1880.] 



G. Tbibaut — On the 8uryaprajnapti. 



107 



I. Satad. 



II. Kabbela. 



Tribes of doubtful Afghan descent. 



1 Gakgalzai. 



2 Bagaezai. 



3 AOABZAI. 



4 Sha'dizai. 



5 Bbahamzai. 



6 Haidarzai. 



7 Ya'singzai. 



8 Ueumzai. 



(To be continued). 



On the Surya])rojTiapti. — By Db. G. Thibaut, Principal, Benares College. 



Past I. 



Until recent times our knowledge of the cosmological and astronomi- 

 cal system of the Jainas was very limited and founded not on "an indepen- 

 dent investigation of the original Jaina literature, but only on the occasional 

 references made to Jaina- doctrines by the orthodox Hindu writers on 

 astronomy. For a long time the short account of the subject given by 

 Colebrooke in his " Observations on the sect of the Jainas" (Asiatic Re- 

 searches, 1807 ; Essays, Vol. II), remained the only one, and although 

 accurate as far as it goes, it is very insufficient since it chiefly refers to the 

 one doctrine of the Jainas only, which has at all times struck outsiders as 

 peculiarly strange and absurd, viz., the assertion that there exist two suns, 

 two moons and a double set of constellations. This is indeed the doctrine 

 by which the system of the Jainas could most easily be distinguished from 

 similar old Indian systems, and it is consequently referred to and contro- 

 verted with preference in the Siddhantas. The best known jDassage from 

 the latter is the one quoted by Colebrooke from Bhaskara's Siddhauta- 

 S'iromaui. " The naked sectaries and the rest affirm that two suns, two 

 moons and two sets of stars appear alternately ; against them I allege this 

 reasoning. How absurd is the notion which you have formed of duplicate 

 suns, moons and stars, when you see the revolution of the polar fish." 



This passage of Bhaskara's is manifestly founded on a passage found 

 in Brahmagupta's Sphuta-Siddlianta where we read in the so-called Diisha- 

 nadhyaya : 



