SŪTRA LITERATURE. The Sanskrit term sūtra means "a thread"; it is also used, however, to refer to a short, aphoristic sentence and, collectively, to a work consisting of such sentences. Sūtra literature, as distinguished from śāstra literature, is in prose. The sūtra style, characterized by laghutva ("brevity, conciseness"), is a mnemonic device that attempts to condense as much meaning as possible into as few words, even syllables, as possible.

The most important sūtra texts in the context of the religious literature of India are the Kalpasūtras. The term kalpa has been variously explained by different traditional and modern scholars, but can best be rendered as "ritual." Kalpa, together with śikṣā (phonetics), chandas (prosody), nirukta (etymology), vyākaraṇa (grammar), and jyotiṣa (astronomy), is one of the six Vedāṅgas, or branches of learning...