Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c11.21

c11.21

But there was another relationship that we can observe in Gujarāt in this period. Jaina monks such as Naracandropādhyāya often became authors of jyotiṣa texts; but we usually are ignorant of the intellectual climate and economic situation under which they labored. Vastupāla, the minister of Caulukya [Vāghela] Viradhavala and Visaladeva at Dhavalakka (Dholkā, Gujarāt) from 1220 till his death in 1240 and a Jaina member of the Prāgvāṭavaṃśa, was a great patron of Jaina scholars,¹¹ among whom were numbered two jyotiṣīs: Udayaprabha Sūri and Naracandra Sūri. The extent to which these men, or others, Jaina or Hindu, who received princely rewards for their scientific activities, were encouraged and assisted by the milieus provided by their patrons must have varied from individual to individual. But it must be recognized that this patronage of scholars by the powerful, sporadic as it was (it seems to have been more frequent and sustained over longer periods in Gujarāt and Rājasthān than elsewhere in India), served as an alternative mode for the intermingling of traditions, the production of new works, and the copying and preservation of manuscripts to the more traditional family libraries and Jaina bhāṇḍāras. When CESS is completed, it will be possible to analyze the surviving evidence concerning who copied manuscripts (often we observe families of scribes functioning for as many generations as the families of jyotiṣīs) and who owned them. Until then I leave the question at this point.