INTRODUCTION
AFTER completing the course of study of the Vedas, the
student should perform the rituals mentioned therein. There are rules prescribed for the proper performance of them. But in the Vedas proper, these rules are not mentioned at all. Therefore the student has to go to other works for them. Consequently certain subsidiary works on the rules of interpretation were composed by the sages and the earliest of these works was the
Mimamsasutras of Jaimini.
But these Sutras were very short statements and they could be interpreted in different ways; consequently a number of commentators arose. They interpreted these Sutras differently. The performance of the rituals mentioned therein grant only limited and transitory results. Hence these vedic scholars, went in search of other systems that could give the unlimited and everlasting results.
Badarayana is the author of the Brahmasutras. He has stated therein, on the authority of the Upanishads, that the knowledge of the Brahman leads to everlasting benefits. Badanarayana mention the names of Asmarathya, Audulomi Badari and Kasakrtsna to show that they also were the writers on the subject before him.
Certain occidental writers have placed the Sutra period in the second century B.C. Their one object seems to have been to show to the world that the Indians copied everything
