Astronomy and Cosmology

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

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2. WHAT IS JAINA THEORY ?
One has thus to see to what class the Jaina astronomical theory belongs ? In what way the analytical method adopted in developing the principles of the theory, and to what extent they are mathematically formulated ? The abstraction method takes us on one side to the Samaya and Pradeśa, which are both regarded indivisible as the ultimate particle Paramāņu is indivisible. On the other side, there is the Rajju and the periods like the Pudgala or Bhāva parāvartana. Then they reach the infinities in time and space, through unending periodic phenomena.
We find several instances, when the actual figures are projected, deformed, stretched and yet hold on the invariance for their measure, Then one has to see how much perfect these theories had been made through the application of logic like the Syādvāda, and Anekānta. There is no doubt that whenever a path is needed, and is necessitated, the intellect and intuition find their own way of abstracting out strange and unusual methods like the method of exhaustion, real and counter replacements, setting up of a new system of observation through a new frame, and assimilating all the past known procedures.
It appears that when the Jaina principle theory began to disappoint the scholars in getting consistent results of the natural processes, it was replaced by the constructive theories evolved all the world over. 128 One has to mark out where the differences in measures of observation and calendar arose, in time reckoning at specified places. This naturally led to wrong prediction of the time of eclipses which had been a part of religious observation,
3. ECLIPSE THEORY
In the history of astronomy, Thales (C.-585), known for his maxim, “Know thyself,” was the first to predict a solar eclipse. It is presumed that he made use of the Babylonian saros period of 223 lunations. Vedic cycle was noted to be of 675 lunations based on recurrence of eclipses in three different colours (black, red and white ). Lishk has however observed from Sūryaprajñapti (v. 105) that the five colours of Rāhu (black, blue, red, yellow and white) yield a cycle of 336 eclipse years. But it is seriously felt that as the Jaina school had framed an astronomical theory, even the phenomena of eclipses could not have escaped their calculations, through the strange and mysterious setting of real and counter bodies. Although they could make correction in the precessional data, yet their 128 Cf. T. S. Kupanna Shastri, op. cit. (19).
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