Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
reside. The lower regions constitute the nether world and the hells. In the central or middle, hemispherical space is accommodated the human and animal world, which is made up of circular belts of land and sea, alternating each other. The very central expanse of land is the Jambū-dvīpa, with Mount Sumeru at its centre and the ocean surrounding it on all sides. This Jambū-dvīpa corresponds to our earth. To the south of Mt. Sumeru lies the Bharata-ksetra, the mid-regions of which include Bhārata-varsa or India, watered by the two principal rivers, the Gāngā and the Sindhu (Indus) together with their numerous tributaries, the two main rivers emerging from Mt. Himavān (the Himālayas) situated in the north of Bhārata-varsa. Cosmography is the subject of a number of ancient Jaina texts where it is dealt with at length, and is interesting for a comparative study of the cosmographical and geographical notions of the ancient world. Classes of Jīvas
The Jivas (souls) are of two categories: the liberated (mukta) and the mundane or embodied (samsārin). The latter are divided into the immobile (sthāvara) and the mobile (trasa). Souls embodied in earth, water, fire, air and vegetation comprise the five classes of the immobile living beings (sthāvara-jīvas) which are endowed with only one-sense organ, that of touch. The belief of the Jainas is traced by modern scholars to primitive animism and is, therefore, regarded as a mark of the antiquity of Jainism. Among the mobile living beings (trasa-jīvas), are the two-sensed, three-sensed, four-sensed and five-sensed ones, accordingly as they are endowed with the faculty of touch and taste; touch, teste and smell; touch, taste, smell and sight; and touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing, respectively. Some of the five-sensed beings are equipped with mind or intelligence, while others are devoid of this faculty. The former, again, fall under four categories: the human, subhuman (animal kingdom-beasts, and acquatic animals), hellish and celestial beings. These are the four principal 'conditions' (gatis) in one