Note on Hemchandras Abhidhanchintamani and Sanskrit Karmavati

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 20

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अनुसन्धान-५४ श्रीहेमचन्द्राचार्यविशेषांक भाग-२
day more a solar month. A half day less makes a lunar month. Twenty-seven (days and nights) make a month of constellations. Thirty-two make a month for the
army”. (Kangle's translation).
The translation “a month for the army”, partly based on the rather tortuous explanations of the commentators, is highly questionable. Balamāsa is indeed a strange compound, for balais a substantive and not an adjective. Yet, given the context of the list and the parallel fivefold distinction of months in the Jaina sources, I am convinced that balamāsa is a rough semantic equivalent of Pkt. abhivaddhia-, and refers to the “extended month". Its duration as 32 days and nights in the Arthaśāstra corresponds roughly with that of the JK, namely 31 121/124:
abhivaddhito tu māso ekkattisam bhave ahorattā bhāga sata ekkavisam cauvisa-sateņa chedeņam (JK 64).
Like for the other types of months, the duration is given in the Arthaśāstra in the form of an integer number, while it is given as the fractional number required by the calculations in JK (see note 28 above). If this assumption is correct, we would have another instance of correspondence between the Arthaśāstra and Jaina sources in matters of time-divisions and conception. These agreements do not mean that one borrowed from the other, but that both reflect a common Indian knowledge characteristic of the "middle period”. 33 Skt. karmasamvatsara is also attested in the Arthaśāstra:
33. Another example of similar correspondence between the Sūrapannatti and the AŚ relates to the length of the shade, which has been analyzed by H. Jacobi. His observation is worth remembering : "Die Übereinstimmung Kautilyas mit den Jainas ist von Interesse. Nicht als ob jener, ein Verfechter der brahmanischen Rechtgläubigkeit, von den Jainas etwas entlehnt hätte, sondern beide geben ja nur das wieder, was, wie Thibaut im Grundriss III, 9, § 11 auseinandersetzt, während der mittleren Periode der indischen Astronomie indisches Gemeingut war. Es is nicht