Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
The Jain cosmos is a multi-tiered structure divided into three "worlds" (loks): a world of the gods above, a hell below, and between them a thin terrestrial world where (among others) human beings dwell (Figure 3). At the very top is a small fourth region, resembling a shallow depression, which is the abode of liberated souls (siddh sila). Running like a shaft from top to bottom is a zone called the tras nadi, so named because multisensed beings (tras) cannot exist outside it. The entire structure is fourteen rajjus high. The standard unit of distance in Jain cosmography is the yojan, which equals about eight miles. A rajju (rope) is equal to "uncountable" yojans.[1] Mt. Meru, which is 100,000 yojans (800,000 miles) high, is depicted on Jain maps as the merest bump in comparison with the whole structure. This vast cosmos, with its multiple layers and enormous internal volume, is the venue of the drama of the soul's bondage and liberation. Like a gigantic sealed aquarium, it is completely self-contained: Nothing enters, nothing leaves. Within it is an infinite (anant) number of beings (jivs) who cycle and recycle from death to birth to death again. Except for the liberated, this wandering from existence to existence is eternal, for the cosmos was never created nor will it ever cease to be.
Figure 3.
The Jain cosmos. A simplified version of a
book illustration (Santisuri 1949: unnumbered page)
Note the shaft-like tras nadi extending from top to
bottom. The horizontal lines mark the fourteen rajjus
of the structure's height. The levels of hell correspond
to the rajju lines below the terrestrial world; the vari-
ous heavens are distributed within the upper half of
the tras nadi.
Humanity's physical surround is the terrestrial world, which is a flat disc with Mount Meru at its center[23] Here, and only here, are to be found human beings and animals. At the middle of this disc, and serving as Mount Meru's base, is a circular continent called Jambudvip, which is subdivided into seven regions separated by impassable mountains. The most important of these regions are Mahavideh, Bharat, and Airavat. Mahavideh is a broad belt running east and west across the continent and is divided into thirty-two rectangular subdivisions. At the extreme south and north of the continent are, respectively, the much smaller regions of Bharat and Airavat. Bharat is the South Asian world, and the sole region physically accessible to us.
Surrounding Jambudvip is a series of concentric oceans and atoll-like circular islands continuing outward to the edge of the disc. These are said to be "innumerable" (asankhyat), which means that although there is an actual limit beyond which there is simply empty space, the number of islands and oceans cannot be counted. The first two islands are divided into regions representing radial extensions of the seven regions of Jambudvip: Here, too, we find Mahavidehs, Airavats, Bharats, and so forth. Humans dwell in all of the regions of the first island, but it is possible for humans to live only in the inward-facing zone of the second island, which is separated from the outward-facing zone by a range of mountains.[2]
The most important feature of the terrestrial world is not its rather complicated physical geography (of which my brief account gives little true idea) but its moral geography. A portion of the habitable lands of Jambudvip and of the first two concentric islands is known as bhogbhumi, "the land of enjoyment." Humans living in these regions exist in a state of continuous enjoyment without effort or struggle; subsistence is provided by trees that magically fulfill wishes, and premature death is unknown. Because asceticism cannot flourish in such an environment, Tirthankars do not appear in these regions and liberation is not possible. Contrasting with bhogbhumi are the areas known collectively as karmbhumi, "the land of endeavor," in which our region is included. In these regions it is necessary for humans to earn their livelihoods through work, and premature death is possible. Because such an environment is conducive to reflection and asceticism, liberation is possible in this zone, and Tirthankars are born here.
The terrestrial world is dwarfed by the regions above and below. Towering above is the "world of gods" (devlok), which is the destination of those who have lived virtuous lives.[25] The areas actually inhabited by deities are contained within the shaft-like tras nadi. There are twenty-six separate paradises in all, organized in a series of levels extending up to the top of the cosmos just below the abode of the liberated. Between the lowest heaven and the terrestrial world is a gap; here planetary and stellar bodies (the abodes of the jyotisk deities) move in stately circles around the summit of Mt. Meru. Below the terrestrial world, and extending downward as far as the heavens rise above, is the region known as hell (narak).[3] This is where those who have committed sins must suffer the consequences. There are seven levels of hell, and the lower the hell the more severe the punishment.
Among the more striking features of this cosmos is its sheer size. By comparison with the upper and lower worlds, the terrestrial world is tiny. The entire cosmos is often represented as a standing human figure with the terrestrial world as its pinched waist. And yet even if the terrestrial disc is viewed within a reduced frame of reference, it too turns out to be vast. The diameter of the central area of the terrestrial world - that is, the world within the circle of mountains dividing the second circular island into habitable and nonhabitable zones - is 4,500,000 yojans, which (if the precise calculation is relevant) is roughly 36 million miles. The diameter of Jambudvip is 1000,000 yojans (800,000 miles) and the north-south dimension of Bharat is roughly 525 yojans (about 4,200 miles).
Taken together, these figures and calculations provide a basis for a certain conception of one's situation in the world. By comparison with one's immediate surroundings, Bharat is vast. But Bharat is but a tiny bite off the edge of the world-island to which it belongs. Inconceivably vaster than this world-island is the world-disc. But the world-disc itself is but a thin wafer in a cosmos that is a towering hierarchy of unimaginable dimensions. And everywhere (as we shall see) this cosmos teems with beings. Very small then - inconceivably small by comparison - is an individual's own niche in the cosmos.
Santisuri 1949: 156. Caillat and Kumar, presumably using Digambar sources, give the following definition of a rajju: the distance covered by a deity flying for six months at the rate of 2,057,152 yojans per second (1981: 20).
