The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c9.93

c9.93

§119. The conception of the circular shaped Jambuddīva is obviously due to that of the segment Bharaha as which the Indian peninsula seemed to show. We may further assume that the conception of the intermediate continents goes back to an ancient knowledge of Indo-China and the Malacca peninsula which was symmetrically enlarged later on. Bharaha (or Bhāraha vāsa) is called after the king bearing this name and whose capital Viṇiyā lay in the centre of the country to the south of the Veyaḍḍha. He gained the rule over the entire continent, as we are told by Jambudd. III, and thus became cāuranta-cakkavaṭṭi. Of Eravaya we hear nothing except the precise repetition of this legend where, naturally, the king is given the name of Eravaya. In Mahāvideha we find the happy conditions prevailing in the *susama-susamā* period (s. b.). In the following pairs of Karman-free continents the conditions are of the *susama-dūsamā* or, resp., the *susamā* kind. The names of Hemavaya and Hiraṇṇavaya have been explained by the rich occurrence of gold, and this certainly goes back to the gold found in Tibet. As to the form of the latter Eraṇṇavaya it is, of course, of a secondary character.¹ In Harivāsa the people are of a yellowish or reddish colour (*aruṇ’ābha aruṇ’obhāsa*), by which it is intended to define the name. Rammaga needs no explanation regarding its name.