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Katyayana Sulbasutra

Katyayana Sulbasutra is a text dealing with construction of fire altars belonging to Shukla Yajur Veda School. Sulbasutra form a part of the Sutra literature. The word sulba means a measuring cord or a measuring stick. Katyayana Sulbasutra is a small treatise belong to Shukla Yajur Veda, consisting of sutras in the first part and karika-s (verses) in the second. There are six chapters consisting of 101 sutra-s and the seventh chapter comprises thirty-nine verses. All the chapters provide the important rules of geometry.

To summarize – Chapter one deals with the construction of Vedi (altar), location of directions, fixation of pegs on the corners of sroni and amsa, construction of pandal-s, location of site of dakshin agni (southern fire) and utkara (mudpit) and so on.

Chapter two describes measurement like angula-s (altar for ancestor worship), etc. used in construction of vedi, description of paitrki-vedi (inch) types of measuring cords, construction of uttara vedi (northern altar) and different types of squares, equal and unequal.

Chapter three deals with the construction of squares, circles and rectangles.

Chapter four focuses on different types of altars – drone citi (mango shaped), rathachakra citi (wheel like) and ubhayata prauga citi.

Chapter five describes the construction of vedi for an asvamedha citi, increasing the area of a sacrificial fire measured by purusha sizes of Brihati and Padmatr square, bricks, measurement of purusha and size of vedi, having eleven posts called sikhandinivedi.

Chapter seven gives information regarding the signs to be adopted on a rope and construction of paurnamasikivedi (altar for full moon rites), measurement of the cord of saumiki (Soma rites) and sautramanivedi (name of a rite), method of fixing the east-west line, etc.