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INTRODUCTION TO JAINISM
The Middle World
The basic diagram of the Middle World is a flat disc without thickness, consisting of countless ring-shaped dvīpas - “island-continents” or “planets” with oceans in between. See Figure 2:
Figure 2: The Middle World
Jambu-elvina
Meru
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Mountain range up to where humans can go
dvipas ("planets")
In Jain iconography we find innumerable colorful paintings which depict this doctrine. The inner part of the flat middle world consists of a flat round disc named Jambū Dvīpa. It is surrounded by a saltwater ocean. In that ocean are islands inhabited by strange creatures, whose bodies are a combination of limbs and a head - something outside our present experience. Around that ocean is a ring – invisible to normal eyes – which is the second dvīpa or “planet." There is then another invisible ocean, a ring of invisible land, etc. The
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