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428 : Scientific Contents in Prākrta Canons
Thus, 'yoni' does not only represent the birth-place but it also tells us about the different forms of living species. A third meaning of the term is also found in terms of cause of birth. This is, however, not generally agreed. Though the major 'yonis' are four (hellish, human, sub-human and celestials ), but their sub-classification yields 8.4 million 'yonis' shown in Table 7 alongwith the number of families ( specific species ) of different species. Table 7 : Number of Yonis and Families in Jaina Canons. No. Species
Yonis42 Families, x 1012
Mūlācāra43 PrV44 1. 1-sensed Earth-bodied 700,000
12 2. 1-sensed Water-bodied 700,000 3. 1-sensed Air-bodied 700,000 4. 1-sensed Fire-bodied 700,000 5. 1-sensed permanent 700,000
general bodied species
(plants) 6. 1-sensed variable general 700,000
bodied species ( plants ) 7. 1-sensed other plant 10,00,000
species 8. Total plant species 24,00,000 9. 2, 3, 4 sensed species 600,000 24 24 10. 5-sensed animal species 400,000 43.50 53.50 11.5-sensed human species 14,00,000 1 4 12 12. Hellish species
400,000 25 25 13. Celestial species 400,000 26 26 Total
84,00,000 199,5 197.5 It is observed that there seems to be a discrepancy in the number of families of human beings in Mülācāra? and Gommațasāra Jivakānda 38 ( one mentioning 14x1012 and the other mentioning as 12 x 1012 ), thus, the families will vary between 197.5-199.5 x 1012. Gommatasāra agrees with
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