The four Pātāla-vessels
Four jars of diamond sunk into the floor of the salt sea, each a lakh of yojana deep — a hundred times deeper than the sea itself — and their breathing is the tide.
In the four directions, under the middle of Lavaṇa, stand Vaḍavāmukha in the east, Keyūpa in the south, Yūpaka in the west and Īśvara in the north. Each is 1,00,000 yojana tall, 10,000 wide at the mouth and at the base and 1,00,000 across the belly — Hemacandra says they are shaped like great clay water-jars — with walls of diamond 1,000 yojana thick.
Inside, each is divided in three: wind in the lowest third, wind and water in the middle, water in the top. The wind stirs, swells, pushes the water up through the sea above and the crest rises; the wind settles and the crest falls. Twice a day. This is the Jain account of tides, given a millennium before any moon was blamed.
A god lives in each — Kāla, Mahākāla, Velamba and Prabhañjana, in pleasure-houses inside the vessels. Around the four stand 7,884 small vessels of the same three-part design. Set the scale honestly: the sea is 1,000 deep, and the jar beneath it is 1,00,000 — the ocean is a film of water on the lids of four abysses.
Measurements and counts
| Count | 4 |
|---|---|
| Names | Vaḍavāmukha · Keyūpa · Yūpaka · Īśvara |
| Directions | east · south · west · north |
| Height | 1,00,000 yojana |
| Mouth and base | 10,000 yojana |
| Belly | 1,00,000 yojana |
| Wall | 1,000 yojana of diamond |
| Inside | wind · wind and water · water |
| Gods | Kāla · Mahākāla · Velamba · Prabhañjana |