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286 : Scientific Contents in Prākṛta Canons
seems that 'Prana' as a unit of time should not be related to the time of respirations.
Muni Mahendra, however, refers the Prāņa unit as consisting of 4446 or roughly 4450 Avalikas which mean Avalika unit is roughly 1.2 x 10 seconds of today. This seems to be more logical and practical value than the earlier. This value is measurable today, though a little bit difficultly. The 'Prāṇa' ( 3/4 sec.) or Avalika (104 sec. ), thus, seem to be better practical units. On the basis of fineness, it is suggested that Avalika/Āvali, A should be reckoned as a standard unit of time with a value of 104 second. A. K. Jain suggests still further. He points out the measurement of time upto 10-23 sec. This time should be taken as equal to a 'Samaya'31 unit and calculations may be made accordingly. This suggestion does not look logical as the value of 'Samaya' is subject to further changes on finer experimentation or instrumental methods. The basic unit must have a fixed value. It would be like the varying equation of Jinistic atom with newer fundamental particles. Larger Time Units
The time units described above are based on common unit of month or year and move towards smaller parts to the basic unit which has been found to be of immeasurable valuehence impractical and scientifically not accurate. The same situation is found when one moves towards larger time units. These units are required to define other bigger Jainological units of time used for pointing out of ages of hellish or heavenly beings and karmas. In these larger units, 84 or 84 lacs years (84 x 105) form the base. The cononical units based on these numbers are given in Table 7. It is presumed that the last of these units in any reference forms the value of highest numerable time (H. N. T. ). Table 8 shows that there are diversities not only in the numerical value of the last units, but there is also a difference in their names and numbers of steps they are arrived at. It is also found that in A. D. S., J. K., R. V. and J. D. P., the multiple for each higher units is 84 lacs, but in T.
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