Some of the earliest surviving specimens of
sutras of Hinduism are found in the
Anupada Sutras and
Nidana Sutras. The former distills the
epistemic debate whether
Sruti or
Smriti or neither must be considered the more reliable source of knowledge, while the latter distills the rules of musical meters for
Samaveda chants and songs. A larger collection of ancient sutra literature in Hinduism corresponds to the six Vedangas, or six limbs of the
Vedas. The
sutras corresponding to these are embedded inside the
Brahmana and
Aranyaka layers of the Vedas. Taittiriya Aranyaka, for example in Book 7, embeds sutras for accurate pronunciation after the terse phrases "On Letters", "On Accents", "On Quantity", "On Delivery", and "On Euphonic Laws". The fourth and often the last layer of philosophical, speculative text in the Vedas, the Upanishads, too have embedded sutras such as those found in the
Taittiriya Upanishad. Other fields for which ancient sutras are known include etymology, phonetics, and grammar.
Post-vedic sutras {{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right अथातो ब्रह्मजिज्ञासा ॥१.१.१॥ जन्माद्यस्य यतः ॥ १.१.२॥ शास्त्रयोनित्वात् ॥ १.१.३॥ तत्तुसमन्वयात् ॥ १.१.४॥ ईक्षतेर्नाशब्दम् ॥ १.१.५॥ Some examples of sutra texts in various schools of
Hindu philosophy include •
Brahma Sutras (or Vedanta Sutra) – a Sanskrit text, composed by Badarayana, likely sometime between 200 BCE to 200 CE. The text contains 555
sutras in four chapters that summarize the philosophical and spiritual ideas in the
Upanishads. It is one of the foundational texts of the
Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy. The text has been highly influential on Indian culture and spiritual traditions, and it is among the most translated ancient Indian text in the medieval era, having been translated into about forty Indian languages. •
Samkhya Sutra – is a collection of major
Sanskrit texts of the
Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, including the sutras on
dualism of Kapila. It consists of six books with 526 sutras. •
Vaisheshika Sutra – the foundational text of the
Vaisheshika school of Hinduism, dated to between the 4th century BCE and 1st century BCE, authored by Kanada. •
Nyaya Sutras – an ancient text of
Nyaya school of Hindu philosophy composed by Akṣapada Gautama, sometime between the 6th century BCE and 2nd century CE. It is notable for focusing on knowledge and logic, and making no mention of Vedic rituals.. These sutras are divided into five books, with two chapters in each book. The school emphasized precision in the selection of words, construction of sentences, developed rules for hermeneutics of language and any text, adopted and then refined principles of logic from the
Nyaya school, and developed extensive rules for epistemology. The more comprehensive work of Chanakya, the
Arthashastra is itself composed in many parts, in
sutra style, with the first Sutra of the ancient book acknowledging that it is a compilation of
Artha-knowledge from previous scholars. •
Kama Sutra – an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on sexual and emotional fulfillment in life • Moksha-sutras •
Shiva Sutras – fourteen verses that organize the phonemes of Sanskrit •
Narada Bhakti Sutra – a venerated Hindu sutra, reportedly spoken by the famous sage Narada •
Shandilya Bhakti Sutra – collection of one hundred bhakti sutras spoken by the Vedic sage
Brahmarshi Shandilya. These sutras are also called as
Shandilya Sutras. ==Buddhism==