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first mathematician in the world to recognise the imaginary qualities. Most of his formulae may be seen in other forms in the Digambara Jaina texts on the karma theory. Formulae given in the commentary of the Süryaprajñupti deserve special attention. The mathematics of the Medieval period may also be seen in the works on astronomy and astrology which still await Hindi and English translation. These may be found in the Digambara and Śvetāmbara Grantha Bhaņdāra. I
REFERENCES AND ENDNOTES
1. Gommatasāra of Namicandra Siddhāntacakavartī, Vols. 1-4, Bhartiyajñana Pitha, New Delhi, 1978-81. 2. The Ganitasāra saņgraha of Mahāvīrācarya, ed. and trans. by L.C. Jain, Sholapur, 1963. 3. A recent short article in the Ganita Bhārati, Vol. 9 (1987), numbers 1-4, p. 54-56, by Ganitanand, Ranchi, has appeared on the date of Śrīdhara. His remarks are worth mentioning here. S.B. Dixit (1896) had found a reference to Srīdhara by name in an old manuscriopt of Mahāvīra's Gañitasāra samgraha (ca. 85), and so put the former before the latter, Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay Rs. 230 of GSS also ends with the words (ABORI? Vol. 31, p. 268).
The similarity of several rules and of many other features between the works of Sridhara and Mahāvīra is accepted by scholars. Both may have drawn from a third and common source which is not known or likely to be known. But most of the scholars considered Mahāvīra as a borrower. (He himself named his work as a "collection:.) The date circa 799 C.E. was assigned to Sridhara by N.C. Jain, by equating him to the Jaina author of Joytirjñānavidhi (799). To reconcile the salutations "Sivam" and "Jinam" of the different manuscripts, it has been suggested that the same Sridhara, after writing mathematical works, may have become a Jaina toward the end of his life.
The above note also gives the opinion of B. Dutta and A.N. Singh that 799 C.E. is the probable date of Sridhara. It appears that the common source material for both of the above mathematicians has been the Kasāyapāhuda and the Satkhandāgama and their commentaries which might have been be them. As the Medieval Jaina writers had been writing Jina and Siva for the same deity, some scribe might have had it changed under certain unknown circumstances. It does not seem possible that Sridhara could have availed the opportunity of the Jaina source material as a non-Jaina, and he must have compiled the work as a Jaina. It also seems possible that under certain circumstances he might have adopted Saivism but whether he wrote two such manuscripts after his conversion is doubtful. Thus, looking into the needs of the Digambara Jaina School of Mathematics in South India for their theory of karma, it seems now most probable that both took help from the same source material of the south, and both were Jainas in the Digambara Jaina Schools of Mathematics. For this purpose of convincing argument one may see the project
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