जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Section · 49 parts of the assembly

Samavasaraṇa

समवसरण

The assembly a Tīrthaṅkara preaches in, and the twelve companies that sit in it.

When a Tīrthaṅkara attains omniscience the gods raise a Samavasaraṇa — three ramparts of silver, gold and jewels, twelve companies seated by direction, and every kind of being admitted. Four of the twelve scripture counts exactly; the other eight it calls innumerable, which in this tradition is a located category rather than a refusal to answer. Follows the Śvetāmbara reckoning throughout.

All of it is also walkable as an interactive atlas of nested maps.

Coming in 5

The three ramparts 3

The gates, and who keeps them 10

The twelve companies 13

The lower decks 3

At the centre 5

The eight prātihārya 8

What the other reckoning builds 2

समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

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

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10