Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c6.s3.25
Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jātaka Stories c6.s3.25
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c6.s3.25
MATHEMATICS. ASTRONOMY. ASTROLOGY. Of mathematical sciences, we do not get much information from the stories. But there cannot be any doubt that they were far advanced from the Vedic times.⁴ The numerical system must have been well established, as we may guess from the stray references to numerical figures, and their fractions. Some arithmetical process for multiplication must have been in existence in order to get the following instance : 4 × 500 = 2000 : five hundred attendants for each of the four dogs would make the total two thousand (ekkekassa pañca sunakhasatāni parivāroti evam dvīhi sunakhasahassehi parivāritā).⁵