Measuring cord and units of the Shulba Sutras
Cordel de medir y unidades de los Shulba Sutras
- Date
- c. 800 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Northern India, India
- Credited to
- Vedic priests (Baudhayana, Apastamba and others)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The Shulba Sutras ('rules of the cord') describe how to lay out altars with a knotted cord (rajju) and units such as the angula (finger), aratni (cubit) and vyama (fathom). It is a geometric metrology for building altars of fixed shape and area exactly.
The Shulba Sutras are dated between 800 and 200 BC depending on the text (Baudhayana, the oldest, c. 800-600 BC); the date is approximate and the place of composition, northern India, cannot be pinned down.
What it led to
- cord geometry and the Pythagorean theorem in India
- classical Indian length units
- construction of Vedic fire altars