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With the help of the accomplished holy sages, who are worthy to be worshipped by the lords of the world, and of their disciples and disciples' disciples, who constitute the well known jointed series of preceptors, I glea n from the great ocean of the knowledge of numbers a little of its essence, in the manner in which gems are (picked up from the sea; gold is from the stony rock and the pearl from the oyster shell ; and give out, according to the power of my intelligence, the Sara Samgraha, a small work on arithmetic, which is (however) not small in value". 1
The author of the GSS has always held the great Mahavira, the founder of the Jain religion, to have been a great mathematician. Amongst the religious works of the Jainas, that are important from the view point of mathematics are: (1) Surya Prajnapti
About 500 B. C. (2) Jambu Dvipa Prajnapti (3) Sthananga Sutra (4) Uttaradhyayana Sutra
About 300 B. C. (5) Bhagwati Sutra (6) Anuyoga-dvara Sutra
4. THERE IMPORTANT SCHOOLS OF MATHEMATICS
In the Sulva Sutra period (750 B. C. to 400 A. D.) there existed three important schools of mathematics :
(1) The Kusumpura or Pataliputra school near modern Patna (latitude 25,37°N, longitude 85.13°E) in Bihar (ancient Magadha) which was a great centre of learning. The famous University of Nalanda was. situated in modern Patna, and this was a centre of Jaina scholars in ancient times. Bhadra Bahu (4th Cent. B. C.) and Umaswati (2nd Cent. B. C.) belonged to this school.
(2) The Ujjain School
Brahmagupta (7th Cent. A. D.) and Bhaskaracārya (12th Cent. A. D.) belonged to this school. (3) The Mysore School
Mahaviracārya (9th Cent. A. D.) or briefly Mahavira belonged to this school.
There was a close contact between the three schools and the mathematicians of one school visited the other schools frequently.
4. 1. KUSUMPURA SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS
The culture of mathematics and astronomy in the Kusumpura school survived upto the end of the 5th Century of the christian era when flourished the famous algebraist Aryabhata (476 A. D.) who made many innovations in Hindu astronomy. Aryabhata was the Kulpati of the University of Nalanda. He was unanimously acknowledged by the later indian mathematicians as father of the Hindu algebra.
India's first scientific satellite launched on 19th April 1975 at 1 P. M. (1. S.T.) from Moscow is named after this great Indian astronomer and mathematician. India celebrated Aryabhata's 1500th birth anniversary in November 1976 at Indian National Science Academy New Delhi, where many leading
1. See G. S. S. Slokas 9--19. p. 2-3. 2. Compare Chapter 1-2.
जैन प्राच्य विद्याएं
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