________________ JAIN CONCEPTS OF GEOGRAPHY AND COSMOLOGY 239 square root of ten times the square of its diameter, and its area is equal to the circumference multiplied by the quarter of the diameter. The first part states that the circumference of a circle is equal to the square root of ten times the square of its diameter. The square root of ten is 3.16, which is close to the value of n (3.14), and the square root of a square diameter is the diameter. Thus the formula virtually specifies nD, which we use for arriving at the circumference of a circle. The second part states that the area of a circle is equal to the circumference multiplied by the quarter of the diameter. That means nDD/4, which is the same as n RR that we use for working out the area of a circle. Similarly they worked out the length of a year, varying lengths of days and nights, temperatures during different seasons, summer and winter solstices, vernal and autumnal equinoxes, etc. fairly accurately as can be seen from the following description. The ancient seers could not conceive of the spherical earth moving around the sun. They were perhaps guided by the apparent movement of the sun and other stellar bodies around the earth and seem to have formulated their theories on that basis. As such, sun and moon were conceived of the smaller sizes and were not considered capable to spread light over entire Jamboodweep. Jain seers therefore conceived of two suns and two moons for Jamboodweep. They revolve one after the other around mountain Meru over the surface of Jamboodweep. Each of them takes two days for completing a round. While one sun rises in the east and proceeds towards the west via south, the other sun rises in the west and proceeds towards the east via north. That very time one moon rises in the south and proceeds towards the north via west, while the other moon rises in the north and proceeds towards the south via east. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
