The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c5.s3.2

c5.s3.2

Baudhāyana’s *sūtras* are not only the earliest but represent the most systematic, logical and detailed treatment of the subject inspite of their archaic and highly condensed *sūtra* style. It opens with the various units of linear measurements and then develops the geometry of rectilinear figures, triangles and circles, their transformations from one type to the other, methods of arriving at areas by combination or difference of given areas, the irrational number like √ 2 and the value of π albeit indirectly. Then the measurements of the three perpetual fires, the *gārhapatya*, the *āhavanīya* and the *dakṣiṇāgni*, the sacrificial altars such as the *mahāvedi*, the *uttara vedi* the *sautrāmaṇī vedi*, the *paitṛki vedi*, the *dārśapaurṇamāsika vedi*, the *paśubandha vedi*, various sacrificial fires such as the *dhiṣṇyas*, the *āgnīdhriya*, and the *mārjālīya*, the *sadas* tent, the *havirdhāna* shed for the placement of the soma carts and various pits like the *utkara*, the *uparava* and the *cātvāla* are given along with their relative distances from one another. Although the plan of the sacrificial ground and placement therein of the various fires, altars, tents, sheds and pits is not described in separate *sūtras*, the manner in which their measurements, relative distances and directions for their placements are given makes it quite easy for one to visualize the picture of the sacrificial ground and at once appreciate how closely and meticulously the *śulbavid* was following the time-honoured Vedic sacrificial practices. About the fire-altars for the various wish fulfilments (*kāmyaciti*), Baudhāyana gives the measurements, constructions and methods of laying bricks of different geometrical shapes in alternate layers following the strict injunction that the edges of bricks in contiguous layers must not meet. Such fire-altars include those in the form of a falcon, both rectilinear and with curved wings and extended tail, of a kite and *alaja* bird, of an isosceles triangle and a rhombus, of a chariot-wheel without and with spokes, of a square and circular trough, of a pyre, and finally one in the form of a tortoise. The facile use of geometry presented in the opening chapters is abundantly clear in the constructional procedures of these fire-altars.