SUTRA • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Sutra

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noun

Sutra n. (pl. sutras)

(a)

A precept; an aphorism; a brief rule.

(b)

A collection of such aphorisms.

pl. A body of Hindoo literature containing aphorisms on grammar, meter, law, and philosophy, and forming a connecting link between the Vedic and later Sanscrit literature.

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Etymology of 'Sutra'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Sutra" Quotes from Famous Books

... the Harem is a stock "topic" of eastern tales. "By means of their female attendants, the ladies of the royal harem generally get men into their apartments in the disguise of women," says Vatsyayana in The Kama Sutra, Part V. London: Printed for the Hindoo Kamashastra Society. 1883. ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... the other equipments of the tea-ceremony, reflects many of the Zen doctrines. The size of the orthodox tea-room, which is four mats and a half, or ten feet square, is determined by a passage in the Sutra of Vikramadytia. In that interesting work, Vikramadytia welcomes the Saint Manjushiri and eighty-four thousand disciples of Buddha in a room of this size,—an allegory based on the theory of the non-existence of space to the ...

— The Book of Tea • Kakuzo Okakura

... and dragons, all weather-stained to one neutral tone. The paper screens are open, but a melancholy rhythmic chant from within tells us that the noonday service is being held: the priests are chanting the syllables of Sanscrit texts transliterated into Chinese—intoning the Sutra called the Sutra of the Lotus of the Good Law. One of those who chant keeps time by tapping with a mallet, cotton- wrapped, some grotesque object shaped like a dolphin's head, all lacquered in scarlet and gold, which gives forth a dull, booming ...

— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan - First Series • Lafcadio Hearn