Ananta
Nine further ranks above the innumerable. Jain mathematics grades infinity rather than treating it as one thing.
Parītānanta, yuktānanta and anantānanta, each in a least, a middle and a greatest. That some infinities are larger than others is assumed here without argument, some fifteen centuries before it was proved in Europe.
The ranks are anchored to real counts. Jaghanya yuktānanta is the number of abhavya souls, those constitutionally incapable of liberation. The siddhas resting on Siddhaśilā are more numerous than that, and the souls in nigoda more numerous again. The space-points of the emptiness outside the Loka are anantānanta.
At the very top sits utkṛṣṭa anantānanta, which the texts reach for only once, to say that kevalajñāna knows all of it simultaneously. Omniscience is defined against the largest number the system can name.
Past Samaya are ananta and future samaya are ananta. The wandering of a soul has no beginning, which is the plain meaning of that.
Measurements and counts
| Ranks | 9 |
|---|---|
| Groups | parīta, yukta, anantānanta |
| Abhavya souls | jaghanya yuktānanta |
| Siddhas | ananta, and more than the abhavya |
| Space-points of aloka | anantānanta |
| Known by kevalajñāna | utkṛṣṭa anantānanta |
| Past samaya | ananta |