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Dr. L.C. Jain
this, the first parva in form of the coming dark 15th of the śravana month comes to an end.
Similarly the succeeding parvas are to be treated. For them the multiples of the Dhruvarāśi are 2, 3, 4, 5,..........., 61, 62 respectively. The products form a geometric progression with the Dhruvarāśi as the common ratio.
In the above system, it may be noted that a muhurta or 48 minutes set was sub-divided into 62 parts and each such part was further sub-divided into 67 parts. This system was slightly finer than the sexagesimal system of dividing an hour into, 60 minutes and each minute into sixty seconds. Concluding Remarks
The above probe into the technique of the Dhruvarāśi (pole-set) appears to have been in use round about the fourth century B.C. when the Süryaprajñapti types of works in the Jaina School were possibly being compiled for the Karanānuyoga group of study. The periodicity of natural phenomena and its calculations needed a group theoretic study and the Dhruvarāśi technique was an attempt towards it. From the several remaining examples it appears that progressions and regressions were the powerful tools for dealing with such periodic phenomena. It also appears that this technique might have played a decisive role in developing the later larger yuga system for the planetary motions whose account has been mentioned to have become extinct by Yativrsabhācārya in his Tiloyapannatti 15. This group theoretic yuga system seems to have been converted into the theory of epicycles in Greek later on. Mention may be made also of the work of Roger Billard on the yuga system of India through the computer16. Acknowledgement
The author is grateful to Dr. A. K. Bag for encouraging this research. Thanks are also due to Prof. S. C. Datt for providing research facilities at the Department of Physics, R. D. University, Jabalpur. References 1. Tika by Malayagiri, (Pr. Sūrapannatti ), Agamodaya Samiti, Bombay, 1919.
This appears to have been compiled in c. 12th century A. D. 2. Sūryaprajñapti Sūtra, ed. Amolaka Rşi with Hindi translation, Sikandarabad
(Dakshin ), c. Virābda 2446. 3. Sūryaprajñapti Sūtram, edited with Suryaprajñapti-prakāśikā, Sanskrit commen
tary of Ghasilal and Hindi, Gujarati translation by Kanhaiyalal, Vol. 1 (1981 ), Vol. 2 (1982), Ahmedabad.
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