1880.] 



G. Thibaut — On the Suryaprajhapti. 



109 



of the Suryaprajuapti, commonly met with, containing the commentary only 

 in extenso, while as a rule only the first words of the passages commented 

 on are given. As it, however, appears that the commentary faithfully 

 follows the text, and as on the other hand the latter, devoid of a commentary, 

 would be hardly intelligible, the absence of a complete text of the Surya- 

 prajiiapti is less inconvenient that might at first be assumed. At any rate 

 we may obtain at present a sufiiciently full and accurate knowledge of the 

 contents of the book ; and in works of the class to which it belongs the 

 interest attaching to the form is a comparatively small one. As already 

 stated, the present paper is by no means intended as an exhaustive review 

 of the contents of the Suryaprajiiapti ; it is I'ather meant as an introduction 

 to a complete edition of the work itself which, on account of the various old 

 materials it contains, well deserves to be publislied in exteiiso. And an 

 introduction of this kind could not well be missed, even if we possessed a 

 complete edition or translation of the book, as the reader of the text of 

 the work or of a literal translation of the text would find it by no means 

 an easy task unaided to reconstrue the leading features of the system. 



The Suryaprajuapti is written in Jaina-prakrit, and divided into twenty 

 books called prabhritas, some of these again into chapters, called prabhrita- 

 prabhritas. The arrangement of the matter treated of is by no means 

 systematical, and the text, still more the commentary are full of tedious 

 reiterations. Malayagiri, the commentator, has done his work most con- 

 scientiously ; too conscientiously, the reader afflicted by his extraordinary 

 difEuseness often feels tempted to say. Especially he delights in illustrat- 

 ing the numerical rules given in the text by at least half a dozen examples, 

 ■where one would have sufficed, dwelling with evident complacency on each 

 step even of the simplest calculation. But his comments are very per- 

 spicuous and certainly deserve to be extracted, although not to be repro- 

 duced in eoctenso. 



Proceeding now to our proposed task, let us dispose at the outset of the 

 distinctive doctrine of the Jainas according to which there are two different 

 suns, two moons and two sets of constellations. When inquiring into the ori- 

 gin of this certainly peculiar notion, we are led to a very simple reason, an im- 

 partial consideration of which makes the Jaina system appear much less 

 fantastical and arbitrary than we at first are inclined to think. This reason 

 has already been pointed out by Colebrooke, Asiatic Eesearclies, Vol. IX, 

 p. 321, where he says " They (the Jainas) conceive the setting and rising of 

 stars and planets to be caused by the Mountain Sumeru and suppose three 

 times the period of a planet's appearance to be requisite for it to pass 

 round Sumeru and return to the place where it emerges. Accordingly they 

 allot two suns, as many moons, and an equal number of each planet, star 

 and constellation to Jambudvipa ; and imagine that these appear on alter- 



