108 



G Tbibaufc — On the Si'iryaprajnnpti. 



[No. 3, 



" There are fifty-four nakshatras, two risings of the sua ; this which 

 has been taught by Jiua is untrue, since the revolution of the polar fish 

 takes place within one day." 



And a passage to the same effect occurs in the 13th adhyaya of Varaha 

 Mihira's Paiichasiddhantika. 



In 18G8 Professor A. Weber, to whom we are indebted for our first 

 acquaintance with so many works of Indian literature, published in the 

 tenth volume of the " Indische Studien" a paper on the Suryaprajnapti, 

 being apparently the most important astronomical book whose authority the 

 Jainas acknowledge, and it then appeared that the doctrine of the existence 

 of two suns, moons, etc. constitutes only one feature of a comprehensive 

 system which on the whole is much less fantastical than might have been 

 ex^^ected and which, fantastical or not, shows intimate relations to the 

 astronomical and cosmological views which appear to have prevailed all 

 over India before Greek science began to influence the East. Especially 

 it appeared — as pointed out by Professor Weber — that the doctrine pro- 

 pounded iu the Suryaprajiiapti shows in many points an unmistakable 

 resemblance with that contained in the Jyotisha-Vedanga the presumably 

 oldest specimen of Indian astronomical literature, and it thus became mani- 

 fest that the astronomical books of the Jainas do not only furnish informa- 

 tion about the opinions held by a limited religious sect, but may, if rightly 

 interrogated, yield valuable material for the general history of Indian ideas. 

 The writer of the present paper has therefore thought it worth while to 

 submit the Suryaprajiiapti to a renewed detailed investigation, whereby we 

 should be enabled rightly to esteem its position in the astronomical litera- 

 ture of India, clearly to conceive the peculiar features distinguishing the 

 astronomical system of the Jainas from other systems, and on the other 

 hand to point out what the Jaiua system has in common with other systems, 

 and in what way therefore it may be employed for the elucidation of the 

 latter. Professor Weber's paper gives in the main only a short summary 

 of the contents of each chapter of the Suryaprajiiapti, following the order 

 of the chapters as found in the work itself and omitting none of tliem. 

 This was of course the right plan to adopt iu a paper giving the first 

 account of a hitherto unknown book. In the present paper it has on the 

 other hand been preferred to give a connected account of the chief doctrines 

 only which are found in the Suryaprajiiapti, to combine hints found in the 

 various parts of the work wherever this appeared necessary for the sake 

 of greater clearness, and again altogether to omit relatively unimportant 

 matter. It must be stated at the outset that this paper — like that of Pro- 

 fessor Weber — is based more on Malayagiri's commentary on the Surya- 

 prajiiapti than on the text of the latter work itself ; which apparently 

 anomalous proceeding finds its explanation in the fact of the Manuscripts 



