Сутры: древнеиндийские афористические тексты.

Text in Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism, often a collection of aphorisms
texts in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism

Sutra in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a condensed manual or text. Sutras are a genre of ancient and medieval Indian texts found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Each sutra is any short rule, like a theorem distilled into few words or syllables, around which teachings of ritual, philosophy, grammar, or any field of knowledge can be woven. In Buddhism, sutras, also known as suttas, are canonical scriptures, many of which are regarded as records of the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha. They are not aphoristic, but are quite detailed, sometimes with repetition. This may reflect a derivation from Vedic or Sanskrit sūkta (well spoken), rather than from sūtra (thread). found in Kashmir]]
The Sanskrit word Sūtra (Sanskrit: सूत्र, Pali: sutta, Ardha Magadhi: sūya) means "string, thread". The root of the word is siv, "that which sews and holds things together". The word is related to sūci (Sanskrit: सूचि) meaning "needle, list", and sūnā (Sanskrit: सूना) meaning "woven". while a Shloka is a verse that conveys the complete message and is structured to certain rules of musical meter, an Anuvyakhaya is an explanation of the reviewed text, while a Vyakhya is a comment by the reviewer.

Some of the earliest surviving specimens of sutras of Hinduism are found in the Anupada Sutras and Nidana Sutras. The former distills the epistemic debate whether Sruti or Smriti or neither must be considered the more reliable source of knowledge, while the latter distills the rules of musical meters for Samaveda chants and songs. A larger collection of ancient sutra literature in Hinduism corresponds to the six Vedangas, or six limbs of the Vedas. The sutras corresponding to these are embedded inside the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of the Vedas. Taittiriya Aranyaka, for example in Book 7, embeds sutras for accurate pronunciation after the terse phrases "On Letters", "On Accents", "On Quantity", "On Delivery", and "On Euphonic Laws". The fourth and often the last layer of philosophical, speculative text in the Vedas, the Upanishads, too have embedded sutras such as those found in the Taittiriya Upanishad. Other fields for which ancient sutras are known include etymology, phonetics, and grammar.

In Buddhism, a sutta or sutra constitutes a segment of the canonical literature. These early Buddhist sutras, unlike Hindu texts, are not aphoristic; rather, they tend to be quite lengthy. The Buddhist term sutta or sutra likely derives from Sanskrit sūkta (su + ukta), meaning "well spoken," reflecting the belief that "all that was spoken by the Lord Buddha was well spoken". They embody the essence of sermons conveying "well spoken" wisdom, akin to the Jain sutras. In Chinese, these are known as 經 (pinyin: jīng). These teachings are organized as part of the Tripiṭaka, specifically referred to as the Sutta Pitaka. Numerous significant or influential Mahayana texts, such as the Platform Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, are termed sutras despite being attributed to much later authors. In Theravada Buddhism, suttas constitute the second "basket" (pitaka) of the Pāli Canon. Rewata Dhamma and Bhikkhu Bodhi describe the Sutta Pitaka as:

In the Jain tradition, sutras are an important genre of "fixed text", which used to be memorized. The Kalpa Sūtra is, for example, a Jain text that includes monastic rules, as well as biographies of the Jain Tirthankaras. Many sutras discuss all aspects of ascetic and lay life in Jainism. Various ancient sutras particularly from the early 1st millennium CE, for example, recommend devotional bhakti as an essential Jain practice. The surviving scriptures of Jaina tradition, such as the Acaranga Sutra (Agamas), exist in sutra format, as is the Tattvartha Sutra, a Sanskrit text accepted by all four Jainism sects as the most authoritative philosophical text that completely summarizes the foundations of Jainism.