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Jain and Bön Maps as Historical Sources for the Medieval Period
183 sky with the symbol of swastika on a nine-spoked wheel which symbolised the essence of the Bön religion, the Swastika being indestructible. Scholars have not been able to identify the exact location of this sacred geography but some scholars are of the opinion that this was the topography of central Asia during the time of Persian Emperors'.
To the ordinary Bönpo, the identification of Zhangzhung doesn't matter because it is only the religiosity that matters. Like the mount Yungdrung Gutseg we have the mount Meru in the Jaina Buddhist Hindu cosmology. Even today in Tibet, we have two types of names for the stars, planets and the constellation, one Buddhist and the other Pre-Buddhist. While the Buddhist idea of cosmology is an import from India, the earlier ideas are rooted in the Bön tradition and it is surprising to know that most of the farmers and nomads are familiar with the Pre-Buddhist names and concepts. This is surprising because after centuries of Buddhist culture being the core determinant, such as an aspect of Pre-modern Tibet should survive. Obviously, this survival is link to memories since most of these concepts are taught at home. Whereas the Buddhist concepts are used for astro-medical purposes and is popular among the literary elite. Thus, there is an important need to study Bön maps. Otherwise, a study of Tibetan Buddhism would be in complete and one such route to study Jaina maps to find any parallels and also the method of how they conceived space.
The earlier idea was that there were no maps in Pre-modern India since the word for maps was Naksha meaning map from the Persian word for the same. However, the idea that Pre-modern India did not have maps was easily disproved by Susanne Gole who has
ed us with re-presentation of many maps in different formats like religious maps, battle maps; Chart maps etc.", further archeological excavation have also proved the existence of very early maps in India. In the case of the Jain and the Böns this sacred geography is connected to the after life and thus description of this after life are maps and served as a guide to the after life!2. The word thus used for map in ancient and medieval India was Chitra meaning both painting and a map.
The question of after life clearly points out to the notion of the other world and therefore the constant literary references to these places only serves as a lineal link in the mental frame work of the faithful in all religions. The idea that the art of Cartography was not much developed in the early historic period doesn't hold any water because we have evidences of early context in the seas between India and the ancient, Egyptians, Phoenicians and so on. It can thus be argued that if the knowledge of mapping was not advanced accurate, approximate maps could not have provided us with a practical application.
The concept of after life is a tool that anchors person in the past-present and the future. Here we can see how clearly the idea of the future is taken from selective elements of the past, i. e., the heavens. Cartography became advanced in the medieval period and we have many famous mariners and cartographers who toured the world relying on maps like the famous Zheng He of China and Al Idrisi of Persia. Thus using the medieval materials and medieval styles we have Jain and Bön maps. In addition to giving clues about their location,
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