Basic Mathematics

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

Page 73

in China157 and the Jaina School.158 (i) The invention of systems of coordinates, (ii) Recognition of the method of correspondence, (ii) the existence of functional relations between two variables.
Similar to Chinese arithmetica and combinatorial analysis, the Jaina School had its own arithmetica and the method of combinatorial analysis round about the Christian era, 159 The number mysticism of the Pythagorean era appears to be a part of what was elaborately having studied in India. Artha, in the Jaina School, meant the measure of objects with respect to the Fluent (Dravya), Quarters (Kşetra), Time (Kala) and Phase (Bhava). The magic squares and other geometrical forms could also be seen in the Jaina School,160
Analogous to the system of large numbers in Jain School, in the texts of the Chou date, (-6th to +4th century-Confucian period), several terms for very large number appear.161 The Chinese like the Zeno and the Jainas, found the impossibility of divisibility ad infinitum in space and time,162 The Chinese had also developed the naive ideas of matrices comparable to those in Jaina School,163
(e) Conclusion
From the above, it could be concluded that the Jaina School of Mathematics formed one of sources of transmission and influence. The religiophilosophic garb, however, did not allow a deeper probe into the evolution of the scientific spirit which was originated and motivated at the time of Vardhamana Mahavira, and which seems to have been based on some hidden under-current.
157. Cf. ibid. p. 106.
158. Sarvarthasiddhi of Pujyāpāda, op. cit, pp. 185 et seq; ch. 2, vv. 28, 29, 30; ch. 7, vv. 36, 39, 65, 68, 83, 89, 93, 96, 99, 104, 108, 117, 161, 178, 189, 186, 216-17, 228, 237, 246, 265, 272, 276. Cf. also research papers in Bibl. (c) by Jain.
159. Cf. Datta, Bibl. (c).
160.
Cf. Bibl. (c), 14.
161.
Cf. Needham & Ling, vol. III, pp. 82, et seq.
162.
163.
Cf. ibid., p. 92.
Cf. ibid., p. 117. Cf. also T.P.G. (Tiloyapanṇatti Ka Ganita, op. cit.)
56