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JAIN JOURNAL
has given a value of 0.42" or 1.07 cm. to utsedha angula on the basis of many comparative references and logistics. Based on this, I utsedha yojana=5 miles or 8.30 kms. and the height of the Lord as 5.84 feet or 178 cms. which seems to be reasonable. He has given critical descriptions about the various body heights in literature and has cannonically defined the standard utsedha angula. However, his concept of natural angula being standard could not be justified on account of its larger variability than an atom.
Lishk, et el have given a fourth value for utsedha yojana as 0.085 km. (0.051 miles) equivalent to a value of app. 0.001 cm. for the utsedha angula. They have suggested that the values of these units should be decided on the basis of historical period and place. Thus, they seem to be adding to our difficulty in the process of standardisation and he has conveyed that the value of standard basic angula is variable, that is, it is a secondary standard rather than primary as desired by cannons. One would like to wonder how a variable quantity may be treated as standard. Moreover, the authors of ADS, B, TP, JDP and SK belong to the same side of the country and there should not be any variation in their descriptions. On the other hand, Akalanka and others originate from south and there should not be variations in their measures. But we see variations not only in both the groups, but in the same group also. One has to look as to the when and how of this variation.
Length Units Smaller Than Angula
The length units based on utsedha angula are known as utsedha measures representing their division based category. The smallest unit of the category is atom. As this is very fine, there is another practical unit known as 'practical atom'. When we interpolate the utsedha angula unit towards smaller units, we reach the point of practical atom. Though the JDP mentions truțireņu (or urdharenu of ADS) as practical atom, the ADS points it to be a much smaller unit [8-(2+)]. The real practical unit is an infinite multiple of this unit which has the same name in ADS and B, but Table 5 shows that its name is different in TP, RV and JDP. The same is the position of the second unit eight times larger. These two units should have uniform names in current times. The cause of the different names should also be looked into.
It is seen that there are 13 stages of smaller units upto utsedha angula in ADS while there are 12 stages in other treatises including Bhagavati. The how and when of this change requires further consideration. Is it the mistake of the copyist ?
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