Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c22.3

c22.3

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.