250 GK Thibaut — On the S'ulvasutras. [No. 3, 



marks (five poles altogether) . Fasten the ties at the second and fourth 

 poles (reckoning from the east), stretch the cord towards the south having 

 taken it by the middle mark, and make at the point, touched by the mark, 

 a mark on the ground. Then fastening both ties at the middle pole, stretch 

 the cord over the mark on the ground towards the south, having taken it 

 by the middle mark, and fix a pole (at the spot reached by the stretched, 

 doubled up, cord). Then fastening one tie at this pole and the other tie 

 at the pole standing at the eastern end of the prachi, fix the south-east 

 corner of the square by stretching the cord, having taken it by the middle 

 mark. Then untying the rope from the eastern pole and fastening it at 

 the western pole, fix the south-west corner, &c. ; in the same way the north- 

 east and north-west corner are found. 



In this procedure the first step is to find the middle of the southern 

 and of the northern sides of the required square by drawing a line at right 

 angles through the middle point of the prachi. The method employed 

 here for drawing a line at right angles on another is the simplest of all 

 known to the S'ulvasutras, and essentially the same we make use of when 

 describing intersecting arcs from two points equally distant to the right 

 and left from some given point. In the later portions of the sutras this 

 method is enjoined for the measurement of the agni (instead of cords canes 

 of a certain length had to be employed there), and the followers of the 

 White Yajur Veda had adopted it for the same purpose (see Indische 

 Studien, XIII., p. 233, ff). 



The second part of the procedure — to find the four corners of the 

 square after having found the middle points of the sides — was of course 

 easy and does not afford any special interest. 



To Baudhayana the same method is known, but he restricts it in his 

 paribhasha-sutras to the construction of oblongs ; clearly without suffi- 

 cient reason, since the method refers only to the construction of right angles, 

 and the length of the sides is of no importance. A'pastamba gives no 

 special rule at all for oblongs, and it is indeed not wanted. 



I subjoin Baudhayana's rule : 



s^ t "^ ^ -^ 



tr^T^^^T: TJTilT SffrT^^l ^T^T ^fw^TOKl ^W ^T^W ^RTfa I *T*q* 



He who wishes to make an oblong is to fix two poles on an area of 

 the length which he intends to give to the oblong (i. e., at the two ends 

 of the prachi of that area). On both sides, i. e., on the west and east sides 



