Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 385

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STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SÜTRA [Ch. VI bleeds the air from the upper part and fills it up with water, then he opens the middle knot, after binding the mouth of the bladder. Ultimately the filled up water will rest on the uppermost portion of the air.1
All these evidences regarding the knowledge of science show that the ideas on the operations of the forces of Nature worked in the minds of the great thinkers of those days. But it is difficult to say how far those ideas were experimented in a practical scientific laboratory as they are done in modern days.
FOURTH SECTION
Astronomy and Mathematics. Astronomy
The Bhs reveals that the science of Astronomy made a remarkable progress during its period, as it is revealed by the fact of its treatment of different directions and the solar system.
Directions
The text mentions ten directions with their respective names, viz. East (Indrā), East-South (Āgneyi), South (Yamā), South-West (Naistī), West (Varuni), West-North (Vāyavyā), North (Somā), North-East (Aišānī = iśāni), Upper-direction (Vimalā) and Lower-Direction (Zamā)."
It also explains the existence and non-existence of beings and non-beings in the space of these ten directions.
The Bhs3 makes mention of many suns, moons, planets and stars existing in different hemispheres of the universe and they form the Jyotiskas (luminous heavenly bodies). Thus it is enumerated that there shone, shine and will shine two suns, two moons, fifty six Nakyatras (particular stars), ' one hundred seventysix planets, one lakh and thirty-three thousand stars in the
1 Bhs, 1, 6, 54. 1b, 10, 1, 394. Ib, 9, 2, 363-4. 4 In the Vedas the Naksatras are considered as abodes of the
gods or of pious persons after death. Sāyana on R.V.1.50,2 Vide, Skt. Dictionary-Monier-Williams, p. 524, Col. 2.