जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
The two and a half continents

Aḍhāī-dvīpa

अढ़ाईद्वीप

Two continents plus the inner half of a third. This is the entire human world, and it is 45,00,000 yojana across.

Count outward from the centre: Jambūdvīpa, the Lavaṇa ocean, Dhātakīkhaṇḍa, the Kālodadhi ocean, and then half of Pushkaravara — cut clean down the middle by the ring-mountain Mānuṣottara. Two and a half continents. Hence the name.

The arithmetic is exact, because each ring is twice the width of the last and is counted on both sides: 1 + 2 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 8 + 8 + 8 + 8 lakh yojana, giving 45 lakh across.

The reason to draw this boundary rather than any other is that no human is ever born beyond Mānuṣottara, and none ever dies beyond it. Liberation, therefore, is available only here. Every Tīrthaṅkara who has ever taught, and every one who ever will, appears inside this disc.

Within it there are exactly 170 lands where spiritual effort is possible: five Bharat, five Airāvat, and 160 The 32 Vijayass of the five Mahāvidehas. Nothing else counts.

SudarśanaVijayaAcalaMandaraVidyunmālīJambūdvīpaLavaṇa SamudraDhātakīkhaṇḍaKālodadhiPuṣkarārdhaJambūdvīpa2 suns · 2 moonsLavaṇa Samudra4 suns · 4 moonsDhātakīkhaṇḍa12 suns · 12 moonsKālodadhi42 suns · 42 moonsPuṣkarārdha72 suns · 72 moonsMānuṣottarano human passes itEach ring is twice the width of the one before it,and every ring is counted on both sides:1 + 2+2 + 4+4 + 8+8 + 8+8 lakh yojana= 45,00,000 yojana across5 Merus · 170 lands of action132 suns · 132 moons · 56 islands22,50,000 yojana — half the human worldNuttaraEpūrvaSdakṣiṇaWpaścimareckoned from Meruyou are here
The two and a half continents — Aḍhāī-dvīpa highlighted

Measurements and counts

Diameter45,00,000 yojana
Continents
Merus5
Lands of action170
Suns132
Moons132
Sealed byMānuṣottara

Connected

Continent · the seventh ring

Ikṣuvara

इक्षुवर

The seventh continent, 40,96,00,000 yojana wide — the last land before Nandīśvara.

Nothing is recorded of its surface. Its importance is entirely positional: cross it, cross the ocean of sugarcane juice beyond it, and the next ring is the one the gods travel to.

It is named for Ikṣuvaroda, the fourth and last of the flavoured oceans.

Ring width40,96,00,000 yojana
Position7th continent
Next continent outNandīśvara

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10