Astronomy and Cosmology

Author(s): L C Jain
Publisher: Rajasthan Prakrit Bharti Sansthan Jaipur

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are also fluents. Motion of ultimate particles in an indivisible instant could be minimum (one space-point) and maximum (14 rajjus). For bonds of particles, snigdha and ruksa could be associated with positive and negative charges. For Karmic bonds, yoga and kaşaya bind a bios with nişekas, measured through particle number, configuration, life-time and energy-level of impartation (pradeśa, praksti, sthiti, and anubhāga).”
In Chapter V, certain astronomical concepts, for example, precession of equinoxes general calendar as well as Indian Calendar (pañcāiga) etc. have been discussed. The author also mentions, as it is well known, that the calendar adopted in Vedānga Jyotişa has something to do with that adopted in the ancient Prakrit texts and that there is a great similarity in the treatment of the heavenly bodies and their motion in practically all ancient Prakrit iexts of the Jaina karapānüyoga
oup. In Hindu Calendar, 27 nakşatras while in the Jaina Calendar 28 nakşatras have been reckoned, the Jainas having added one more nakşatra 'Abhijit'. The author also points out that considering certain aspects of the astronomical incidences, Lishk and Sharma have concluded that the probable period of the Jaina canon may be about 6th Century B. C.
In Chapter VI, kinematics of the astral bodies have been discussed as available in ancient texts of India, China, Greece, Egypt, Babylonia etc. As stated by Needham and Ling, "In these texts there is never any mention of any Zodiac or of constellation lying along the ecliptic; the earliest documentary evidence of this conception occurs just after. On the other hand, seleucid cuneiform texts of the 3rd and 2nd centuries B. C., give great prominence to the Zodiac and use ecliptic coordinates extensively." But the
uthor (Jain) points out that the above authors do not appear to have gone into details of the nakşatra system of the Jaina School. The Zodiac of the Jaina School was so predominant that every nakşatra of the Zodiac had its sign and Yogatāräs. However, there is some difference of sign of in the two Jaina texts, the Candraprajñapti and the Tiloyapaņņatti, the reason may be that the, Candraprajñapti was based on observations taken in the north while Tiloyapaņņatti belonged to the observations taken in the south of India,
The commentaries of Candraprajñapti by Malayagiri and Amolak Rși give greater details of a Jaina Calendar based on calculation of motion of various heavenly bodies, specially that of the sun, the moon and the nakşatras while Tiloypaņņatti, Trilokasāra, Lokavibhāga and Jambūdvipa prajñapti give concise knowledge of the same. According to Neugebauer, only since the Assyrian period, a turn towards mathematical description became visible and texts based on a consistent mathematical theory of lunar
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