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Jinamañjari, Volume 19, No. 1, April 1999
THE GANITASĀRA OF THAKKURA PHERU
Dr. S. Rajeswara Sarma, Aligarh University, India
As John Scott Deyell points out in his Ph. D. dissertation, Living Without Silver: The Monetary History of Early Medieval India submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison 1982, the century rulers of Delhi had employed bankers in the minting operations. It is well known that during the period much of the economic activity in the Gujrat-Rajasthan-Delhi region was controlled by the Jains. The members of the Srīmāli caste of the Jainas were specialized in minting and money exchange. Among these members of the Srimālis, Thakkura Pheru stands out as a writer on a wide range of scientific subjects in popular speech. He wrote six scientific works:
1. Vāstusāra on architecture and iconography, 19 September, 1315. 2. Jyotişāra on astrology and astronomy, 1315. 3. Ratnapariksa on gemology, 1315. 4. Gamitsara on arithmetic, 1318. 5. Dhātutpatti on metallurgy and perfumery trade, and 6. Dravyaparīkṣa on assay and money exchange, 1318.
All the works are published in the Thakkura-Pheru-VoiracitaRatnaparikṣādi-Saptagsantasamgrha, ed. Munivijaya, Jodhpur 1961.
About the Author Pheru was born sometime around 1270 C.E. at a place called Kannana which is situated in the modern state of Harayana. Kannana was not only far from the then capital of Delhi but it was the a Jain center of pilgrimage for the Jains. Pheru's father Canda was a prosperous banker, and he had the court title of Thakkura, which suggests that he may have been associated with the treasury at Delhi. Pheru's grandfather Kaliya or Kalasa, although a prosperous banker, did not possess the Thakkura title. The family belonged to the Jaina Kharatara gaccha.
Pheru appears to have presumably completed his formal education in 1291 C.E. and during this year he composed the Karataragaccha-Yugapradhāna-Catupādika, an eulogy to his Pontiffs.
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