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What is the purpose of the Sutras?

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The Sutras [Skt.,=thread or clue] were written in the third and final stage (c.500-c.200 BC) of the Vedic period. They are treatises dealing with Vedic ritual and customary law. They were written to fulfill the need for a short survey in mnemonic, aphoristic form of the past literature, which by this time had assumed massive proportions.

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