________________
Śramaņa, Vol. 56, No..1-6
January-June 2005
SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT EVIDENT
IN THE LABDHISĀRA
L.C. Jain*
The Labdhisāra is a celebrated text in the metaphysicoontological literature of the Digambara Jaina School. For about a thousand years, this text alongwith its companion texts, the Gommațasāra Jivakānda and the Gommațasāra karmakānda, as well as the Kșapaņāsāra, succeeded in holding the field of study of functional theory (karma-theory). These texts were regarded as the most popular and handy work for memorizing the intricate and deep theory through Prakrit verses, which contained mathematicophilosophical material.'
It appears that the study of these, meant for the laymen, had in a way eclipsed the study of their source material, Şarkhandāgama and its Dhavalā commentary, the Mahābandha or the Mahādhavalā, and the Kaşāyapāhuda and its Jayadhavalā commentary in Prakrit language, conventionally meant for voluminous study by the ascetics. The voluminous source material of the summary texts has been translated into Hindi during the last fifty years, and this has paved the way for study of mathematical and scientific contents and material embedded in these volumes. The foundational mathematical material is found in the Tiloyapaņņatti of Yativrşabhācārya. This is elaborated in the Dhavalā.
The Labdhisāra, including the Ksapanāsăra, as already seen, is to be studied after a thorough knowledge of the Trilokasāra and the Gommațasāra, the former being a text of the Karaṇānuyoga group and the latter being the text of the Drvyānuyoga group; all these texts having been written by the same author, Nemicandra Siddhānta Cakravartī (later half of the 10th and first half of the 11th century, *554, Sarafa, Jabalpur - 482002
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
