Basic Mathematics

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

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their
monumental Dhavala commentaries; Tiloyapanṇatti, Trilokasāra; and the Gommaṭasāra, Labdhisara as well as their mathematical and symbolic commentaries. Even the research papers of A. N. Singh and Saraswathi were not before them, however, their remarks are worthy of attention, "Despite great interest attached to mathematics by the Jainas of ancient India very little of their mathematical effort has unfortunately survived to this day...... That a good body of mathematical literature must have existed at one time seems indicated in Mahavira's own statement in which he described himself as a mere compiler from the great ocean of the knowledge of mathematics from which long lines of holy sages had skilfully gathered many precious mathematical gems..... These subjects and the various technical terms used by the Jainas passed later on into the mathematical works of scholars irrespective of their religious beliefs and adherences. It is thus quite reasonable to believe that in the period intervening the literature of the Brahmaņas and the Sutras of the various Vedic schools and the period of specialization and Siddhantic astronomy from about the fourth or fifth century A. D. the Jaina mathematicians played a significant role. The disappearance of their works might be due to (a) supersession of their simple processes and methods by better and more sophisticated ones due to Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Mahavira, Sripati, Sridhara, Bhaskara and others and (b) progressive deterioration of the culture of mathematics in their religious order."81
31. Cf. ibid., pp. 157-158.
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