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ĀCĀRYA HEMACANDRA AND THE (SO-CALLED)
FIBONACCI NUMBERS
Acārya Hemacandra. Ācārya Hemacandra, one of the greatest Jain writers, lived at Anhilvad Patan in Gujrat and enjoyed the patronage of two kings namely, Siddharāja and Kumārapāla. He was a versatile genius whose contributions to both Sanskrit and Prakrit literature are not only numerous and voluminous but important as well. His well known contributions are Trişastišalākāpurusacarita, Yogaśāstra and Dvyāśrayakāvya. In the field of scientific literature his contributions are Siddhahaima Sabdanušāsana, Abhidbāna Cintamani, Desinämamālā, Kavyanusāsana, Lingānušāsana and Chandonušāsana.
Alamkāra Cūdāmani wasi written by him after the death of Siddharāja in 1142 A. D. After that he wrote Chandonušāsana and then its commentary. Dešināmamālā and Seşākhyānamamālā (?) were written after that and then several books by the name Nighantu. Probably six books were written by this name, three of wbich are extant. All the above mentioned books were completed before 1158 A. D.
His Chandonusāsana, accompanied by his own commentary is in 8 chapters. Last chapter of the book contains materials which are of much historical and mathematical importance.
Sanskrit Metres.
As we know the word mātra in Sanskrit sigoifies 'measure'. The basic units in Sanskrit prosody are letters baving a single matrā and those having two mātrās. Here, the measures are in respect of sound value of the letters (or time taken in uttering the letters, so to say). For consistency, throughout, the word 'syllable' has been used in the sense of mätra of Sanskrit prosody.
We have seen that in Sanskrit prosodv, a monosyllabic letter is denoted by I and a disyllabic, by S and their role in metric is the same as that of 1 and 2 in combinatorics.
1-2.
Banthia, Kasturamala : Hemacandrācārya Jivanacaritra (Hn.). The Chowkhamba Vidyabhawan, Varanasi-1967, p. 57-59.
-1987, par les
autres
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