[Skr. sūtra thread, string, (hence) rule, f. siv SEW v.1 Cf. F. soûtra.] In Sanskrit literature, a short mnemonic rule in grammar, law or philosophy, requiring expansion by means of a commentary. Also applied to Buddhistic text-books.
1801. Colebrooke, Ess., Sanscrĭt & Prácrĭt Lang. (1837), II. 5. Whatever may be the true history of Pánini, to him the Sûtras, or succinct aphorisms of grammar, are attributed by universal consent.
1876. Encycl. Brit., V. 664/1. The Taouist literature, which has its foundation in The Sûtra of Reason and of Virtue by Laoutsze, the founder of the sect.
1886. Conder, Syria Stone-Lore, ix. (1896), 372. Some of its episodes [i.e., of Sindbad the Sailor] at least are recognised in the Buddhist Sutras.
attrib. 1867. Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 230. That a habit deeply rooted outlives necessity, is probably also shewn by these Sûtra works.
1881. Encycl. Brit., XII. 782/2. Their earliest … legal writings belong to the Sûtra period, or scholastic development, of the Veda.
