Indian Antiquary Vol 02

SR No.: 032494
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 428
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

Page 287

SEPTEMBER, 1873.)
LASSEN ON THE JAINS.
259
liar manner the geographical system of the Brahmans. As it would lead too far if I were here to enter into a comparison of the cosmography of the Jainas with that handed down in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, I shall confine myself to an outline of the cosmography of this sect.
According to their opinion, the world, which is eternal, is compared to a spindle resting on part of another. Other authors of the Jainas compare the world to three cups, the nethermost whereof is turned upside down, and the uppermost, with the middle one, touch each other at their circumferences. Lastly, others describe the world as a woman sitting with folded arms. Her body, or, according to the second representation, the middle cup, is the earth. The uppermost cup, or the upper body of the woman, answers to heaven, and is the habitation of the gods. The nether spindle, the lowest cup, or lastly, the inferior portion of the woman, represents in this cosmographical system the subterranean regions. The world is en. closed on its outermost circumference by the Lokaloka mountains, and the earth consists of seven duipas or islands separated from each other by oceans, the centre whereof consists of Jambûdvîpa. This island, as is well known, has obtained its name from the Jambi. tree, which botanists call Eugenia Jambolana. In the Jam bûd vipa, Bharat varsha forms the innermost and chief portion of the world, and has a circumference of 100,000 yo- janas; the six remaining portions of the world have either received other names among the Jainas than among the Brahmans, or appear among the latter in another order than among
the former. According to the Jaina view, the earth consists of two and a half parts of the world and of two seas; the former are called Dhattik a khanda, Jam bu dvipa, and Andra push ka; the latter are the sweetwater ocean and the salt ocean. Of the remaining geographical notions only one more deserves to be pointed out here, namely that Bharata, Air á vatta, and Videh a with the exception of Kuru, ure countries noticed in their works. The prominence of the country Videh & above other Indian countries might be explainable from the circumstance that it is specially particularised in the older history of the Buddhist religion. T
The system of the gods of the Jainas is a creation peculiar to this sect, and departs from that of the Bauddhas as well as from that of the Brahmans, although they have, as the Buddhists before them, appointed a subordinate station in their Pantheon to the Brahmanio deities. The higher part of the world, or, according to their expression, the uppermost spindle, is the habitation of the Jinas; after them follow five regions called vimana, by which name, as is well known, the Brahmans designate the chariots of their gods; the centre is formed by the region Sarvårthasiddha, and the regions are called Aparajita, Jayanta, Vaijayanta, and Vijay, all of which names intimate that the inhabitants of these regions have acquired these habitations by the highest cognition and by the most perfect virtue. Beneath these regions follow nine worlds like steps, arranged in terraces, inhabited by divine beings and bearing the following names :Aditya, Prithu karma, Sa u manasa,
• Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, II. p. 194 and p. 326. The writings consulted by him are the Sangrahanfratna and the Lokanathastra, both in Prakrit.
+ Some Remarks on the Relation that subsists be. tween the Jaina and Brahmanical systems of Geography. By the Rev. J. Stevenson, D.D. in the Jour of the Bo. B. of the R. As. S. IL. P. 410 seqq. with a map. The numbers communicated by him are the following, wherein it is to be observed that Mount Meru forms the centre also in this system, and that Suvarnabha mi is the extrement country and the playground of the gods :Radius of the circle enclosing the
dufpas ......... ......... 25,350,000 Extent of Suvarnabhumi ......... 13,750,000 Extent of Lokaloka .............. 125,000,000
For Lokakalaka I read Lokaloka, because this name de signates, according to my remarks in Z. f. d. K. d. M. VII. p. 325, a mountain surrounding the outermost of the oceans and forming the boundary of the world. As this mountain is named in the Puranas, the Jainas have borrowed this idea from them.
I These differences, which are of little consequence here, have been collected by A. Weber in his Satrusijayaind. hatmya, pp. 19, 20..
According to J. Stevenson's note to the Kalpasatra, p. 04. These three names are adduced also by Colebrooke, Misc. Essays, II. p. 322, and to this division also, according to A. Weber's remarka (ut 'sup. p. 90), the expression tri. khanda relates, which ooours several times in the Satru jayamahatmya.
Hemachandra, IV. v. 946, p. 76. Airtvats is the name of a varsha or part of the world, and its mention here is not clear, nor is that of the name Kuru. According to A. Weber, ut sup. p. 90.
II. p. 221 seqq. On the Buddhist system of the gods so Ind. Alt. III. p. 387 segg.
yojanas.
166,100,000 Subtracting this from the radius of the whole .....
250,000,000 Remain
.......... 83,000,000
yojanas.