Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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discoveries in line with the modern science. The points where the two agree and where they do not have been laid bare.
One is apt to ask : how is the present work going in any way to
ve the cause of the Jain religion or of science? My answer is that the present work is only one link in the chain. The Publishers have under contemplation similar commentaries on the subjects of biology, geography, etc., and when the chain is complete the world will know the peculiar merit of the Jain religion that it has treated not only the problems of soul, truth and ahimsă in a rational way but that it deals with matter and the physical universe in quite the same manner. With regard to the cause of science, some day some physicist, like our eminent Jain physicist Dr. D.S. Kothari of Delhi University, may take up some prediction of the Jain physics, work it out mathematically and astonish the world. The 'animistic' belief of the Jainas that the plants are endowed with life has already been demonstrated wonderfully by late Sir J.C. Bose, F.R.S. Who can say that development of the mercury-vapour turbines in America is not the outcome of the descriptions of the mercury vapour engines occurring in ancient Jaina and Buddhist works like the Samaranganasutradhära a
samhita? It is mentioned in these works that in the Puspaka vimana of Rävana a mercury vapour engine was used which, as every student of physics knows, is far more efficient than a steam or a petrol engine i.e. it does more work for the same consumption of energy. In the time of Rājā Bhoja there was an Aeroplane Factory at Benaras. An Aeroplane was called an Udana khajolā at that time. Not only in America, but also in Germany an attempt was made to replace petrol engines by the mercury vapour engines in the aeroplanes. The translation of Sürya-prajñapti, a standard Jain work on astronomy, into the German language has elicited high admiration in the West.
We draw the attention of the scientists towards the following facts particularly : (i) Jainas assert that the size of the universe is fixed (343
au. rajjus) whereas the modern cosmologists believe that the universe was in the form of material highly concentrated corresponding to Brahma's golden egg, which began expanding suddenly some five billion years ago and is expanding even today. This expansion of