Astronomy and Cosmology

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

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510 yojanas = 48 X 69.9 miles, thus
1 yojana = 6,6 miles roughly. HEIGHT AS LATITUDE
Accordingly the height 800 yojanas of the sun, converted into degrees by the same scale becomes sa
nec 800 X 6.7 = 77.50. Sharma and Lishk
69.9 regard this as the region of the projected ecliptic round the north pole (Meru directed point), also called the plane earth Citrā. 120 If this is the north polar distance of the sun, naturally, the moon at 880 yojanas shall mean, 80 yojanas towards the south of the sun, or below it in celestial diagram. According to the same scale, as suggested above, the maximum north polar distance of the moon from the sun or ecliptic is proposed to be 80 x 6.7 69. 90
= 7.70, the modern value being 50 8' 40", to which may approximate the former if a yojana is taken to be 5 miles.121
In the same way, the belt from 790 yojanas to 900 yojanas, or 110 yojanas becomes 10X6. = 10.60, a modern value of the lunar zodiac. 122
69.9
Thus the recognition of the heights of the heavenly bodies above the Citra, by Sharma and Lishk, though at present controversial, is praiseworthy and creditable. They proceed on to recognize a correspondence between two patterns of yojanas :
800 Y=50000 y, where Y is in the Tiloyapaņņatti units, and radius of the Jambūdvipa is 50000 y. On this basis they have derived the obliquity of the ecliptic (230.5), in structure of the mathematical model of Meru,123 120 Cf. “Latitude of the moon as determined in Jaina Astronomy",
Sramaņa, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 28–35. Cf. also Lishk, S. S., and Sharma, S. D., Notion of circular flat earth in Jai
ar flat earth in Jaina Cosmography, The Jaina Antiquary, vol. xxviii, no. 1-2, July 1976. pp. 1-5. 121 This easily leads to the concept of celestial latitude which are measured
north or south of the ecliptic, from 00 to 900. 122 Cf. Neugebauer, pp. 102, 103; 82, 89 and 166, 186, for various
civilizations. Cf also Needham and Ling, p. 173. 123 Cf. Lishk, S. S. and Sharma, s. D., Notion of obliquity of ecliptic
implied in concept of Mount Meru in Jambūdvipaprajñapti, Jain Journal, Calcutta, Jan. 1978, 79-92.
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