Jyotihshastra: Astral and Mathematical Literature c9.11

c9.11

Nāgapuriya Tapā Gaccha of Jainas, wrote in 1164. It gives the elements of astrology (1–42); lists the queries to be judged from each astrological place (42–54), and discusses, in addition to more common topics, prices (127–137), sailing (138–144), and sex (163–164). There are several commentaries; the most notable is that written by the Jaina Siṃhatilaka Sūri at Vijāpura in 1269. Contemporary with Padmaprabha was another Jaina, Naracandropādhyāya of the Kāśahrada Gaccha who composed the Beḍāvṛtti on his own Janmasamudra in Gujarāt in 1167. A decade later, in 1177, he wrote a Praśnaśata with accompanying avacūrṇi; he also is the author of the succinct Jñānacaturviṃśikā.¹³ A few years after this Caṇḍeśvara, who is probably identical with the scholar who commented on the SS in Mithilā in about 1185, produced an enormous Praśnavidyā in thirty-five or forty adhyāyas. Unfortunately I have as yet had access only to incomplete manuscripts of this work,¹⁴ but from these the extreme importance of this treatise for a history of praśna in India is evident.