A Concise History of Science in India c6.s2.t3.2

c6.s2.t3.2

The principal source of Jaina astronomy is *Sūryaprajñapti*, a work divided into 20 books and written in *ardhamāgadhī prākṛt*, which is extant with an elaborate commentary by Malayagiri. Free from Greek influence, the work was probably written a few centuries before the Christian era. Its authorship has been attributed to Mahāvīra. The next important astronomer was Bhadrabāhu (d. 298 B.C.), a *śrutakevalin* and a prominent personage in the history of Jaina religion. He is believed to be the author of a commentary on the *Sūryaprajñapti* and of an astronomical *saṃhitā* known after his name, of which only fragments have been preserved in later commentaries. Then we have the *Jambūdvīpaprajñapti* with a number of commentaries, of much later date, where elaborate descriptions of the different *dvīpas* of the Jaina cosmography are met with.