To the Rigveda belong the Çrauta manuals of two Sutra schools (charanas), the Çankhayanas and the Açvalayanas, the former of whom were in later times settled in Northern Gujarat, the latter in the South between the Godavari and the Krishna. The ritual is described in much the same order by both, but the account of the great royal sacrifices is much more detailed in the Çankhayana Çrauta Sutra. The latter, which is closely connected with the Çankhayana Brahmana, seems to be the older of the two, on the ground both of its matter and of its style, which in many parts resembles that of the Brahmanas. It consists of eighteen books, the last two of which were added later, and correspond to the first two books of the Kaushitaki Aranyaka. The Çrauta Sutra of Açvalayana, which consists of twelve books, is related to the Aitareya Brahmana. Açvalayana is also known as the author of the fourth book of the Aitareya Aranyaka, and was according to tradition the pupil of Çaunaka.
Three Çrauta Sutras to the Samaveda have been preserved. The oldest, that of Maçaka, also called Arsheya-kalpa, is nothing more than an enumeration of the prayers belonging to the various ceremonies of the Soma sacrifice in the order of the Panchavimça Brahmana. The Çrauta Sutra composed by Latyayana, became the accepted manual of the Kauthuma school. This Sutra, like that of Maçaka, which it quotes, is closely connected with the Panchavimça Brahmana. The Çrauta Sutra of Drahyayana, which differs but little from that of Latyayana, belongs to the Ranayaniya branch of the Samaveda.
To the White Yajurveda belongs the Çrauta Sutra of Katyayana. This manual, which consists of twenty-six chapters, on the whole strictly follows the sacrificial order of the Çatapatha Brahmana. Three of its chapters (xxii.-xxiv.), however, relate to the ceremonial of the Samaveda. Owing to the enigmatical character of its style, it appears to be one of the later productions of the Sutra period.
No less than six Çrauta Sutras belonging to the Black Yajurveda have been preserved, but only two of them have as yet been published. Four of these form a very closely connected group, being part of the Kalpa Sutras of four subdivisions of the Taittiriya Çakha, which represented the later sutra schools (charanas) not claiming a special revelation of Veda or Brahmana. The Çrauta Sutra of Apastamba forms the first twenty-four of the thirty chapters (praçnas) into which his Kalpa Sutra is divided; and that of Hiranyakeçin, an offshoot of the Apastambas, the first eighteen of the twenty-nine chapters of his Kalpa Sutra. The Sutra of Baudhayana, who is older than Apastamba, as well as that of Bharadvaja, has not yet been published.