Book Title: Doctrine of Jainas
Author(s): Walther Shubring, Wolfgang Beurlen
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

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Page 244
________________ 228 DOCTRINE OF TIL JAINAS which the bottom descends - cvcnly, thc cnclosurc bcing Icft out of consideration This slanted bottom is called by the name of go-tittha Nor is the water-lcvcl a planc surfacc, since-owing to an optical illusion-it ascends from thc shorc up to 700 joy. to where thc maximum depth begins, above which, however, it rises up to 16,000 joy This scction above the decpest channel is the silā Ebb and flow, which occur twicc within 30 muhutta, hcrc cause a difference of joyas compared with the mean sca-lcvcl This is duc to the existence of submarine caves (Pāyāla) which cqually account for thc spring-tides on the 8th and 14th and at ncw moon and full moon. For in the main directions of thc compass card, 93,000 joy. distant, there arc four vast spaccs below the sca. They are 100,000 goy dccp with a width of 10,000 above and below and 100,000 30y. in between, so that they ncarly have the shape of hollow spheres with walls of diamonds 100 joy thick. It is in them that thc Vāukumaras Kāla, Mahākāla, Vclamba and Pabhanjana reside, the latter two of which we have mentioned already as princes of this specics of gods Apart from these four large caves we have 7,880 smaller ones with a diametrc of 100 joy. above and below, and 1,000 in between. The contents of all caves gradually changes from below to above from sind into water. Heavy winds blowing out of them causc thc springtides, while their being emptied of, resp., filled with water account for ebb and flow. The god of the Lavana sea is called Sutthiya, and hc lives in an island, Goyamadīva, 12,000 goy. distant from the Jambuddīva to the west Equally distant to the cast (§ 128) uc find the two islands of the moons of the Jambuddiva, Candadiva, and opposite to them—though the island of the Sutthiya is said to lie there already—those of the suns, Sūradiva. The four moons (s b.) of the Lavana sea have two islands lying 12,000 joy. off its easternmost point, and two others cquidistant from the Jambuddiva to the east; this in correspondence with the four suns in the west All these islands have a surface slanting from a height of 90 joy in the east to 1 303 in the west. The position of the moon- and sun-islands of the remaining

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