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18
of allocation of nakṣatras (asterisms) kept in their natural order among) the vithis (lanes) kept in the prevailing sequence (decreasing or increasing) of numbers of days associated with them. Thus they committed a mistake by assuming parallelism between directions of vithis and their regular placement along lunar zodiac. Such a parallelism does not hold good for individual vithis due to several factors influencing duration of heliacal combustion of Venus; however in a broader sense, vithis occurring north (or south) of go vithi (cow lane) are associated with nakşatras (asterisms) falling almost in northern (or southern) hemisphere (see table No. 3).
Now it may be recalled that relative directions of vithis (lanes) of Venus depend upon their respective numbers of days. Since duration of combustion of Venus mainly depends upon its geocentric latitude, so it may be envisaged that Jainas might have had a notion of geocentric latitude of Venus implied in relative directions of vithis. Such a notion is rather supported by the fact that they had a notion of celestial latitude implied in concept of height above samatala bhūmi (earth having plane surface denoting a circular area with centre at the projection of pole of ecliptic).18
6. General Remarks
It may be mentioned here that both in Maxican and Mayan manuscripts the periodic time of Venus is indicated by means of the tonalamatl symbols and the dates of the months respectively. Leaves 46-50 of the Mayan manuscripts in Dresden, exhibit 5 such revolutions of 584 days each which are severally divided into stages of 90, 250,8 and 236 days.19 But Jainian account of vithis (lanes) of Venus is unique in its features. May be that parallel studies were also in progress in both Maxican and Mayan civilizations.
Besides, the procedure text (Astronomical Cuneiform Text No. 812) 20 also describes intervals of invisibility of Venus in inferior combustion and assigns 21
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18 See Sharma, S.D. and Lishk, S.S.(1975), 'Latitude of Moon as Determined in Jaina Astronomy', Sramana, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 27-35.
See also Lishk, S. S. and Sharma, S. D., 'Notion of Obliquity of Ecliptic Implied in the Concept of the Mount Meru in Jambudvipa Prajnapti'. Paper presented at Seventh Session of Jaina Vidya Parishad, Jaina Visva Bharati, Ladnun (7-10 Oct. 1977), Jain Journal, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 79-92.
Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, Vol. 3, p. 126.
19
20
21
Cf. Neugebauer, Otto (1955), Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (3 Vols.), p. 399. Cf. Neugebauer, Otto (1975), A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (3 Vols.), pp. 460-466, esp. 465.
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