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columns, and it is clear that Pheru is referring here to such a tower with fluted columns.
In another section dealing with cloth (IV.i.18-37). Pheru mentions different kinds of silk, woolen and cotton materials, the rate of shrinkage or loss in washing, cutting and sewing, and the area of cloth needed to make various types of tents. There is a last section (IV.1.1-17) listing the average yields of grains, pulses, etc. per bighā, the average yield of mollasses and brown sugar per maund of sugarcane, the amount of clarified butter that can be obtained from cow's and buffalo's milk and so on. His rule of converting Vikrama dates into Hirji dates and vice versa (IV.1.17) which is probably the first such rule to be formulated in India. Though all these are not germane to arithmetic as such but Pheru is adapting arithmetic to suit the needs of a variety of professions. O
This is a condensed part of the paper “Thakkura Pheru and the Popularization of Science in India” in Jainthology, Ed. Ganesh Lalwani, Jain Bhavwan, Calcutta 1991.
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