An illustrated encyclopedia of the Jain tradition
The Jain tradition, as the texts give it
The mapped cosmos, the twenty-four Tīrthaṅkaras, doctrine and practice. Every chapter is a map, and every figure on it is the scripture's own.
CHAPTER ONE · The worldThe CosmosलोकA universe made by no one, measured to the last yojana.84,00,000hells in seven stacked earths - and none of them is punishment.Written pages
CHAPTER FOUR · The great personsTīrthaṅkarasतीर्थंकरThe twenty-four of our half-cycle, in descent - and the caubīsīs either side of them.500 → 7dhanuṣ to hāth: the fall in height from the first to the last, drawn to scale.Written pages
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN · The teachingNigodaनिगोदThe lowest form of life drawn to its own arithmetic: infinite souls in a body too small to see, seventeen lives in a breath, the whole universe full of them - and one body holding more souls than have ever been liberated.∞souls in one nigoda body - infinite times every siddha there has ever been. Gommaṭasāra 196.Written pages
All 23 chapters
The world
- 01The CosmosलोकA universe made by no one, measured to the last yojana.Written pages
- 05Nandīśvaraनन्दीश्वरThe eighth continent out - fifty-two temples nobody built, on a band wider than the world it encircles.Written pages
- 06AirāvaṇaऐरावणThe elephant Indra rides to a Tīrthaṅkara is not an animal - and he is as long as Meru is tall.Written pages
- 08The Skyज्योतिष्कTwo suns and two moons circle Meru - and time itself is defined by their walking.Written pages
- 09The Salt Seaलवण समुद्रA sea a thousand yojana deep, a wall of water sixteen thousand high down its middle - and four jars beneath it whose breathing is the tide.Written pages
- 11The Three Worldsत्रिलोकSeven earths below, twenty-six tiers above, and a figure fourteen rajju tall that the two traditions draw round and square.Written pages
- 21The Six Substancesषड्द्रव्यWhat the universe is made of, and why it has an edge: five of the six stop at the loka, and space does not.Written pages
Time
- 02TimeकालFrom the instant that cannot be divided to the age that cannot be counted.Written pages
- 16The Wishing-Treesकल्पवृक्षTen kinds of tree that gave a world everything it needed; the hundred crafts it took to replace four of their gifts when they failed; and the six gifts nothing ever replaced.Written pages
The great persons
- 03SamavasaraṇaसमवसरणThe assembly a Tīrthaṅkara preaches in, and the twelve companies seated in it.Written pages
- 04Tīrthaṅkarasतीर्थंकरThe twenty-four of our half-cycle, in descent - and the caubīsīs either side of them.Written pages
- 07The Sixty-ThreeशलाकापुरुषSixty-three positions held by sixty people - and the strongest of them are not the ones who get out.Written pages
- 10The Emperorचक्रवर्तीFourteen treasures, seven of them people; nine chests that never empty; and a march of sixty thousand years that uses every one.Written pages
- 13Aṣṭāpadaअष्टापदA crystal mountain of eight terraces, a hall of jewels with the twenty-four in their own sizes on its summit, and a moat a thousand yojana deep round its foot.Written pages
- 18The Tīrthasतीर्थTwenty-four births and five departures, put on ground a pilgrim can stand on.Written pages
The teaching
- 12Karmaकर्मEight kinds of matter that cling to the soul, each with a measured hold; and the fourteen rungs by which a soul sheds them, with a fork near the top where one ladder must fall.Written pages
- 14The Eldersस्थविरावलीEleven gaṇadharas, one line that continued, thirty-nine elders down to the man who wrote the canon down - and every branch of the order that grew from the trunk, named.Written pages
- 15The CanonआगमTwelve aṅgas that double in size from one to the next, eleven of which survive; a twelfth, lost, measured in elephant-loads of ink; forty-five books, or thirty-two, written down a thousand years after they were spoken.Written pages
- 17NigodaनिगोदThe lowest form of life drawn to its own arithmetic: infinite souls in a body too small to see, seventeen lives in a breath, the whole universe full of them - and one body holding more souls than have ever been liberated.Written pages
- 19The Last Instantsअन्तिम समयEight samayas in which a soul becomes the size of the universe, and one in which it rises for good.Written pages
- 20The Multitudesअल्पबहुत्वEvery class of being ranked by how many there are: humans fewest, plants most, and the one number in between.Written pages
- 22Between Birthsअन्तराल गतिA soul between bodies moves along the rows of space, bends at most three times, and takes nothing in on the turns.Written pages
- 23What a Jain Does Not Eatबावीस अभक्ष्यTwenty-two things in a verse still recited, and for thirteen of them the reason is the same: beings you cannot see.Written pages