Jain Journal 1984 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 37

110
I have seen the Jaina hill temples scattered in different parts of India. The Girnar and Mount Abu in Saurastra and Rajasthan, Palitana or Satrunjaya near Ahmedabad, Sikharji (Pareshnath) in Bihar and also the enchanting Ranakpur temple in Rajasthan. The localities below these temples are inhabited by persons engaged in petty trade and serving the temples. In the same way, Arya Bhata was born in the Janapada of the Kallil Jaina temple, inhabited by Jainas during his time.
JAIN JOURNAL
Prof. A. N. Singh, Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Lucknow University in his learned thesis 'Scientific Thought in Ancient India' has stated that Aryabhata was born at Asmaka (but he has not defined the word nor given any information about Aryabhata's religion). The Acarya studied and carried out his researches at Pataliputra (modern Patna) the greatest centre of Jaina studies in the early centuries of the Christian era. At the age of twentythree he wrote the Aryabhatiyam a small work of 118 verses dealing with the main principles of mathematics and astronomy. The earliest work on Indian astronomy available to us is Aryabhatiyam. The astronomical works now available to us show that the Indians had attained a remarkable degree of perfection in astronomy and were ahead of all other nations in the world. The Aryabhatiyam which was written in A.D. 499 contains practically the whole of Arithmatic that we teach today in our High Schools."
Mr. A. L. Basham writes in Indian Heritage, Vol III: "The name of the mathematician who devised the simplified system of writing numerals is unknown but the earliest surviving mathematical texts-the anonymous Bakshali Manuscript which is a copy of the text of the 4th century A.D. and the terse Ariyabhaṭiyam of Aryabhata written in A.D. 449 presupposes it.
"Most of the great discoveries and inventions of which Europe is so proud would have been impossible without a developed system of mathematics. The unknown man who devised the new system was from the world's point of view, after the Buddha, the most important son of India."
This unknown man, was not Varaha Mihira, A.D. 587 and he must be Aryabhata, A.D. 449, although this fact has not been brought to light by scholars. Therefore, Aryabhata can be rightly acclaimed as the father of Mathematics and astronomy in the history of the world. The debt of the western World to Aryabhata and India cannot be overestimated. The fact that the Acarya wrote the Aryabhaṭiyam at the age of twentythree