What does the word sutra mean in Sanskrit?
Sutra comes from the Sanskrit word sūtra, meaning string or thread. The root siv means that which sews and holds things together, and the word is related to sūci (needle) and sūnā (woven).
Questions about Sutra
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is a sutra in Hinduism?
In Hinduism, a sutra is a short aphoristic statement that serves as a condensed rule or theorem, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or another field of knowledge can be elaborated. The oldest Hindu sutras appear in the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas, dated from the late second millennium BCE through the mid first millennium BCE.
How are Buddhist sutras different from Hindu sutras?
Buddhist sutras, called suttas in Pali, are not aphoristic but are quite lengthy and sometimes repetitive, reflecting oral transmission across large communities. The Hindu sutra is a compressed theorem of few words, while the Buddhist sutta likely derives from Sanskrit sūkta, meaning well spoken, rather than from sūtra, meaning thread.
What is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and how many sutras does it contain?
The Yoga Sutras is a text compiled around 400 CE by Patanjali, drawing on older yoga traditions. It contains 196 sutras covering yoga and its eight limbs, and was translated into roughly forty Indian languages in the medieval era, making it one of the most translated ancient Indian texts of that period.
What is the Tattvartha Sutra in Jainism?
The Tattvartha Sutra is a Sanskrit text accepted by all four Jain sects as the most authoritative philosophical text summarizing the foundations of Jainism. It is one of the surviving scriptures of the Jaina tradition and exists in sutra format.
What was the sutra period in Indian literary history?
The sutra period refers to the era from 600 BCE to 200 BCE, during which large compilations of sutras across diverse fields of knowledge were produced, mostly after the lifetimes of the Buddha and Mahavira. It followed the earlier Chhandas, Mantra, and Brahmana periods of Indian literary history.