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Chapter - 14
MATHEMATICAL EXPOSITIONS OF VĪRASENA IN DHAVALĀ COMMENTARY
The Jainas form one of the oldest but minor religious communities in India having its established history of about 3000 years by now, though theoretically it presumes it to be beginningless. They have their canonical and pro-canonical literature extending from 500 BC to 500 CE and onwards. They have over proportionately and substantively contributed not only in the field of spiritual sciences, but also in contemporary, physical and abstract sciences too involving astrology, cosmology, logic and mathematics. The ten-fold numerations of Sthānānga' (10.100, Th.) and ADS involve arithmetical, algebraical and geometrical operations. They have also mentioned three-fold numerations in terms of numerable, innumerable, and infinite with their many varieties. Later texts have advanced mathematics too.
The Digambaras have two pro-canonical texts -Satkhandāgama (Six-sectioned Canon, 6000 aphorisms, SK) and Kaşāya-pāhuda (Basket of Passions, 245 verses, KP) in Prāksta language (app. Second century CE) dealing mainly with the living beings through the theories of karma, spiritual stages (Gunasthānas), investigations (Mārgaņās), passions (Kaşāyas) and other tenets. Vīrasena (early 9th century) wrote the commentary on five sections of SK and four sections of KP. They involve a good amount of mathematics said to belong to a period of roughly 100-400 CE by Singh”. They have been highly popular texts. That is why many commentaries were written on them during the following centuries. All of them have gone extinct except the Dhavalā (equivalent to 72,000 verses composed at the rate of app. 3000 verses per year) and Jaya-dhavalā (60,000 verses out of which only 20,000 were composed by Vīrasena) commentaries by
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