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चतुर्थ खण्ड / ३७६
Yojanas. on the other hand the Sun covers 510 Yojanas on its southward Journey from sarvābhyantara mandala to sarvabähya mandala and vice-versa. The consistency of figures 800 Yojanas and 510 Yojanas support our view? regarding the concept of Meru and the concept of samatala bhūmi. Even in the case of Meru, consistency of figures tbroughout gives a good criterion: It is also worth mentioning that although the apparent geometry confirms the Jainian notion about the shape of flat earth, yet the actual observation and determinations do fit the real geometry of earth.
Now it may be worth noticing that the actual distances were measured both in time degrees 8 and in earth distances'. Thus the Sun's southward journey from the sarväbhyantara mandala (innermost mandala, i. e.. Sun's diurnal path on summer solstice day) and vice versa was measured into earth distances of 510 Yojanas. In Jambūdvipa Prajñapti 7.2, it is stated 10 there are 65 solar mandalas stretched over 180 Yojanas of Jambudvipa apd then the area of lavaņa samudra (salt ocean) begins therefrom.
Now since 510 Yojanas are equated with 47°, double the maximum declination of the Sun, this leads to conclude that 180 Yojanas = 160.6
= 230.5—60.9 This suggests that north-south stretch of mandalas in Jambūdvipa is extended southward from Sun's extreme north position 230.5 upto 60.9 in the northern hemisphere as we understand it these days, verisimilarly coinciding with the southern limit of ancient India including modern Sri Lanka. It seems convincing that verisimilarly the southward journey of the Sun was measured in Yojanas starting from a station on earth where the noon-shadow length of gnomon was zero on the summer solstice day, i. e., starting from a station situated in the neighbourhood of terrestrial latitude of 230.5 north (which is incidently very close to the latitude of Ujjain, a renowned seat of ancient Indian culture) upto the station situated at about the extreme southern limit of ancient India where again the noon-shadow length was observed to be zero after 65 days since summer solstice day. This leads us to conclude that the concept of solar mandalas implies that the outermost limit of Jambūdvīpa coincides with the parallel of terrestrial latitude of 60.9 wherefrom lavaga samudra starts. The dimensions of circumference of Jambūdvipa have been already dealt with as to how they were generated mathematically11.
A mathematical analysis of the consistent dimensions of the mount Meru coupled with the study of the concept of samatala bhūmi shows that the outermost limit of Jambūdvipa coincides with the parallel of terrestrial latitude of 230.5 North. This conclusion implies that the true radius of Jambūdvīpa with Meru at its centre, is 5000 yojanas (=80 Yojanas) less than its apparent radius. Probably later at some stage the apparent radius of Jambūdvipa might have been taken for its true radius, as a result of which
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