A sūtra ("thread") is the most compressed form of teaching in Sanskrit - an aphorism so terse it can be memorised, yet so dense it needs a commentary to unfold. Whole systems of philosophy, ritual, grammar and devotion were encoded as sūtras so they could be transmitted accurately across generations before writing was common. This is the map of the great sūtra corpora.
What is a sūtra? - The classical definition: a sūtra should be concise, unambiguous, pithy, comprehensive, without filler, and faultless. The terseness is deliberate - each is a thread (sūtra → "to sew") on which a teacher strings the full teaching.
Ritual & conduct (a Vedanga)
Author: various (Apastamba, Baudhayana, Ashvalayana…)
Four kinds: Śrauta (public Vedic ritual), Gṛhya (domestic rites + samskaras), Dharma (law & conduct - the seed of the Dharma Shastras), and Śulba (altar geometry - early mathematics).
Read more →Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa)
Author: Badarayana (Vyasa)
The systematic thread of the Upanishads' teaching on Brahman - 555 sutras in 4 chapters. The basis of Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva's rival commentaries.
Read more →Yoga darshana
Author: Patanjali
196 sutras defining yoga as the stilling of the mind, and mapping the eight limbs (ashtanga). The classical manual of meditation.
Read more →Nyaya darshana (logic)
Author: Gautama (Akshapada)
The foundation of Indian logic and epistemology - the four means of knowledge and the sixteen categories of reasoning.
Read more →Vaisheshika darshana (atomism)
Author: Kanada
The metaphysics of atoms and categories - substance, quality, action, universal, particular, inherence, absence.
Read more →Purva Mimamsa (ritual exegesis)
Author: Jaimini
The science of interpreting the Veda and establishing dharma - the largest of the philosophical sutra-collections.
Read more →Sankhya darshana
Author: attr. Kapila (with the Tattva-samasa & Sankhya-karika)
The dualist enumeration of 25 tattvas - Purusha and Prakriti and the evolutes between. (The Sankhya-karika of Ishvarakrishna is its best-known form.)
Read more →Kashmir Shaivism (Trika)
Author: Vasugupta
77 sutras revealed to Vasugupta - the āgama foundation of non-dual Shaivism, in three upayas.
Read more →Bhakti (devotion)
Author: Narada / Shandilya
The two classical aphoristic treatises that define and systematise the path of devotion (bhakti) as a means to the supreme.
Read more →Grammar (Vyakarana, a Vedanga)
Author: Panini
Nearly 4,000 sutras that completely formalise Sanskrit grammar - the most rigorous descriptive grammar of any language in the ancient world, studied today in computer science.
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