Compendium of Jainism

Author(s): T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar

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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
(longish drums) put together, i. e., the half being placed below and with its sounding side upwards next to the lower sounding side of the full drum. It is not hallow but is solid, as if stuffed full of flags, in the curious language of the Trilokasara.11
The dimensions of the universe are in terms of rajju which it is difficult to describe. The height of the universe is 14 rajjūs. Its breadth east to west is 7 rajjūs at bottom; the breadth in the middle is one rajju, 5 rajjūs at the upper middle and again one rajju at the top. Its thickness north to south is 7 rajjūs all through.
At the extreme summit of the universe is situated the Siddha kṣetra, also called the Siddha-Sila which is the abode of the liberated souls. Its form is like that of a canopy of umbrella, a cupola or an inverted cup. It is 8 Yojanas in the middle. It is self-luminous. In it all pure souls abide in eternal bliss. Being freed from the Karmas, the souls move upwards to the limit of the universe. The principle of notion comes to an end and therefore the liberated souls rest there forever. They stay there in their pure soulness, in their true and eternal, omniscient and omnipotent Godhood. The Siddha-Sila is the buffer space between the loka (universe) and aloka (non-universe).
The aloka is devoid of the six substances which are present in the loka. In one word, the non-universe is the negation of the universe both in its constitution and character. 12
The Jaina astronomers held that the earth is at rest and that the sun moves round. This was also the view of Ptolemy. Copernicus advanced the contrary theory according to which the earth moves and the sun is at rest. Before the advent of Prof. Einstein's theory of Relativity, the Ptolemaic view was regarded as absurd and absolutely foolish. Now it has been proclaimed that the conception of motion of the earth round the sun is only a matter of convenience, rather a matter of mathematical convenience. 13 G. R. Jain has quoted Dr. Schubring of the