Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c22: Chapter XVII: Jambudvīpaprajñapti (Jambuddīvapaṇṇatti)

Some Jaina Canonical Sūtras c22

Language: English

Chapter XVII: Jambudvīpaprajñapti (Jambuddīvapaṇṇatti)

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The *Jambuddīvapannatti* is the sixth *upāṅga* which contains a description of Jambudvīpa or India. It gives us the mythical geography of the Jainas. It is a work on Jaina cosmology divided into seven sections. In the third section there is a description of Bhāratavarsa. This text with Śānticandra’s commentary has been published by the Seth Devchand Lalbhai Jaina Pustakoddhāra Samiti. Kirfel (*Cosmographie der Inder*, Bonn and Leipzig, 1920) and Glasenapp (*Der Jainismus*) have studied this text.

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The *Jambuddīvapannatti* speaks of seven *varsas* or countries constituting the seven main divisions of Jambudvīpa. The same Jain work locates Harivarsa to the north of Bhāratavarsa and the Himalayan mountain, and divides the Himalayan range into two: the greater (*mahāhimavanta*)¹ and the lesser (*cullahimavanta*). The former extends eastwards up to the eastern sea, that is, the Bay of Bengal, and the latter westwards and then southwards up to the sea below the Varsadhara mountain, i.e. the Arabian Sea.² Like Bhāratavarsa in the *Jambuddīvapannatti*, Jambudvīpa in the Pāli texts is described as the kingdom of a king-overlord (*cakkavatti*)—*Jambuddīvapannatti* iii, 41 ‘*Bharahe vāse Bharahe nāmam rāyā cauramta cakkavattī samuppajjitthā*.’ The Vaitādhya (Vindhya) mountain range divides India into northern half called Āryāvarta and the southern half (*dakṣiṇārdha*) later called Dākṣiṇātya.³ The Bhāratavarsa appears from the north like a bedstead and from the south like a bow (*uttarāo paḷimkasamṭhāna-samṭhie, dāhiṇāo dhanu-piṭṭha-samṭhie*). By the two great rivers Gaṅgā and Sindhu and the Vaitādhya mountain range it is divided into six.

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¹ The Jain Mahāhimavanta seems to correspond with the Emodos or Hemodes (Pāli Himavata) of the classical writers, which represents that part of the Himalayan range which extended along Nepal and Bhutan and onward towards the ocean (McCrindle, *Ancient India*, pp 132 and 186)

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² *Jambuddīva pannati*, i 9 *Bharahe nāmam vāse cullahimavantassa vāsa-harapavvayassa dāhiṇenam dāhiṇalavaṇasamuddassa uttarenam, puratthimala-vanasamuddassa paccatthimenam*. The same extension of the range is implied in the *Milinda*, p 114

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³ *Ibid*, i, 12 *Bharahe vāse Veyaddhe nāmam pavvaye paṇṇatte uttaraddha-Bharahavāsassa dāhiṇenam dāhiṇabharahavāsassu uttarenam*

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portions. It is 526 1/10 leagues in extent.¹ The text speaks of six varsaparvatas in Jambudvīpa, namely, Himavān, Hemakūṭa, Nisadha, Nila, Śveta and Śṛṅgavān, enumerated from south to north, each forming a long range from sea to sea. The Jambudīvapannaṭṭi connects the origin of the Ganges with a flow through the eastern outlet of a great lake in the Lesser Himalayan range and that of Sindhu with a flow through its western outlet. It speaks of a similar lake in the Greater Himalayan range. The lake Anotatta has, like the lotus lake, four outlets on its four sides, from each of which flows a river. The four rivers that flow from the four outlets of the lotus lake (Padmahrada) are Gaṅgā, Rohitā, Sindhu, and Harikāntā.² Many rivers fall into the Ganges through which they enter the eastern sea,³ not directly. In this text we have mention of eight peaks of the Greater Himalayan range, of eleven of the Lesser range and of nine of the Vaitādhya range which divides India into two halves. The eight peaks of the Greater Himalayan range are Haimavatapati, Rohitanadīsurī, Harivarsapati, Hrīsurī, Mahāhimavadadhisthātr, Harikāntānadīsurī, Siddhāyatana, and Vaidūrya.⁴ The eleven peaks of the Lesser range comprise Kumāradeva, Siddhāyatana, etc.⁵ The list of nine peaks associated with the Vaitādhya range begins with Siddhāyatana and ends in Tamisraguhā.⁶ The text derives the name of Bhāratavarsa from king Bharata whose sovereignty was established over it. Its shape is described as one like that of a half-moon. The Bhāratavarsa is described as a peninsula with seas on its three sides, east, south and west.⁷ Kuśāvatī, the capital of Dakṣinakośala, may have been precisely the city, which, under the name of Ayodhyā, is associated with the Vaitādhya range along which there were sixty Vidyādhara towns.⁸ Magadha is called Magahatitthakhetta in this text. The text seems right in suggesting that there were two lakes each called Mahāpadmahrada, one connected with the Ksudrahimavanta or western Himalayan range and the other connected with the Mahāhimavanta or eastern Himalayan range.