Lokavibhaga

Lokavibhaga
Information
Author	Sarvanandi
Language	Prakrit
Period	458 CE

The Lokavibhaga is a Jain cosmological text originally composed in Prakrit by a Digambara monk, Sarvanandi,^[1] surviving in a Sanskrit version compiled by one Simhasuri. It contains the oldest known mention of numeral zero ("0") and the decimal positional system^[2][3] The discovery of the manuscript preserving the text was mentioned by the Archaeological Department of Mysore in their report for 1909-10.

The surviving manuscripts state that the original Prakrit work was written down by Sarvanandi at Patalika in the Banarastra on a certain day the astronomical details of which are given. It is further stated therein it was in Saka 380, corresponding to CE 458. The surviving text is a Sanskrit translation by one Simhasuri, copied "some considerable time" after that date by one Simhasuri.^[4]

References

1. Encyclopaedia of Jainism By Nagendra Kr Singh, Indo-European Jain Research Foundation, Published by Anmol Publications PVT. LTD., 2001
2. Thomas Crump, The Anthropology of Numbers, Cambridge University Press, 1992, p. 42
3. Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers: From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. Wiley. p. 416. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
4. The Chronological Datum of the Lokavibhaga, in "Some Contributions Of South India To Indian Culture", by S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar (1923)