Sutra (Sanskrit: सूत्र, romanized: sūtra, lit. 'string, thread') in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a … See more

The Sanskrit word Sūtra (Sanskrit: सूत्र, Pali: sutta, Ardha Magadhi: sūya) means "string, thread". The root of the word is siv, "that which sews and holds things together". The word is related to sūci (Sanskrit: … See more

Sutras first appear in the Brahmana and Aranyaka layer of Vedic literature. They grow in number in the Vedangas, such as the Shrauta Sutras and Kalpa Sutras. These were designed so that they can be easily com… See more

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 re… See more

In Buddhism, a sutta or sutra constitutes a segment of the canonical literature. These early Buddhist sutras, unlike Hindu texts, are not aphoristic; rather, they tend to be quite lengthy. The Buddhist term sutta or sutra likely … See more

In the Jain tradition, sutras are an important genre of "fixed text", which used to be memorized.
The Kalpa Sūtra is, for example, a Jain text that includes monastic rules, as well as biographie… See more

• Ananda Sutram
• Chinese Buddhist canon
• List of suttas
• Shastra
• Sutra copying… See more