Descriptive Catalogue of Govt Collections of Manuscripts Part 5 Ten Appendices

SR No.: 018045
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
Publication Year: 1954
Total Pages: 330
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue & Catalogue
File Size: 11 MB

Page 15

Preface
i. e. to say right to left arrangement. There are a few cases where the opposite arrangement is followed. For instance Subodhika furnishes us with a 'curious word-chronogram. In some cases we come across word-chronograms of which one or more constituents are names of numbers and not words.
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The Jaina manuscripts show that word-chronograms occur in versified colophons of Jaina works and at times in concluding lines written by scribes, whereby they indicate dates of corresponding manuscripts. A work named Acaradinakara notes its extent by means of a word-chronogram. In Prabhavakacarita composed by Prabhācandra Suri and divided into 22 sections, each known as
śroga" śrnga XXI is referred to as " kūyugma " ( v. 289 ). The number of şaşṭhas (a kind of penance), the period of the glory of Jainism in the 5th century etc. are also at times expressed in "word-chronograms ".
A list of word-chronograms has been given by me in my edition of Ganitatilaka as appendix III (pp. 107-113). A fairly long list is met with, in History of Hindu Mathematics (Part I, pp. 54-57) where this topic is nicely treated. Earlier than this is Bharatiya Pracina Lipimala. Here a list is given on p. 120.2 In History of Classical Sanskrit Literature its author M. Krishnamachariar says in his introduction (p. LXII) to this work:
"The first complete list is that given by Alberuni (A.D. 1031); the following is from his list, as translated by Woepoke supplemented from Brown's Cyclic Tables' and Inscriptions. '
Kesavamiśra in his Alankarasekhara (marici XVIII) has given a list of words which convey numerals from one to one thousand.
1 A similar example is furnished by the date of composition of Vicararatnākara. Here the word-chronogram " दर्शन - हिमकर - गगन-प्रेयक " stands for 1690, the constituents separately denoting 6, 1, 0, and 9.
2 I, too, have dealt with this topic in my Gujarati article " fast". It is published in "Jaina Satya Prakasa" (Vol. XIV, No. 2, (pp. 33-37).
3 This is published in "Kavyamala". The work is divided into three parts: (a) kärikās, (b) vṛtti and (c) examples, and it is composed in the latter half of the 16th century A. D.