Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 2

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 134

THE INITIATION AND OMNISCIENCE OF AJITA 109 bulls; and in the north horses-these are the draught. animals of the cars of the moon, etc. The sun and moon have sixteen thousand Abhiyogika-gods; the planets, constellations, and stars have eight thousand, four thousand, and two thousand, respectively. Because of abhiyogikakarma they act as conveyances for the moon, etc., which are moving constantly at their own inclination.
The suns and moons stand still, at intervals from each other, at a distance of fifty thousand yojanas on the outside of Mānuşottara ; 249 half the size of the suns and moons of the manuşyaloka; their numbers increasing according to the successive increase in the circumference of the worlds; with retinues of brilliant planets, constellations, and stars; innumerable, a beautiful bell-shape, always bounded by the Svayambhūramaņa-ocean, they remain in rows a hundred thousand yojanas apart.
The Middle World (552–749) In the Middle World there are countless continents and oceans with auspicious names Jambūdvipa, Lavaņa, etc.; the circumference of each being twice as large as that of the preceding one; each one surrounding the preceding one like a sheath. The last of these is the great ocean named Svayambhūramaņa.
Description of Meru (554-565) In the center of Jambūdvipa, Meru, golden, round like a sthåla,248 is buried one thousand yojanas in the ground at its base, is ninety-nine thousand yojanas high, and ten thousand yojanas in diameter at the surface of the earth. At the top it is one thousand yojanas in diameter. It is in three parts, and its body is divided by the three worlds. Now, the first part of Sumeru, composed of pure earth, stone, diamond, and gravel is one thousand
242 548. The first row. The others are 100,000 yojanas apart.
248 554. Sthāla is non-committal, but Meru is considered the shape of a truncated cone.