The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.s1.12

c5.s1.12

The foregoing discussion will make it abundantly clear that we are still far from narrowing the date range differing by centuries and putting the early *sūtra* works on a firmer chronological basis. What is generally accepted is this relative chronological position in order of anteriority, e.g. Baudhāyana, Mānava, Āpastamba, Pāṇini, Kātyāyana. Hiraṇyakeśī, Vārāha, Vādhula and so on. This is also somewhat borne out by the tradition of the *Taittirīya* school which would place the early *sūtrakāras* in the following order of age: Baudhāyana, Bharadvāja, Āpastamba, Satyāṣāḍhā, Hiraṇyakeśin and Vaikhānasa. Whatever date one might wish to assign to the *Kalpasūtras*, the *Śrautasūtras* and the *Śulbasūtras*, we must agree with Thibaut that these *sūtras* only give a systematized account of sacrificial rites which had been practised during long preceding ages.b The rules for the sides of the various altars, detailed arrangement of the sacrificial ground, the positioning of the fires, altars, tents and sheds, the shapes of the fire-altars in the form of the falcon and other birds are all mentioned and discussed in various ways and at various places in the *Brāhmaṇas* as we shall see in what follows. The manner in which the measurements and transformations had to be carried out, in other words, the geometry and mensuration involved in their construction, it is true, are not discussed in the *Brāhmaṇas* and cannot be expected either in this class of literature. But there can hardly be any doubt that what Baudhāyana, Āpastamba, Mānava, Kātyāyana and others tried to codify in a systematic manner in their *Śulbasūtra* manuals must have for a long time formed the common property of all *adhvaryus* and priests specialized in the performance of sacrificial rites.