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INTRODUCTION
One of them (Prof. H. L. Jain ) had his doubts about the wisdom of taking in hand for edition and translation a very difficult text like it, obscure at many places, the available Mss. of which were very corrupt. But the younger of the two editors (Prof. A. N. Upadhye) would not be deterred by these apprehensions. After all, this text has to be rescued from oblivion. And if so, who else would do the job and when ? So at last the two agreed to put their shoulders together as usual and make as best use of the available material as possible. Pt. Balchandra Shastri who already had the experience of translating the Tiloyapaņņatti was harnessed for the Hindi paraphrase.
The result of their joint labours is now before the world of scholars to see how far they have succeeded in their long drawn efforts.
The printing of the text was done at the Saraswati Press, Amraoti. But the completion of the volume had to be delayed for the important essay on the mathematics of the Tiloyapaņņatti (TP) by Prof. Laxmichandra Jain, the printing of which had to be done at Banaras, owing to the shifting of the Dhavala Office through which the printing work was being looked ofter. For the printing of this essay many Greek letters and signs had to be specially cast and the figure blocks had to be made: this again required much labour and delay. Immediately after the printing of the mathematical essay and the appendices was over, but before this introduction could be sent to the press, Pt. Balchandra Shastri fell ill and had to leave Banaras for his home in Bina. Therefore the printing of the rest of this work had to be done at Bombay and Sholapur. Under these circumstances, if the readers find any odd variety of paper and printing in this volume they would kindly excuse us.
The editors and the translator had done their best to handle the mathematical material as it occurred in these texts, viz., TP & JPS. But they were conscious of their limitations in this subject, and they desired to have the material studied adequately by a competent scholar of Mathematics. Luckily, they found a willing intellect in the young Professor of Mathematics, Shri Laxmichandra Jain. He has mainly studied the mathematical portions of the Tiloyapannatti and given his exposition in his Hindi Essay of 104 pages. Besides explaining the numerous mathematical processes of the Jaina works, with proper signs, symbols and diagrams, he has drawn pointed attention to certain peculiarities of Jaina Mathematics which have a similarity with ancient Greek and Chinese writings (for example see pp. 10 & 13). It would be hazardous at this stage to draw inferences regarding giving and borrowing. The points, however, deserve further study and investigation. Prof. Laxmichandra is himself continuing his studies in this direction.
After this publication, there remain two more unpublished texts on the subject of Jaina Cosmology. They are the Lokavibhāga and Trailokyadipika in Sanskrit. Attempts are being made to include them also in this series,
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