जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
The sky · beyond Mānuṣottara

The still lights

स्थिर ज्योतिष्क

Past the mountain no human crosses, the suns and moons stand still forever - and with nothing moving overhead, there is nothing to count a day with.

Beyond Mānuṣottara the Jyotiṣka do not circle. Suns, moons, planets, constellations, stars - all of them fixed, shining steadily over the unpeopled rings out to the last ocean, in whatever spot they have held from beginningless time.

The consequence is the quiet, enormous one this section is built around: muhūrtas, days, months and years exist only where the sky moves - which is exactly the two and a half continents where humans live. Time as a counted thing is a local phenomenon. Where the gods stop walking, the calendar simply ends.

the court of the sky790–900 yojana · shelves spaced to be read; the heights carry the truth7908008808848888918948979004,0004,0004,0004,000under every sun and every moon, 16,000 bearersthe moon is the Indra of it allBudhaŚukraBṛhaspatiMaṅgalaŚanione moon's familysuns1grahas88nakṣatras28tārās66,975 koṭākoṭibearers by classSūrya · the two suns16,000Candra · the two moons16,000The grahas8,000The nakṣatras4,000The tārās2,000beyond Mānuṣottara: still, foreverno motion overhead - nothing to count a day with
The court of the sky - The still lights highlighted

Measurements and counts

Wherebeyond Mānuṣottara
Motionnone, ever
Lightconstant
Counted time therenone - no motion to count by

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

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

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10