Book Title: Jaina School Of Indian Mathematics
Author(s): Dipak Jadhav
Publisher: Indian Journal of History of Science

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 15
________________ 330 INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE "classical Sanskrit mathematical writings" only if a few treatises, for example, those of Śrīdhara and Mahāvīra, of the exclusive class are assessed at face value. Śrīdhara was the most distinguished mathematician of his time. His reputation spread all over India. Similarly, Mahāvīra was a celebrated mathematician of his time. His fame rests on the Ganita-sāra-sangraha. It was used as a text-book for centuries in the whole of south India. Their treatises being composed in Sanskrit, they appear to be members of the mainstream “classical Sanskrit mathematical tradition" but when we go in detail we find that the case is not so. For example, trapezium, especially isosceles trapezium, was a household geometrical figure for the Jainas. Each of the front and backside faces of the three fold universe of the Jainas is in this shape. Śrīdhara gave it so importance that he considered it primary figure.14 In Jaina cosmography, the middle universe is supposed to be a flat plane divided into an innumerable number of concentric annuli which are alternatively islands and seas. Following this concept, Mahāvīra coined the expressions bahińcakravālavrtta (outer-annuluscircle i. e., the outer circle of an annulus) and antaścakravālavrtta (inner-annulus-circle i. e., the inner circle of an annulus) (Padmavathamma, 2000, v. 7.6, p. 427; Jadhav, 2013, pp. 97-98 and 558). The expressions such as “Sanskrit mathematics and astronomy" (Plofker, 2010, p. 1), “Sanskrit mathematicians” (Høyrup, 2012, p. 2), "Sanskrit formulas” (Plofker, 2001, p. 284), “Sanskrit mental-calculation algorithms” (Plofker 2009, p. 16), “Sanskrit geometry" (Plofker, 2009a, p. 28) and so forth are mostly popular in foreign publications on the history of Indian mathematics. Why these sorts of expressions are particularly followed in those publications is not known. However, "Sanskrit mathematics” refers to mathematics contained in the treatise composed in Sanskrit. "Sanskrit mathematicians” mean to be those mathematicians whose treatises are in Sanskrit. In the same manner we shall have to interpret the remaining expressions. Sometimes we come across the expressions such as "Prakrit mathematical work” (Plofker 2009a, p. 209). Indian researchers, if not at all, rarely employ them. Those expressions, consciously or unconsciously, intend to show a linguistic division of ancient and medieval Indian mathematics, especially to a common reader. In fact, original mathematical thoughts were developed in linguistically varied India's irrespective of language although Sanskrit has been the panIndian medium of intellectual discourse. In the section 5.5 of this paper, we have already noticed the highly original mathematical thoughts of the Jainas. All of them, belonging to the canonical class of their school, were composed in Prakrit. Most of them never found any place in the treatises composed in Sanskrit. A few of them had found some place in some Sanskrit texts such as in Madhavacandra Traividya's Sanskrit commentary on the Trilokasāra of Nemicandra, but they were not paid any attention by the intelligentsia of the perceived “classical Sanskrit mathematical tradition". For example, the two important mathematical concepts addhached (Skt. ardhaccheda, logarithms to the base two) (Jadhav 2002a; 2003; 2014) and vaggidasamvaggida of a (Skt. vargitasamvargita of a, 'the self-power of a' or 'raising a to its own power' where a is a positive integer) (Jadhav, 2008) always remained untouched by the others including the exclusive class. 14 Dvivedi 1899, vv. 42-43 and examples vv. 80-81, pp. 30-32; Shukla 1959, v. 115, p. 161; examples vv. 122-124, pp. 161-162; vv. 126-127, p. 165; Jadhav 2013, pp. 157-160 and 558. 15 That how poor is the status of the mapping of the mathematical literature composed in the ancient and medieval Indian regional languages can be had from: Sarma 2011, pp. 201-211; SaKHYa 2009, p. xi.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19