The Jyotiṣka
The luminous gods — sun, moon, planet, constellation and star — who live in a band of sky just 110 yojana thick, and whose motion is what time is.
Everything that shines over Jambūdvīpa lives between 790 and 900 yojana above the ground: the stars lowest at 790, the sun at 800, the moon at 880 — the moon rides above the sun — the constellations at 884, and the five planet shelves from 888 up to Śani at 900. The whole visible heaven fits in a sheet of sky 110 yojana deep.
They are not lamps but gods of the third class, each riding a vimāna of crystal that shines of itself. Their circling of Meru is not decoration: the muhūrta, the day, the month and the year are defined by it. Where they stop moving — beyond Mānuṣottara — time as humans count it stops too.
That is the deepest claim of this sky: it holds 132 suns and 132 moons over the human world — two over Jambūdvīpa, four over Lavaṇa, twelve over Dhātakīkhaṇḍa, forty-two over Kālodadhi, seventy-two over Puṣkarārdha — every one of them a clock.
Measurements and counts
| The five classes | sun · moon · planet · constellation · star |
|---|---|
| Band | 790–900 yojana above the ground |
| Thickness | 110 yojana |
| Suns in the human world | 132 |
| Moons | 132 |
| Beyond Mānuṣottara | motionless |