamba with Kurupāñcāla country and its vicinity.a About the places of origin of Kātyāyana, Mānava and other *śulbakāras*, nothing definite can be said.