Sthananga Sutra (Sanskrit: Sthānāṅgasūtra; Prakrit: Ṭhāṇaṃgasutta) (c. 3rd–4th century BCE) forms part of the first eleven
Anga
Anga was an ancient Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan tribe of eastern South Asia whose existence is attested during the Iron Age in India, Iron Age. The members of the Aṅga tribe were called the Āṅgeyas.
Counted among the "sixteen great na ...
s of the Jaina Canon which have survived despite the bad effects of this Hundavasarpini kala as per the
Śvetāmbara
The Śvetāmbara (; also spelled Shwetambara, Shvetambara, Svetambara or Swetambara) is one of the two main branches of Jainism, the other being the Digambara. ''Śvetāmbara'' in Sanskrit means "white-clad", and refers to its ascetics' practi ...
belief. This is the reason why, under the leadership of
Devardhigani Ksamasramana, the eleven Angas of the Śvetāmbara canon were formalised and reduced to writing. This took place at
Valabhi 993 years after
Māhavīra's nirvana
Nirvana, in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering ('' duḥkha'') and from the ...
. (466 CE). In the vacana held at Valabhi, in
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
, the Sthananga Sutra was finalised and redacted. The language used is
Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Prakrit ( ) is a group of vernacular classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 5th century BCE to the 12th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Ind ...
. The mula sutras of the Sthananga Sutra are difficult to understand without the help of a commentary or tika. Hence, in the 11th century CE, Abhayadevasuri wrote a comprehensive Sanskrit gloss on the Sthananga Sutra.
Description
The Sthānāngasūtra is known in Prakrit as the Thanam. Hence, the style of the Sthananga Sutra is unique. It is divided into ten chapters, and each chapter enumerates certain topics according to their numbers. Each chapter is titled as a
Thana. (Sanskrit: Sthānā) This āgama defines and catalogues the main substances of the Jain metaphysics. Diverse topics such as the Dharmakathanuyoga, Carananuyoga, Karananuyoga and Dravyanuyoga are covered. While the focus is on Karananuyoga, this unique āgama serves as a huge anthology to all branches of Jaina knowledge.
Because all topics, terms and things are thought of as fitting well with number one, number two, and so on, up to number ten, and because they are listed accordingly, the word "sthāna" in the titles of the ten chapters as well as in the title of our work means "place". The Sthānāngasūtra is an anga-text in which "terms and things" are listed in their "right place". Sthānānga maybe considered as a memory aid for an ācārya, so that he might not forget the varied subject matters he wants to teach. With this work he has a kind of guideline for his lessons at hand and can easily reply to questions asked by his disciples.
Importance of Sthānāngasūtra can be gauged from the fact that Vyavahāra Chedasūtra (10, 20-34) mentions that it is suitable to be studied only by those ascetics, who have at least eight years standing in monkhood. Furthermore it is stated that only a monk who knows the Sthānānga by heart may attain the position of an ācārya, which entitles him to supervise the monks and nuns in regard to their conduct and study.
Authorship
The first sūtra in the Sthānānga goes as follows: ''sūyam me āusam tenam Bhagavayā evam akkhāyam''"I have heard, o Long-Lived one, that the Venerable (i.e. Mahāvīra) has said thus." From this it can be gauged that as per the tradition it was recited by ganadhara Sudharman, the fifth direct disciple of Mahāvīra, to his disciple Jambūsvāmin.
Contribution to Indian Mathematics
Sthananga Sutra lists the topics which made up the
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
studied from the time of 2nd century BCE onwards. In fact this list of topics sets the scene for the areas of study for a long time to come in the Indian subcontinent. The topics are listed in
[G G Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (London, 1991)] as: the theory of
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
s,
arithmetic
Arithmetic is an elementary branch of mathematics that deals with numerical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In a wider sense, it also includes exponentiation, extraction of roots, and taking logarithms.
...
al operations,
geometry
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
, operations with
fraction
A fraction (from , "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight-fifths, thre ...
s, simple
equation
In mathematics, an equation is a mathematical formula that expresses the equality of two expressions, by connecting them with the equals sign . The word ''equation'' and its cognates in other languages may have subtly different meanings; for ...
s,
cubic equation
In algebra, a cubic equation in one variable is an equation of the form
ax^3+bx^2+cx+d=0
in which is not zero.
The solutions of this equation are called roots of the cubic function defined by the left-hand side of the equation. If all of th ...
s,
quartic equation
In mathematics, a quartic equation is one which can be expressed as a ''quartic function'' equaling zero. The general form of a quartic equation is
:ax^4+bx^3+cx^2+dx+e=0 \,
where ''a'' ≠ 0.
The quartic is the highest order polynom ...
s, and
permutation
In mathematics, a permutation of a set can mean one of two different things:
* an arrangement of its members in a sequence or linear order, or
* the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set.
An example of the first mean ...
s and
combination
In mathematics, a combination is a selection of items from a set that has distinct members, such that the order of selection does not matter (unlike permutations). For example, given three fruits, say an apple, an orange and a pear, there are ...
s. It also gives classifications of five types of
infinities.
The topics of mathematics, according to the Sthananga-sutra (sutra 747) are ten in numbers:
*Parikarma (four fundamental operations)
*Vyavahara (subjects of treatment)
*Rajju (geometry)
*Rashi (mensuration of solid bodies)
*Kalasavarna (fractions)
*Yavat-tavat (simple equation)
*Varga (quadratic equation)
*Ghana (cubic equation)
*Varga-varga (biquadratic equation)
*Vikalpa (permutation and combination)
However, the historians of mathematics differ in explaining some of the terms from the commentator, Abhayadeva Suri (1050 AD).
English translations
Popular English translations are:
*Illustrated Sthananga Sutram in two volumes, (Prakrit–Hindi–English), Ed. by Pravartaka Amar Muni, Eng. tr. by Surendra Bothra
Notes
References
*
*
*''Sthānāṅgasūtram'', in Muni
Jambūvijaya (ed.), ''Sthānāṅga Sūtram and Samavāyāṅga Sūtram with Abhayadeva Sūri’s commentary'' (re-edition of Āgamodaya Samiti Series edition), Delhi, 1985.
{{Jain Agamas
Jain texts
Agamas