Scientific Secrets of Jainism

Author(s): Nandighoshvijay
Publisher: Research Institute of Scientific Secrets from Indian Oriental Scriptures Ahmedabad

Page 274

23. Directions In Jain Agamas
All have heard the name of the device called compass and many have also seen it. The dial on compass shows directions as in figure No. 1. Generally, people believe that there are only ten or eight directions.' They are counted as under : east, west, north, south, north-east, south-east, south- West, north-west, the direction up wards and the direction downwards. Of these ten directions only eight can be shown on the dial. The upward and downward directions cannot be shown because a three-dimensional medium is necessary to show them, but a dial is always two-dimensional. Fig. No. 1
Fig. No. 2
Fig. No. 3 NW
NE NWN N NEN NWNE WNW
NEF Eight Rucaka Pradēša
N
SWWSWI
SWS 5
ESE ... S E W :.... E
SW ESS
Thirteen Pradeśātmaka Yantra
The compass shows directions as stated above. Moreover, as shown in figure No. 1, it shows the directions : NEE between north-east and east, ESE between east and south-east, ESS between south-east and south, SWS between south and south-west, SWW between south-west and west, WNW betwen west and north-west, NWN between north and north-west and NEN between north and north-east.
The English language has words only for the four principal directions - east, west. north, south. There are no words for subdirections (fax). They are, therefore, named by the joint name of the two adjacent principal directions. e. g.. For the corner between the north and the east, the word northeast is used. Similarly, for the corners between the east and the south, the south and the west, the west and the north, the words east-south, southwest and west-north are respectively used. But in Indian literature, different