The Shulbasutras of Baudhayana, Apastamba, Katyayana and Manava: With Text, English Translation and Commentary c6.s3.18

c6.s3.18

**2.1** *aṅgulai rathasammitāyāḥ pramāṇam* | *tatrāṣṭāśītiśatamīṣā* | *catuḥśatamakṣaḥ* | *ṣaḍaśītiryugam* | *catvāro' ṣṭakāḥ śamyā* | producers of the *śulba*-texts. Baudhāyana and Āpastamba whose *śulbasūtras* are fully discussed in this book belonged to the Taittirīya school, the Maitrāyaṇī school is represented by Mānava, while we have in Kātyāyana the sole representative of the White Yajurvedins in this ancient mathematical effort. Apart from basic geometry and arithmetic we have in these works a fairly detailed glimpse of the Vedic sacrificial cult built around various types of altars designed in the likeness of birds and other familiar objects,—the falcon, the kite, the chariot wheel, the funeral pyre, and geometrical figures like isosceles triangle, rhombus and trapezium. Man's eternal craving for wish fulfilment was supposed to be achieved through sacrifices over such fire-altars aptly called the *kāmya agni*, whose philosophical importance need hardly be overestimated.