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The Baudhāyana sūtras (Sanskrit: बौधायन सूत्रस् ) are a group of Vedic Sanskrit texts which cover dharma, daily ritual, mathematics and is one of the oldest Dharma-related texts of Hinduism that have survived into the modern age from the 1st-millennium BCE. They belong to the Taittiriya branch of the Krishna Yajurveda school and are among the earliest texts of the genre.[1]
The Baudhayana sūtras consist of six texts:
- the Śrautasûtra, probably in 19 Praśnas (questions),
- the Karmāntasûtra in 20 Adhyāyas (chapters),
- the Dwaidhasûtra in 4 Praśnas,
- the Grihyasutra in 4 Praśnas,
- the Dharmasûtra in 4 Praśnas and
- the Śulbasûtra in 3 Adhyāyas.[2]
The Baudhāyana Śulbasûtra is noted for containing several early mathematical results, including an approximation of the square root of 2 and the statement of the Pythagorean theorem.[3]
- ^ Plofker, Kim (2007). Mathematics in India. p. 17. ISBN 978-0691120676.. In relative chronology, they predate Āpastamba, which is dated by Robert Lingat to the sutra period proper, between c. 500 to 200 BCE. Robert Lingat, The Classical Law of India, (Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd, 1993), p. 20
- ^ Sacred Books of the East, vol.14 – Introduction to Baudhayana
- ^ Nanda, Meera (16 September 2016). "Hindutva's science envy". Frontline. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2016.