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COSMOGONY, COSMOLOGY, ASTRONOMY
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ASTRONOMY The system of Jaina astronomy is characterized by the doctrine of two (different) suns, two moons, and two sets of constellations. The doctrine supposes that three appearances of a planet, or of sun or moon, are required in order to compass Mount Meru and return to the starting-point. Therefore the doctrine allots two suns to Jambū-drīpa. This means that the second appearance of a su, for instance, in the sky at a given spot is not that of the sun that appeared first: the two suns appear alternately, so that the third appearance is the return of the first sun.
The Jaina books and the Purūnas of the Hindus both hold that the sun, moon, etc., revolve round Mount Meru. The Paurānic opinion was that the revolution took twenty-four lours, and that it was night north of Mount Meru, when the sun was making its halfrevolution round the south of Mount Meru and vice versa.
The Jainas, therefore, held that there are four directions, and the sun's orbit should be divided into four quarters, corresponding to the four directions: and it should bring day in succession to the countries in the south, west, north, and east. The sun must take equal time to traverse each quarter. Therefore, when it has left one quarter, say the eastern, and gone to the southern, it is night in the east and day in the south. When it goes to the western quarter, it is day in the west and night in the south: but in fact it is day in the east; therefore there must be another sun, which keeps opposite to this sun, on the opposite side of Mount Veru. The same argument applies to the two moons.
