Antardvīpas
Fifty-six small islands in the salt ocean, whose people are neither of the lands of action nor properly of the lands of enjoyment.
They lie off the four ends of the Himavān and Śikharī ranges where those ranges run out into the sea — seven groups of islands in each of four quadrants, twenty-eight around each mountain, fifty-six in all.
Their inhabitants are described by their bodies rather than their culture, with names like horse-faced, elephant-eared, mirror-faced, tail-bearing. Their lifespan is a palyopama fraction and their height a few hundred bows.
Classification puts them in kubhogabhūmi — a degraded land of enjoyment. No effort, no religion, no liberation, but also no work. They are a footnote, and every serious map still draws all fifty-six.
Measurements and counts
| Count | 56 (Śvetāmbara) |
|---|---|
| Digambara count | 96 |
| Location | Lavaṇa ocean |
| Off | Himavān and Śikharī |
| Per range | 28 |
| Classed as | kubhogabhūmi |