Liber XVIII · Jainism · Chapter III: Jain Cosmology
Jain Cosmology: The Universe, Time Cycles and Rebirth
Jain cosmology explained: the eternal universe shaped like a cosmic person, the hells, middle world and heavens, Jambudvipa, Mount Meru and the wheel of time.
Jain cosmology describes an eternal, uncreated universe (loka) shaped like a standing human figure, with seven hells below, a disc-shaped middle world of continents and oceans at the waist where humans live, tiers of heavens above, and at the very top the crescent-shaped abode of liberated souls. Time in this universe moves in an endless wheel of rising and falling half-cycles, and the Tirthankaras appear in each one to teach the path out of rebirth.
An Eternal Universe Without a Creator§
Jainism firmly rejects the idea of a creator god. Medieval Jain philosophers such as Jinasena argued that if God had created the world, one would have to ask where he was before creation, what materials he used and why a perfect being would desire to create at all. Instead, Jains teach that the universe consists of six eternal substances — souls, matter, space, time and the media of motion and rest, as explained in Jain Teachings — whose interactions, governed by their own natures and by karma, account for everything that happens.
The universe is finite, while the space around it is infinite. The "world" (loka) is the part of space in which the medium of motion exists, so that souls and matter can move only within it. Beyond lies aloka, "non-world," pure empty space. Jain texts measure the loka in units called rajju ("rope"), each of immense size, and give it a height of fourteen rajju.
The Shape of the Loka: The Cosmic Person§
Jain artists and texts often depict the universe as a giant human figure, the loka-purusha, standing with feet apart and hands on hips. Painted cloths and manuscript illustrations from western India, especially from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries, show this figure filled with the layers of the cosmos. The universe divides into three main regions:
The lower world§
The lower world (adho-loka) occupies the figure's legs and contains seven hells, each darker and more painful than the one above. The hells are not eternal punishments: beings are born there because of heavy karma and remain for very long but finite periods before being reborn elsewhere. Jain texts describe the hellish suffering, inflicted partly by the inhabitants upon one another, in detail meant to inspire moral seriousness. The upper part of the lower world is also home to certain classes of gods.
The middle world§
The middle world (madhya-loka), at the waist, is a vast flat disc of concentric continents and oceans. At its centre is the round continent of Jambudvipa, with the golden mountain Meru at its axis. Around Jambudvipa lies the Salt Ocean, then the continent of Dhatakikhanda, another ocean, and the continent of Pushkaravara, and so on in innumerable rings. Humans live only in Jambudvipa, Dhatakikhanda and the inner half of Pushkaravara, a region called the "two and a half continents." Within Jambudvipa, Bharata, our own region, lies in the south, and Mahavideha in the centre. The sun, moon, planets and stars circle Mount Meru; Jambudvipa is said to have two suns and two moons, which take turns illuminating it.
The upper world§
The upper world (urdhva-loka), in the chest and head of the cosmic figure, contains the heavens of the gods. Lower heavens (kalpas), twelve in Shvetambara and sixteen in Digambara accounts, are home to gods organised into kingdoms with kings such as Indra; above them are the heavens of more exalted gods without social hierarchy. At the very top of the loka, on a crescent-shaped region called siddha-shila or ishat-pragbhara, dwell the siddhas, the liberated souls, in infinite knowledge and bliss.
Gods, Hell-Beings and the Four Destinies§
Every unliberated soul is born into one of four destinies (gatis): as a god, a human, an animal or plant (which includes all one- to five-sensed beings outside the other groups), or a hell-being. Gods live long, pleasant lives in the heavens, but they are not liberated; when their good karma is exhausted they are reborn elsewhere. Only humans can practise the full discipline that leads to liberation, which is why a human birth is considered precious. This view of rebirth shares features with, but differs in detail from, the Hindu and Buddhist systems discussed in Reincarnation and the Afterlife.
Because the gods are subject to karma, Jains may honour them — some temples have shrines to protective deities such as the goddesses Padmavati and Ambika, attendants of the Tirthankaras — but their worship is regarded as secondary to the veneration of the Jinas, and some reform movements reject it altogether.
The Wheel of Time: Utsarpini and Avasarpini§
Time (kala) in Jainism is beginningless and endless, and its movement is pictured as a wheel (kalachakra) with twelve spokes. Each full revolution consists of two half-cycles: a descending half (avasarpini), in which human height, lifespan, happiness and virtue decline, and an ascending half (utsarpini), in which they increase. Each half-cycle has six eras (aras):
- Sushama-sushama — extremely happy; humans are enormous and live immensely long lives, with all needs met by wish-fulfilling trees.
- Sushama — happy.
- Sushama-dushama — happy with some sorrow; at its end the first Tirthankara appears and teaches the arts of civilisation.
- Dushama-sushama — sorrow with some happiness; the remaining Tirthankaras live in this era.
- Dushama — unhappy; our present era.
- Dushama-dushama — extremely unhappy, a time of chaos and suffering.
In the ascending half-cycle the sequence runs in reverse. Jain tradition holds that the present fifth era began shortly after Mahavira's liberation and lasts 21,000 years. During it, no one born in our region can attain liberation directly, though spiritual progress remains possible and souls can prepare for liberation in a later birth. In the region of Mahavideha, however, conditions resemble the fourth era permanently, and Tirthankaras such as Simandhar Svami are teaching there now. The sixty-three "illustrious persons" of each half-cycle — twenty-four Tirthankaras, twelve universal emperors, and nine each of the heroic Vasudevas, their elder brothers the Baladevas, and their adversaries the Prativasudevas — form the framework of Jain universal history, the subject of Hemachandra's great narrative work. The lives of the Tirthankaras of our age are described in Mahavira and the 24 Tirthankaras.
Jain Cosmology in Art, Ritual and Science§
Cosmology is not merely theory in Jainism. Temples contain models of Mount Meru and of the samavasarana, and the ritual bathing of Tirthankara images re-enacts the bathing of the newborn Tirthankara on Meru by the gods. Painted diagrams of the two and a half continents (adhai-dvipa) were produced for study and devotion, and modern institutions such as the Jambudvipa complex at Hastinapur in Uttar Pradesh have built large three-dimensional models of the middle world. Jain mathematicians developed sophisticated treatments of large numbers, infinities and geometry in calculating the cosmos, and Jain astronomical texts contributed to the history of Indian calendrics, sitting alongside the traditions surveyed in Astrology. Modern Jains differ in how literally they read these descriptions: some treat them as factual, others as symbolic maps of the soul's journey through the realms of karma.
Frequently asked questions§
Do Jains believe the universe was created?§
No. Jains teach that the universe is eternal and uncreated, made of six eternal substances that change form but are never created or destroyed. There is no creator god in Jainism.
What is Jambudvipa?§
Jambudvipa is the central continent of the middle world in Jain (and also Hindu and Buddhist) cosmology, with Mount Meru at its centre. In Jain belief it is one of the two and a half continents where humans live and where liberation can be attained.
What age are we living in according to Jainism?§
We live in the fifth era, dushama ("unhappy"), of the descending half-cycle of time. Jain tradition holds that it began shortly after Mahavira's liberation and will last 21,000 years.
Sources and further reading§
- The Jain Cosmology — Colette Caillat & Ravi Kumar, 1981
- The Jaina Path of Purification — Padmanabh S. Jaini, 1979
- The Doctrine of the Jainas — Walther Schubring, 1935
- That Which Is: Tattvartha Sutra — Umasvati, 1994
- The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India — Pratapaditya Pal, 1994