Lokavibhaga

Lokavibhaga
Information
Author Sarvanandi
Language Prakrit
Period 458 CE

The Lokavibhaga is a Jain cosmological text originally composed in Prakrit by a Digambara monk, Sarvanandi,[1] surviving in a Sanskrit version compiled by one Simhasuri. It contains the oldest known mention of numeral zero ("0") and the decimal positional system[2][3] The discovery of the manuscript preserving the text was mentioned by the Archaeological Department of Mysore in their report for 1909-10.

The surviving manuscripts state that the original Prakrit work was written down by Sarvanandi at Patalika in the Banarastra on a certain day the astronomical details of which are given. It is further stated therein it was in Saka 380, corresponding to CE 458. The surviving text is a Sanskrit translation by one Simhasuri, copied "some considerable time" after that date by one Simhasuri.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Encyclopaedia of Jainism By Nagendra Kr Singh, Indo-European Jain Research Foundation, Published by Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2001
  2. ↑ Thomas Crump, The Anthropology of Numbers, Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 42
  3. ↑ Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. Wiley. p. 416. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  4. ↑ The Chronological Datum of the Lokavibhaga, in "Some Contributions Of South India To Indian Culture", by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1923)
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