22S G. Thibaut— On tlio S'ulvasutras. [No. 3, 



where the one ends and the other begins — is too well known to require 

 any comment. 



These facts have a double interest. They are in the first place valua- 

 ble for the history of the human mind in general ; they are in the second 

 place important for the mental history of India and for answering the 

 question relative to the originality of Indian science. For whatever is 

 closely connected with the ancient Indian religion must be considered as 

 having sprung up among the Indians themselves, unless positive evidence 

 of the strongest kind point to a contrary conclusion. 



"We have been long acquainted with the progress which the Indians 

 made in later times in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry ; but as the in- 

 fluence of Greek science is clearly traceable in the development of their 

 astronomy, and as their treatises on algebra, &c, form but parts of astro- 

 nomical text books, it is possible that the Indians may have received from 

 the Greeks also communications regarding the methods of calculation. I 

 merely say possible, because no direct evidence of such influence has been 

 brought forward as yet, and because the general impression we receive 

 from a comparison of the methods employed by Greeks and Indians re- 

 spectively seems rather to point to an entirely independent growth of this 

 branch of Indian science. The whole question is still unsettled, and new 

 researches are required before we can arrive at a final decision. 



While therefore unable positively to assert that the treasure of mathe- 

 matical knowledge contained in the Lilavati, the Vijaganita, and similar 

 treatises, has been accumulated by the Indians without the aid of foreign 

 nations, we must search whether there are not any traces left pointing to 

 a purely Indian origin of these sciences. And such traces we find in a class 

 of writings, commonly called S'ulvasutras, that means " sutras of the 

 cord," which prove that the earliest geometrical and mathematical investiga- 

 tions among the Indians arose from certain requirements of their sacrifices. 

 " S'ulvasutras" is the name given to those portions or supplements of the 

 Kalpasutras, which treat of the measurement and construction of the different 

 vedis,or altars, the word " s'ulva" referring to the cords which were employed 

 for those measurements. (I may remark at once that the sutras themselves 

 do not make use of the term " s'ulva" ; a cord is regularly called by them 

 " rajju".) It appears that a s'ulva-adhyaya or, pras'na or, instead of that, a 

 s'ulvaparis'ishta belonged to all Kalpasutras. Among the treatises belong- 

 ing to this class which are known to me, the two most important are the 

 S'ulvasutras of Baudhayana and of A'pastamba. The former, entitled to the 

 first place by a clearer and more extensive treatment of the topics in ques- 

 tion, very likely forms a part of Baudhayana's Kalpasutra ; the want of 

 complete manuscripts of this latter work prevents me from being positive 

 on this point. The same remark applies to the S'ulvasutra of A'pastamba. 



