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१८६
अनुसन्धान - ५४ श्रीहेमचन्द्राचार्यविशेषांक भाग - २
day more a solar month. A half day less makes a lunar month. Twenty-seven (days and nights) make a month of constellations. Thirty-two make a month for the army". (Kangle's translation).
The translation "a month for the army", partly based on the rather tortuous explanations of the commentators, is highly questionable. Balamāsa is indeed a strange compound, for balais a substantive and not an adjective. Yet, given the context of the list and the parallel fivefold distinction of months in the Jaina sources, I am convinced that balamāsa is a rough semantic equivalent of Pkt. abhivaḍdhia-, and refers to the "extended month". Its duration as 32 days and nights in the Arthasāstra corresponds roughly with that of the JK, namely 31 121/124:
abhivaḍdhito tu maso ekkattisam bhave ahorattā
bhāga sata ekkavisam cauvisa-satena chedeṇam (JK 64).
Like for the other types of months, the duration is given in the Arthasastra in the form of an integer number, while it is given as the fractional number required by the calculations in JK (see note 28 above). If this assumption is correct, we would have another instance of correspondence between the Arthasästra and Jaina sources in matters of time-divisions and conception. These agreements do not mean that one borrowed from the other, but that both reflect a common Indian knowledge characteristic of the "middle period".33
Skt. karmasamvatsara is also attested in the Arthaśāstra:
33. Another example of similar correspondence between the Surapannatti and the AS relates to the length of the shade, which has been analyzed by H. Jacobi. His observation is worth remembering: "Die Übereinstimmung Kautilyas mit den Jainas ist von Interesse. Nicht als ob jener, ein Verfechter der brahmanischen Rechtgläubigkeit, von den Jainas etwas entlehnt hätte, sondern beide geben ja nur das wieder, was, wie Thibaut im Grundriss III, 9, § 11 auseinandersetzt, während der mittleren Periode der indischen Astronomie indisches Gemeingut war. Es is nicht
