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SACRED LITERATURE OF THE JAINS
133
perfectly aware of the opposition between their own views and those generally accepted. The beginning of the naksatras with Abhijit as the sign of the summer solstice, [404) which Malayagiri presumably refers back to Padaliptasūri748 (1,1,286), pre-supposes Aśvini as the sign of the vernal equinox (1. c. pp. 304, 305). It is based, therefore, upon the rectification of the old Kfttikā series, which had already taken place, and which upon occasion (see 20.17) appears as the old traditional series. It is an open question whether Greek influence made itself felt in this rectification ; at any rate we have to deal here with an indigenous stage of Indian astronomy antecedent to the authoritative and preponderating influence of the Hellenes. It is probable, therefore, that the period opened up to us by these astronomical conceptions, is the period embracing the first few centuries of our era.
G. Thibaut, in two treatises on the Süryaprajñapti in the Journal As. Soc. Beng. 1880 pp. 107-127, 181-206, has collected some facts of especial interest in this connection, facts which make for the connection of the contents of the Süryapr. with the corresponding statements in the Tcheou Pey,' see Ed. Biot in the Journal Asiatique, 1841, pp. 592-639, the second part of which Biot holds to be not later than the second century A. D. Thibaut does not attempt any answer to the question whether or not there is here any historical connection. If such a connection be proved, the Chinese must be regarded as the borrowers, through the medium of Buddhism, with which Jainism was frequently confused by the Chinese. The opposite opinion appears entirely removed from the domain of possibility by the actual facts of the case. [405] The text has been handed down to us contaminated by many corruptions. The numerous gathas contained in it often appear with entirely uninflected noun-forms (used in the nominative or accusa. tive) in apabhramba fashion. The nom. sing. of the first declension mostly ends in o and not in e. The numerals appear in a form that is excessively curtailed. If all these are peccata ab origine, they are besides secondary corruptions of the text which are easily traceable. Several gāthās79 stood originally at the end of several $8 in Book 1; the MSS containing the express statements : attha..... gathān bhānitavvău, but the words of the gāthās have disappeared. Even Malayagiri is unable to restore them, since they were no longer extant when he wrote samprati kvā 'pi pustake na drśyamte, 1, c. p. 266n.
748 In the year Vira 437 according to the therāvali of the Kharatarag. see Klatt, p. 23. 749 1,3 states their number to be 140.
