________________
Weights and Measures -2: Length and Time Units : 275
the above UA value. He also does not agree with the Paramānu or atom as the basic unit of length due to difficulties of its standardisation. Instead, he has supported the Jaina concept of Angula standard on the basis of its being natural. He has given a value of 0.42" or 1.07 cms. to UA on the basis of many comparative references and logistics. Based on this, 1 UY = 5 miles or 8.30 kms and the height of the Lord as 5.84 feet or 178 cms which seems to be reasonable. He has given critical descriptions about the various body heights in literature and has canonically defined the standard UA. However, his concept of natural Angula being standard could not be justified on account of its larger variablity than an atom.
Lishk et al' have given a fourth value for UY as 0.085 km (0.051 mile ) equivalent to a value of approximately 0.001 cm for the UA. They have suggested that the values of these units should be decided on the basis of historical period and place. Thus, they seem to be adding to our difficulty in the process of standardisation and he has conveyed that the value of standard basic Angula is variable, that is, it is a secondary standard rather than primary as desired by canons. One would like to wonder how a variable quantity could be treated as standard. Moreover, the authors of A. D. S., B., T. P., J. D. P. and S. K. belong to the same side of the country and there should not be any variation in their equivalences and descriptions. On the other hand, Akalanka and others originate from south and there should not be variations in their measures. But we see variations in not only both the groups, but in the same group also. One has to look as to when and how this variation started and should try to regularise it. Length Units Smaller than Angula
The length units based on UA are known as Utsedha measures representing their division-based category. The smallest unit of this category is atom. As this is very fine, there is another practical unit known as practical atom. When we interpolate the UA units towards smaller units, we reach the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
