Jaina School Of Indian Mathematics

Author(s): Dipak Jadhav
Publisher: Indian Journal of History of Science

Page 1

Indian Journal of History of Science, 52.3 (2017) 316-334
1. INTRODUCTION
The part played by the Jainas in the development of mathematics in ancient and medieval India is very significant. In accordance with their requirements they followed their own line of adoption and development of mathematics, which is generally called the Jaina school of mathematics. It, being developed within the intelligentsia of Indian mathematics, is, hereupon and in his previous papers', termed "the Jaina school of Indian mathematics" by the present author.
DOI: 10.16943/ijhs/2017/v52i3/49161
The Jaina School of Indian Mathematics*
Dipak Jadhav**
(Received 13 January 2016; revised 13 July 2017)
Abstract
The Jaina school of Indian mathematics had a considerable standing. The school, on the basis of theorization, could be divided into the canonical class and the exclusive class. The treatises of the former contain mathematics along with discussion on Jaina canons while those of the latter are composed exclusively on mathematics. The object of the former was to demonstrate canonical thoughts including on karma and cosmos using mathematics while that of the exclusive class was to provide mathematics education to the contemporary civil life. Besides laukika ganita (worldly mathematics) and lokottara ganita (post-worldly mathematics) the paper also addresses some related issues.
Key words: Canonical class, Exclusive class, The Jaina school of Indian mathematics.
The school is suggested to have been divided into the canonical class and the exclusive class. A large number of papers? emphasizing the canonical class and the exclusive class have
Historical Notes
already been reported by the present author before. He first elaborated them in his paper appeared in 2004 (Jadhav 2004, p. 37), and thereafter in his doctoral thesis (Jadhav 2013, pp. 34-48). In this paper we are going to deal with them in detail.
However, there is a general impression, especially outside India, that there was not any organized school of mathematics in ancient and medieval India except the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. On the Jain school of Indian mathematics there is a general concern, again outside India, whether Jain mathematics should be treated as a school rather than a specific tradition, closely related to mainstream of classical Sanskrit mathematical writings, and why the mathematicians like Śrīdhara and Mahāvīra be
* Invited talk, except for a few changes and additions, delivered at International Conference on Science and Jaina Philosophy, held at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay during January 8-10, 2016. The author takes this opportunity to thank the organizers, including Prof. Samani Chaitanya Prajna, of the conference for inviting him. The paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. L. C. Jain (1926-2015).
**Lecturer in Mathematics and Principal-in-charge, Govt. School of Excellence, Barwani (M. P.) India. E-mail: dipak jadhav17@yahoo.com
Jadhav 2003, p. 53; 2004, p. 37; 2006, p. 75; 2008, pp. 139 and 146-147; 2009, p. 52; 2014, pp. 260-261 and 263-265; Jadhav and Jain 2003, p. 91; Jadhav and Padmavathamma 2002, p. 31.
2 Jadhav 2001, p. 94; Jadhav and Padmavathamma 2002, pp. 51-53; Jadhav 2002b, pp. 251-252; Jadhav and Jain 2003, pp. 108, 113-117; Jadhav 2004, p. 37; 2006, p. 75; 2008, p. 139; 2013, pp. 140 and 146-147; 2014, pp. 260-261; Jadhav and Jain 2016, pp.190-204