Apastambasrautasutra is an important work belonging to the Kalpa category of the Vedanga texts. The Vedic ritual is mainly of two types : Srauta and Grhya. The Srautasutra and Gryasutras describe these types of the rituals respectively. There are numerous Srautassutras and they belong to a particular Veda. Thus the Apastambasrautasutra belongs to the Taittiriya-Branch of the Black Yajurveda. The Srauta-ritual requires establishment of three sacred fires on the part of the peformer who must be a married man and already performing the Grhya (domestic) ritual. The Srautasutras Describe the rituals like Agnihotra, New and Full-Moon-Sacrifices, Nirudhapasubandha, Agnistoma, Vajapeya, Asvadedha ans so on. Apastambasrauta-sutra describes these and many other numerous vedic sacrifices. It is a very systemetic and disciplined work and deserves to be studied as a model of the Srautasutras. There was no English translation available of this text. In the present work an attempt is made to meet with this requirment. |
