Page:Indian mathematics, Kaye (1915).djvu/67

 APPENDIX II. Examples. 1. One-half, one-sixth, and one-twelfth parts of a pole are immersed respectively under water, clay, and sand. Two hastas are visible. Find the height of the pole? Answer—8 hastas. 2. The quarter of a sixteenth of the fifth of three-quarters of two-thirds of half a dramma was given to a beggar by a person from whom he asked alms. Tell how many cowries the miser gave if thou be conversant in arithmetic with the reduction termed sub-division of fractions? Answer—1 cowrie. (1,280 cowries=1 dramma). 3. Out of a swarm of bees one-fifth settled on a blossom of kadamba, one-third on a flower of sīlīndhrī, three times the difference of those numbers flew to a bloom of kutaja. One bee, which remained, hovered and flew about in the air, allured at the same moment by the pleasing fragrance of a jasmine and pandanus. Tell me, charming woman, the number of bees? Answer—15. 4. The third part of a necklace of pearls broken in an amorous struggle fell on the ground. Its fifth part was seen resting on the couch, the sixth part was saved by the lady and the tenth part was taken up by her lover. Six pearls