Ganittilakam Savrtuttikam

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 41

INTRODUCTION
3 ptus
= 1 ayana (ayana) 2 ayanas
= ,, samvatsara (sarnvacchara) 5 samvatsaras = ,, yuga (juga)
84 lacs of years =, pūrvānga (puvvanga)? Bhāva-pramāṇa has various subdivisions but they have very little to do with Mathematics. Moreover it is not possible to treat this subject any more here, since the object of this introduction is to take a rough survey of the Jaina field of Mathematics.
GEOMETRICAL REFERENCES IN THE JAINA CANON
As already remarked”, when geometry is the lotus of Mathematics according to the Jaina canon, it is not surprising, if therein we come across several technical terms pertaining to it.
Bhagavatīsūtra (XXV. 3; sūtras 724-726), Anuyogadvāra. sūtra (sútras 123 and 144) etc.*, supply us with the names of five geometrical figures as under :
(1) tryasra ( triangle ), (2) caturasra ( quadrilaterale ), (3) āyata (rectangle), (4) vrtta (circle) and (5) parimandala (ellipse). Each of these is of two kinds according as it is pratara (plane) or ghana (solid). Consequently ghanatryasra, ghanacaturasra, ghanāyata, ghanavytta and ghanaparimandala respectively mean a triangular pyramid, a cube, a reetagular parallelopiped, a sphere and an elliptic cylinder.
We come across the circular, triangular and quadriangular rings (annulii) which are called valayavrtta, valayatryasra and valayacaturasra respectively.
1 Cf. Anuyogadvārasütra (sūtra 137) and Ārhatadors'anadāpikā (pp. 587-588).
2 This subject is partly dealt with, in Tattvärtharäjavārtika (p. 146), a Digambara commentary on Tattvärtha (III, 38), and in The Jaina Gem Dictionary (pp. 153-154), too.
3 See p. 12, fn. 2. 4 Soe Jambūdvīpaprajñapti and Jivājīvābhigamasútra.
5-6 In this conection I may mention that Dr. Datta has written splendid article viz. "On Mahävira's solution of Rational Triangles and Quadrilaterals'. See "The Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society" vol. XX (pp. 267-294), 1928-29. On p. x of this introduction this article is already referred to.