History of Canonical Literature of Jainas

Author(s): Hiralal R Kapadia
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 222

COMPARISON AND EVALUATION
205
"It will be noticed that in the classification of numbers stated above, there is an attempt to define numbers beyond Alef-zero....The fact that an attempt was made in India to define such numbers as early as the first century before the Christian era, speaks highly of the speculative faculties of the ancient Jaina mathematicians." The Jaina School of Mathematics (p. 142) published in "The Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society" (Vol. XXI, No. 2, 1929).
(viii) Anuogaddära (s. 131) supplies us with various tables of measurement which can be compared with those given in Kautilya's Arthaśästra and elsewhere. Further, these tables incidentally throw light on the history of Magadha.
(ix) Viahapannatti (XXV, 3; s. 724-726), Anuogaddāra (s. 123 & 144) and Suriyapannatti (s. 11, 25 & 100) supply us with names of several geometrical figures, plane and solid as well.
(x) Viahapanṇatti (s. 91), Jiväjiväbhigama (s. 82 & 109) and Suriyapannatti (s. 20) furnish us with values of 11.
(xi) Suriyapannatti' and Joïsakarandaga supply us with astronomical knowledge. Prof. Weber observes:
"That not only do the astronomical works of Jainas furnish information. about the conceptions of a religious sect but may, if rightly investigated, yield valuable material for the general history of Indian ideas."
(xii) Visesä (v. 351-372) provides us with a chapter on sound (accoustics) and Punnavana, with that of light (optics) subjects coming under the class of Applied Mathematics.
(xiii) It may be that the 3 Prākṛta verses quoted by Bhaskara I in his commentary on v. 10 of the Ganitapada of the Aryabhatiya of Aryabhata I, may be belonging to some extinct Agama."
(xiv) Räjäditya (1120 A. D.) has written Jaina-gaṇitasütrodāharaṇa.' It
1-2. These two works along with Lokaprakasa (pt. IV) were found very useful in understanding the knotty points of Vedānga-jyotisa. So says Mr. B. R. Kulkarni in his article entitled “ऐतिहासिक दृष्टिसे प्राचीन जैन वाङ्मयका महत्त्व और उसके संशोधनकी आवश्यकता" and published in Jainasatyaprakāśa (vol. VI, No. 11, pp. 418-420).
3. See "Sacred Literature of the Jainas" (I, p. 372 and II, p. 574 ff.), and "Indian Antiquary" (XXI, p. 14 ff.).
4. See Dr. B. Datta's article entitled as A lost Jaina treatise on Arithmetic and published in "The Jaina Antiquary" (vol. II, No. 2, pp. 38-41, September 1936).