1. A thread, string, line, cord, fibre, or wire.
2. The sacred thread worn by the first three classes.
3. The string or wire of a puppet.
4. A short rule, precept, axiom, or aphorism.
5. A manual consisting of aphoristic rules.
6. A rule, law, canon, or decree.
सूत्र (sūtra) [Printed book page 1131-b] Sūtra, am, n. (fr. rt.
siv, ‘to sew;’ but said to
be connected with rt.
sūtr above), a thread, string,
line, cord; fibre, wire; a collection of threads; the
sacred thread or cord worn by the first three classes,
(see
yajñopavīta, p. 804); the string or wire of a
puppet or doll; a short rule or precept, axiom,
aphorism (in morals, religion, or science;
iti sū- treṇa, according to such an aphorism); a short and
technical sentence or metrical line used as a memorial
rule to aid in the acquirement of any system (and
hence generally expressed in brief and obscure and
sometimes symbolical language, intelligible only to
those who possess the key to its interpretation, this
key being sometimes given in separate Sūtras called
Paribhāṣās, and the right understanding of a whole
series or chain of rules depending on a knowledge of
the Adhikāra or heading-rule and its influence [
anu- vṛtti] on those that follow; these short sentences
and aphoristic rules, the use of which constitutes a
most curious feature in the literary history of the
Hindūs, appear to have been often mere aids to the
memory of teachers — mere hints to guide lecturers in
their oral explications; they were also especially
useful in this way to the priests who had the
management of a complicated ritual); any work or
manual consisting of strings or long lines of the
above aphoristic rules and sentences hanging toge-
ther like threads, (though the term
sūtra may
possibly indicate not so much a line or series of
rules as rules written on leaves which were kept
together by strings; these Sūtra works form a sort
of groundwork or foundation of teaching, not only
in all religious ritual, but in philosophy, in grammar,
and in the collateral subjects of accent, euphony,
etymology, and prosody: thus in religion and ritual
there are first the Śrauta-sūtras, and among them
principally the Kalpa-sūtras, founded directly on
Śruti, q. v., and treating especially of ritual; they
form a kind of rubric or directory to Vedic cere-
monial, or in other words, a complete systema-
tized guide to the rambling discursive Brāhmaṇa as
distinct from the Mantra portion of the Veda [see
brāhmaṇa], giving concise rules for the perform-
ance of every kind of sacrifice; there are Sūtras of
this kind by Āśvalāyana and Śāṅkhāyana for the
Ṛg-veda; by Kātyāyana for the White Yajur-veda;
by Āpastamba, Baudhāyana, and the Mānavas for
the Black Yajur-veda; by Lāṭyāyana, Drāhyāyaṇa,
Maśaka, and Gobhila for the Sāma-veda; and by
Kuśika for the Atharva-veda; there are also two
other kinds of Sūtras connected with ceremonial,
viz. the Grihya-sūtras and Sāmayācārika or Dharma-
sūtras [often by the same authors, with special refer-
ence also to each separate Veda, and even placed by
some, like the Kalpa, under the head of Sūtras
founded on Śruti], which are really ‘rules for domestic
ceremonies and conventional customs,’ and are some-
times called collectively Smārta-sūtras [as founded
on
smṛti or ‘tradition,’ see
smārta]; these led to
the later Dharma-śāstras or ‘law-books’ attributed
to Manu, Yājñavalkya, Parāśara, &c., the names of
the authors of the Sūtras and of the law-books being
often identical; in philosophy each system has its
regular text-book of aphorisms written in Sūtras by
its supposed founder, see
vedānta-sūtra, nyāya-s°, Page1131-c+ 81 sāṅkhya-s°, mīmāṃsā-s°, vaiśeṣika-s°, yoga-s°; in Vyākaraṇa or grammar there are the celebrated
Sūtras of Pāṇini in eight books, which are the
groundwork of a vast grammatical literature, besides
the Uṇādi-sūtras on certain affixes; in Vedic accent
and phonetics there are the Prātiśākhyas [see
prāti- śākhya] and the Phiṭ-sūtras of Śāntanava; in
etymology there are strings of Vedic words, and
in prosody there are the Sūtras of Piṅgala-nāga on
Chandas, including both Vedic and non-Vedic
metres, and the Nidāna-sūtra on the metres of the
Sāma-veda and Vedic metres generally: it should be
borne in mind that the mixture of Ślokas in some
of the Prātiśākhyas and in some more recent Sūtra
works, though depriving them of the brevity strictly
necessary to constitute Sūtras, does not prevent their
being regarded as collections of aphoristic and me-
morial rules: with regard to grammatical Sūtras it is
necessary to remember that all connecting words
used as prepositions, however necessary to the sense,
are omitted; thus, a word in the genitive case re-
quires
sthāne, ‘instead of,’ to be supplied; a word in
the ablative requires
param, ‘after;’ a word in the
instrumental requires
saha, ‘together with;’ a word
in the locative, though sometimes to be translated
in the ordinary way by prefixing ‘in,’ may often be
used as a locative absolute, and
pare must then be
supplied, the sense being ‘on such an affix or word
coming after or following;’ the word
vā is equivalent
to ‘optionally’ or ‘alternative’); any rule, law, canon,
decree (in law &c.).
—Sūtra-kaṇṭha, as, m. ‘hav-
ing Sūtras in the throat or mouth ready to be
repeated,’ a Brāhman; ‘having lines on the throat,’
a pigeon, dove; a wagtail.
—Sūtra-karman, a, n.
‘rule-work,’ carpentry.
—Sūtra-kāra, as, m. the
author or composer of Sūtras.
—Sūtra-kṛt, t, m.
‘Sūtra-maker,’ the author of an aphorism or set of
aphorisms.
—Sūtra-koṇa or
sūtra-koṇaka, as, m.
a small drum shaped like an hour-glass and struck
by a string and button
(= ḍamaru).
—Sūtra- gaṇḍikā, f. a kind of stick used by weavers in
spinning threads.
—Sūtra-graha, as, ā, am, hold-
ing a thread.
—Sūtra-grāha, as, ī, am, taking a
thread.
—Sūtra-caraṇa, N. of a class of Caraṇas or
Vedic schools who introduced various Sūtra works.
—Sūtra-tantu, us, m. a thread, string, line.
—Sū- tra-tarkuṭī, f. a distaff, spindle.
—Sūtra-dhara, as, m.
= sūtra-dhāra.
—Sūtra-dhāra, as, m. ‘rule-
holder, thread-holder,’ a stage-manager, a director or
principal actor who arranges the plot of a drama
and takes a leading part in the prelude; a carpenter;
the author of a set of rules or aphorisms; epithet of
Indra.
—Sūtra-piṭaka, as, m., N. of one of the
three collections of Buddhist writings (viz. those
which prescribe rules for the laity, see
tri-piṭaka).
—Sūtra-puṣpa, as, m. ‘thread-flowered,’ the
cotton plant.
—Sūtra-bhid, t, m. ‘thread-cutter,’ a
tailor.
—Sūtra-bhṛt, t, m.
= sūtra-dhāra.
—Sū- tra-madhya-bhū, ūs, f. ‘born amid threads or
fibres,’ the resin or Shorea Robusta; incense.
—Sū- tra-yantra, am, n. ‘thread-machine,’ a shuttle; a
weaver's loom.
—Sūtra-vid, t, m. ‘a Sūtra-knower,’
one versed in Sūtras.
—Sūtra-vīṇā, f. a kind of lute
(= lābukī).
—Sūtra-veṣṭana, am, n. a weaver's
shuttle; the act of weaving.
—Sūtrātman (°ra-āt°), ā, ā, a, having the nature of a string or thread;
(
ā), m. ‘soul-thread,’ intellect having for its site the
collective totality of subtile bodies; the soul.
—Sū- trālī (°ra-ālī), f. a string of beads &c. worn round
the neck, necklace.
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