जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Universal emperor

Cakravartī

चक्रवर्ती

A king who conquers all six divisions of a region. Twelve arise in Bharat in each half-cycle.

He commands fourteen treasures — the discus, the umbrella, the staff, the sword, the jewel, the kākiṇī, the hide, seven of them inanimate and seven living, including the general, the householder, the carpenter, the priest, the horse, the elephant and the chief queen. Nine inexhaustible treasuries follow him.

The conquest route is fixed: out to the sea, up the Gaṅgā and Sindhu, through the tunnels of Vaitāḍhya into the northern khaṇḍas, and back. At the end he writes his name on Ṛṣabhakūṭa, and has to erase someone else's to do it.

Bharata, son of Ṛṣabhanātha, was the first of this cycle. Every serious cakravartī story ends the same way — with renunciation, or with hell for refusing it.

HIMAVĀN — gold, 100 yojana highPadma lakeTamisrāKhaṇḍaprapātāṚṣabhakūṭaVAITĀḌHYAĀRYA KHAṆḌA25½ ārya countriesGAṆGĀ →← SINDHULavaṇa Samudra · the salt oceanBharat is 526 6⁄19 yojana north to south — one part in 190. Drawn far deeper than it is, so it can be read.Vaitāḍhya and the two rivers cut it into six khaṇḍas; 110 vidyādhara cities line the mountain’s two faces.Only the southern middle khaṇḍa changes as the ages turn.NESWyou are here
Bharat Kṣetra and its six divisions — Cakravartī highlighted

Measurements and counts

Per half-cycle in Bharat12
Divisions conquered6
Treasures14
Treasuries9
First of this cycleBharata
Vijayas with a cakravartī34 in Jambūdvīpa

Connected

Open in the interactive atlas →

समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

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

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10