# Sulba Sutras Codify Altar Geometry (c. 800 BCE)

URL: https://allhistories.com/hinduism/timeline/-800-sulba-sutras-codify-altar-geometry
Location: Northern India
Themes: Science

The Sulba Sutras, attached to the Shrauta ritual manuals of Baudhayana, Apastamba and Katyayana, give rules for measuring and building Vedic fire altars with ropes. Baudhayana's text, dated to about 800 BCE, states the Pythagorean relation for rectangles and gives a close approximation of the square root of 2. Dates are uncertain and the problems arose from ritual needs rather than abstract theory. The altars took shapes such as the falcon, built from bricks in layers, which required exact geometric transformations of one figure into another of equal area.

## Why it matters
They show that Vedic ritual demands drove early Indian geometry, tying the history of mathematics to Hindu religious practice.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Shulba Sutras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shulba_Sutras)