________________
JULY, 1986
23
E JAMBUDVIPA
SENCE OF
CIRCUMFER
Besides, using equation No. 1, region R illuminated on any day of the year can be easily found out if we know the length of the daylight for that day.
Or in other words, in the concept of the area R of Jambudvipa being illumined the concept of length of the daylight L was implied, i.e. the length of the daylight L compared with the total length of an ahorätra has been expressed in the parameters of area R being illumined etc. compared with the total area of Jambudvipa.
Now a serious problem arises before us as regards the latitude of the observer in so far as the measurement of the length of daylight in the parameters of the area is concerned.
The ratio of maximum area and minimum area of Jambudvipa being illumined etc. comes out to be 3 : 2 which is also the ratio of maximum and minimum lengths of the daylight as found in all the Jaina canonical literature. This ratio belongs to 35 latitude, the latitude of Babylon as well as the latitude of Gandhara in ancient India (presently in Afghanistan). This has led the western scholar like Dr. D. Pingrees to believe that the whole astronomical knowledge was transported to India from Mesopotamia. But Lishk and Sharma have argued that the time in ancient India was measured through the help of a water clepsydra and
Origin of Ancient Indian Mathematical
5 Pingree, D. (1973), "Mesopotamian
Astronomy', JHA, Vol. 4, pp. 1-12.
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