Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s2.47

c6.s2.47

If the above imaginary details of the Purāṇas are uninteresting, the Jain tradition about cosmography is even more so. There is also difference in the details found in different works on Jain cosmography and between the Śvetāmbara and Digambara works. According to works like the Tiloyapaṇṇatti (I. 137-38), the universe is divided into three parts, viz. the upper, middle and lower, the lower universe having the shape of a vetrāsana (trapezion pyramid), the middle one that of the upper part of a standing mṛdaṅga (a kind of tabor) and the upper one that of a mṛdaṅga. It has been explained as follows: "Three pyramids with rectangular base but with tops chopped off are put one above another, the smaller faces of the lower and middle ones and the bigger faces of the middle and upper ones touching together." Sometimes, e.g. in the Lokaprakāśa (12. 3. 4.), it is said that the universe is like an old man standing with his feet apart and putting his two hands on his waist.