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96 / The Rāştrakūtas and Jainism
mentioned different varieties of weights and measures where grain, gold, silver and metal were used with the terms that were current during mid 9th cent. C. E. Mahāvīrācārya says that two Draksus(Drachma-a Greek name), were quavalent to one Dināra (Dinārieus - a Roman coin), and two Dinārās were equal to one stātēra (stater).
4.7.2. Ganitasāra samgraha is an exceptional work on Indian Mathematics, simpler than the work of Brahmagupta. It deals with geometrical progression. Mahāvirācārya has vividly specified the universal utility of mathematics :
In all transactions which relate to worldly, vedic, or other similar religious affairs, calculation is of most use. In the science of love, in economics, in music and in drama, in the science of cooking, in medical science, in architecture, in prosody, poetiecs and poetry, in logic and grammar, and in relation to all that constitutes the peculiar value of the arts, the mathematics is held in most high esteem. In relation to the movements of the sun and other planets, in eclipses, in conjunction of the planets, in problems related to direction, position, once time, in the moon's phases, indeed in all these, the use of mathematics is most accepted. The number, the diameter, and the perimeter of islands, oceans, and mountains; the dimensions of the habitations and halls belonging to the inhabitants of the world, between the worlds, of the jyotirlūka, of the world of gods and of hell-dwellers and other miscellaneous measurements etc.. - all these are known through mathematics. The configuration of living beings, the span of their lives, their journeys and dwelling together, etc., are all dependent upon mathematics. What is the use of saying much? Whatever there is in all the three worlds with living or moving and non-moving beings cannot be comprohended without mathematics.
[Jinamanjari, vol. 19. No. 1. April 1999, special number on Jaina mathematics theme guest ed. Padmavatamma. Gupta, R.C., Intro' to Jaina Mathematics).
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