Basic Mathematics

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

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in value."
He further remarks, "In all transactions which relate to worldly, vedic or other similar religious affairs or in the science of love, in the science of economics, in music or in drama, in the art of cooking, in medicine, in architecture, in prosody, in poetry, in logic and grammar and such other things and in relation to all that constitutes the peculiar value of the arts, the science of calculation (in modern technology mathematics) is held in high esteem. Not only this, but in relation to the movement of the sun, the moon and other heavenly bodies, in all astronomical phenomena whether they be related to eclipses, conjunction of planets, tripraśna (direction, position and time), the measurements of small or extensive dimensions of lengths and heights of small or big bodies like atoms, islands, ocean and mountains, interspace distances between the different worlds, the world of gods (heavens), the world of hill, that is, in all spheres of life which the man can think of, ganita is used. "The configuration of living beings therein, the lengths of their lives, their progress, their staying together, that is, in other words, whatever there is in all the three worlds (tri loka) which consist of moving and non-moving beings, cannot exist apart from ganita." In fact Mahaviracārya has said:
छंदो ऽलंकार काव्येषु तर्क व्याकरणादिषु । कला गुणेषु सर्वेषु, प्रस्तुतं गणितं परम् ।।
meaning thereby that ganita is at the top of all branches of knowledge. Such was the importance of ganita (the science of measurement and calculation) recognised by Mahāvirācārya even during those old days. During the modern times also, looking to the importance of mathematics and its applications to all other abstract sciences, the great social philosopher Comte has placed mathematics as first in the heirarchy when considering certain subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, etc. Taking into consideration the recent researches in the various fields of knowledge,their heirarchy in the modified form can be arranged roughly as: MathematicsStatistics-Physics-Engineering and Technology-Chemistry-Biology including medical Sciences - Agriculture - Economics - Psychology - Sociology- Political Science-Earth Sciences-Literature-History. In this heirarchy each science is historical, 'older, logically simpler, more widely applicable, more capable of reaching the positive developed state earlier and independent of all those that follow it. Thus in order also, mathematics occupies the first place.
As in someother parts of the world, in India also the stream of spiritual thinking ( प्राध्यात्मिक विचारधारा) has been going on for the last thousands of years. Through this spiritual thinking only, the man has achieved his spiritual progress. Many preceptors have worked in this field
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