Historical Facts About Jainism

Author(s): Lala Lajpatrai
Publisher: Jain Associations of India Mumbai

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Vaidyaka-Sarasangraha. A little prior to that Nayanashekhara wrote Yoga-Ratnakara. On the mixed subjects of chemistry and medicine are Rasachintamani by Ananta Deva Suri and Siddha Yoga Mala by Siddharshi. Similarly mid-way between medicine and science is a valued work called Yoni-prabhrita. It treats of various medicines and shows how various creatures cani come into being by virtue of the process of mixing various medical ingredients.
Four DIVISIONS OF JAIN LITERATURE,
The subject of mathematics forms one of the four chief divisions of Jain literature viz. Philosophy, Mathematics, Rules of conduct, and keligious stories. Beginning with the Holy Scriptures of the Jains the first works whicb deal with [athematics as well as astronomy are SuryaPrajnapti and Chandra-Prajnapti. A comprehensive work of later times called Ganita SaraSarigraha has been recently discovered. It is the work of Maliaviracharya who flourished between 814 and 878 A.D. He thus comes after Aryabhatta but before the fainous Mathematician Bliaskeracharya. Both Algebra and modern Geometry are included in the work over and above Arithmetic. Professor Ujen Smith writing about the work says “the shadow problems, primitive cases of trignoinetry and Gnomonics suggest a similarity ainongst these three writers (Aryabhatta, Mahaviracharya and Bhaskeracharya) yet