Book Title: Risht Samucchaya
Author(s): Durgadevacharya, A S Gopani
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

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Page 102
________________ INTRODUOTION 61 destroyed, renowned nations are just about to be soon wiped out and when the earth is shaking in its very foundation. Malakand tribes, who attacked the British in 1897 are the best illustrations. These tribes were overcome with divine awefulness, dreamt of celestial glory and greatness and hoped for prodigies?. (b) (1) GREEK STANDPOINT: Empedocles believed and preached that every part of an animal's body had an existence by itself. In due course of time the crude interest began to be keener and more lively than before. There is on record a reference to the effect that the 10 earthquakes and the eclipses occurred more often than before in the Peloponnesian war. Moreover when Xerxes led his army through Greece he had had definite prognostications of his defeat. The fact that the mare gave birth to a hare was explained by Herodotus as an indication to his flight for saving his life.15 Besides, when the Persian forces drew nearer to the temple at Delphi, they had a number of omens and portents. Many soldiers met with their doom under the steep rocks felled down by the lightning. Two days after the olive tree was destroyed by fire, a shoot sprang out of the stump. A salt fish went out of zo the frying pan, leaping. This last portent was interpreted to mean that Protesilans would rise from amongst the dead and would wreak vengeance on his enemy who had maltreated him and made him unhappy. Greeks well knew the Science of Astrology. They could predict the birth of men or monsters.es It was their patent theory that the birth will be of a monster if there was a disjunction of planets to which were assigned certain recognized houses in the zodiacal chart. They could definitely foretell that the native will be an animal if the planets were in the sign of an animal”. (2) ROMAN STANDPOINT: The influence of the Greek theories, teachings and speculations is working largely on the Roman culture and civilization. Pliny makes reference to many races having only one eye in the forehead and Livy in his Annals gives a description of three marvellous births4. 35 1 W. L. S. CHURCHILL, Story of the Malakand Field Force, London, 1898, p. 38. 2 A. Bouche' LECLEREQ, L' Astrologie Grecque, Paris, 1899, pp. 399 f. 3 HN, VII, 2. 4 XXVII, 37; XXXI, 12. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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