The twelve companies
Twelve, seated by direction in the innermost court — and they divide four counted, eight innumerable.
Three companies enter at each of the four gates and take the quarter clockwise from it. Four gates, three apiece: twelve.
Four are the caturvidha saṅgha — sādhus, sādhvīs, śrāvakas and śrāvikās — and these are enumerable. Scripture gives their number for each Tīrthaṅkara separately, and the figures differ from one to the next, so no single total belongs to the Samavasaraṇa itself.
Eight are gods — four classes, devas and devīs of each — and scripture does not count them. They are asaṅkhyāta: innumerable, which in this tradition is a named rung on the ladder of number and not a refusal to answer.
The arrangement is worth reading off the map. The ascetics and the laity hold the whole eastern half, with the sādhus nearest the east gate — the gate the Tīrthaṅkara faces. The gods fill the west.
Measurements and counts
| Companies | 12 |
|---|---|
| Per gate | 3 |
| Counted exactly | 4 |
| Innumerable | 8 |