गणितसारसंग्रह (महावीराचार्य - प्रो. लक्ष्मीचन्द्र जैन सविस्तार हिन्दी अनुवाद सटीक)

EDITORIAL
The work of Hindi translation of Gaṇitasāra-Saṁgraha was
entrusted to me by Dr. H. L. Jain in 1951, soon after I had joined
the College of Science at Nagpur. It took nearly twelve years for
its publication. During this period, while in his contact, I became
interested in the study of mathematical contents of the old Prakrit
texts (Dhavalā and Tiloyapaṇṇattĩ recently brought to light and
edited with Hindi translation by him. It was easy to mark out the
difference between the treatment in Gaṇitasāra Saṁgraha and the
mathematical contents of the Prakrit texts. The former is a work on
Indian logistics or Laukikī, a few portions of which could be useful
for the study of the latter which we may call Indian arithmetica.
Artha, in Prakrit texts, implies the measure of substance, field,
time and beings' becomings in terms of monads. The Prakrit texts,
made known to the Hindi world by Dr. H. L Jain and others, form
important sources of Indian arithmetica which throw light on the
darkest period of Indian history of mathematics. It is regretted
that certain articles of Dr. A. N. Singh on these topics are not known
to historians of mathematics, for they were not published in
recognized mathematical magazines. A reference to these was made
by Sinvhal in an article on Dr. Singh in Gaṇita, Vol. 5, No. 2, (1954).
In the present work, I have based the translation mainly on
the English translation of Professor Raṅgāchārya, taking liberty of
Hindi expressions and keeping his notes intact. In the introduction
I have tried to give a general observation on the history of
mathematics upto the time of Mahāvīrāchārya. This is chiefly based
on Bell's Development of Mathematics and History of Hindu
Mathematics by Datta and Singh. Then I have given a specific
observation on the history of mathematics of the Pythagorean era.
In this I have given relevant references of the works which form
important sources of Indian arithmetica, and have tried to correlate
certain similarities in Greek, Egyptian, Babyloanian, Indian and
Chinese arithmetica etc. I have concluded therein that the
mathematics developed in the school of "Vardhamāna Mahāvira