जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Continent · the third ring

Puṣkaravara

पुष्करवर

The third continent, 16,00,000 yojana wide - and the only one in the universe cut in half by a rule rather than by a mountain range doing ordinary work.

Mānuṣottara runs around its exact middle. The inner half is Puṣkarārdha and belongs to the human world; the outer half is the first land no person has ever stood on.

The two halves are not different in soil or shape. The inner half carries two Merus, two full copies of Jambūdvīpa's geography, and its share of the 132 suns. The outer half has land, water, animals and plants, and no people at all. The boundary is not geographical. It is a statement about where birth and death can happen.

It takes its name from the puṣkara, the lotus.

the human world ends hereMānuṣottara · everything before this rung12345678910111213141516Nandīśvara →The first sixteen ringswidth in yojana · each twice the one before1Jambūdvīpa1,00,0002Lavaṇa Samudra2,00,0003Dhātakīkhaṇḍa4,00,0004Kālodadhi8,00,0005Puṣkaravara16,00,0006Puṣkaroda32,00,0007Vāruṇīvara64,00,0008Vāruṇoda1,28,00,0009Kṣīravara2,56,00,00010Kṣīroda5,12,00,00011Ghṛtavara10,24,00,00012Ghṛtoda20,48,00,00013Ikṣuvara40,96,00,00014Ikṣuvaroda81,92,00,00015Nandīśvara-dvīpa1,63,84,00,00016Nandīśvaroda3,27,68,00,000all sixteen are legible at this scale, and none is honestNandīśvara is lit - open itOnly the first 16 of innumerable ringsthe middle world goes on, ring after ring, each twice the last, to Svayambhūramaṇaeach ring is twice the width of the one before · innumerable more lie beyond
The middle world, ring by ring - Puṣkaravara highlighted

Measurements and counts

Ring width16,00,000 yojana
Cut byMānuṣottara, at its middle
Inner halfhuman
Outer halfno humans, ever
Named forthe lotus

Connected

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

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

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10