Jain Thought and Culture

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 35

A Nore on Jana Mathematics and its Study in Jaipur
The earliest book on mathematics known to us by a Jain however did not deal with cosmography though it mentions that mathematics was useful in solving cosmographical problems This book called "Ganita-sara Sangraha' written by Mahaviracharya introduces the subject by emphasising its importance for all other sciences such as kamashasira, music, drama, art of cooking, niedicine, architecture, and also prosody, logic, grammar etc In addition to this mathematics was useful in obtaining the distances of sun, moon, the planets, the continents and the oceans
The first Jain book on what might be called mathematical cosmography was Trilokasara 2 The author of the book was Acharya Nemichandra Siddhanta-Chakravartı Nemichandra was a contemporary and friend of the general and statesman Chamundaraya who was a Minister of the kings of the Ganga dynasty of the Karnataka in the latter half of the 10th century It was Chamundaraya who built the gigantic statue of Bahubali or Gommatesvara (564 feet high) in Sravana Bleagola
As a scholar and author of Jain religious philosophy Nemichandra was nearly as great as his coreligionist Hemachandra (10881172) of Gujarat who lived two centuries later Among the books written by Nemichandra the most well-known are Trilokasara, Labdhisara and Gommatsara Trilokasara dealt with Jain cosmography and is relevant to our subject Gommalsara and Labdhisara are works devoted to Jain philosophy
As stated earlier the magnitude both of time and space in Jain cosmography are large Nemichandra in Trilokasara tried to simplify the problem by reducing these numbers to the powers of 2, and then elaborating them in sets, infinite or finite, of the powers of 2 The only mathematical law necessary for this purpose is the law of indices, namely
21 x 2"=2m+and (2m"=2mn and Nemichandra was aware of this law
Indeed, Nemichandra also used a sort of logarithm with the base 2 His term for logarithm was ardhachheda or halving
2 Toulokasara_Hindi Jaina Sahitya Prakash Karyalaya-Bombay 1918 Sec also 'Mathematics of Nemichanda' by Bibhuti Bhushan Datta, in Jain Antiquary Vol I No 2 (1936)-DP 25 44. History of Mathematics in India from Jaina Sources' by A N Singh in Jaina Antiquary, Vol XV, No 2 (1949) 'Acharya Kalpa Pandit Todarma! Ganita Visayaka Sahitya' --Nemichandra Shastri in Veer Vani (Todarmal Number)-pp 40 -73 Jaipur March, 1970