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Sumati-Jñana these maps help us in dating. Therefore, these indigenous maps revealed to us not only medieval Jaina or Bönpo ideas but more importantly the distance between the earlier original Jain and Bön vis-a-vis Buddhism. This is because the medieval maps used some concept of map that was current in all the religious traditions of contemporary period. This is analogous to the employment of digital material in contemporary mapping because of the digital turn in Cartography 3. We believed that a similar such technological initiative led to the production of medieval maps which are being used for medieval historical research. Therefore, we see that the maps of each historical have particular characteristics in terms of both subject matter and in treatment!4. The later is condition by available technology and thus technological advancement was reach in the medieval period which has let to the concrete portrayal of concepts more clearly.
Richard Gombrich an authority on Theravada Buddhism recently made a remark that the development of religion was directly related to the Vedic religion since they had opposing points with strong logical merit and persuasive strength and was therefore use by both the religions, thus pointing to the fact that one gets enriched opponent. As an analogy to this explanation he pointed out to the fact that the three fires of passion, hatred and sloth were drown from the three fires of the Vedic householders. Since, the idea of the fire and the number three (Conventional number) was entrenched in the mind of the people this analogy was used. Similarly, in the medieval period when Mahayana Buddhism was on the rise the three fires were replaced by three poisons!. While the content remains the same, the form was totally different. While the former development was in opposition to Vedic rituals, no such opposition was there during the medieval period as Vedic sacrificial religion was replaced by Puranic Hinduism. Thus, it is essential to study the minor traditions that have condition of the rise of world religions. A study of Jain and Bön contribution to Buddhism would be a step in this direction.
The earlier Shramanic religions borrowed from each other and Buddhism was anterior to Jainism and in some ways borrowed from Jainism. When we come to the Jina Loka (concept of Universe) we see that we have different elements like skies, air, earth, seas and continents in the Jain cosmology which are later represented in maps! 6. Examining the Jain cosmology in detail, we see the mountain Meru forms a central axis a round which different parts of the world are arranged and especially the land, sea and continents' 7.
Item Mount Meru
Mountain
Yungdrung Gutseg Three
Ocean
Three Definite concept of akasa
Swastika Fixed
Space
Fixed Medieval
Maps
Medieval Text
Bön
Kangyur.
Jain
Bön
Sky
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