जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Gods of the lower world

Bhavanavāsī and Vyantara

भवनवासी · व्यन्तर

Two classes of god who live inside the upper layers of the first hell-earth, not in the heavens at all.

The Bhavanavāsī, the mansion-dwellers, occupy 7,72,00,000 palaces in the jewelled and muddy layers of Ratnaprabhā. They come in ten kinds, all called kumāra, youths: Asura, Nāga, Vidyut, Suparṇa, Agni, Vāta, Stanita, Udadhi, Dvīpa and Dik.

The Vyantara, the intermediate ones, live scattered anywhere in the lower and middle worlds rather than in a fixed tier. Śvetāmbara texts count sixteen kinds: the eight Vyantara proper (Piśāca, Bhūta, Yakṣa, Rākṣasa, Kinnara, Kiṃpuruṣa, Mahoraga and Gandharva) and eight Vāṇavyantara alongside them (Aṇapaṇṇī, Paṇapaṇṇī, Isivāī, Bhūyavāī, Kaṇḍiya, Mahākaṇḍiya, Kohaṇḍa and Payaga). These are the beings of ordinary Indian folklore, placed on the cosmological map.

Those sixteen kinds are why the Śvetāmbara census of Indras comes to sixty-four. Each class of Bhavanavāsī and each class of Vyantara has two Indras, giving 20 and 32; the Jyotiṣka contribute 2, and the twelve kalpas of Ūrdhva Loka contribute only 10, because the top four share in pairs. See The Śvetāmbara reckoning.

Both are gods, both are unliberated, and both rank below every tier of Ūrdhva Loka. Height in this cosmos tracks detachment, and these two classes are the least detached gods there are.

The third low class, the Jyotiṣka, are the suns, moons and stars circling above the flat earth.

1 Ratnaprabhā30,00,000 hells · 13 storeys1,80,000 yojana thickasaṃkhyāta yojana · not to scale2 Śarkarāprabhā25,00,000 hells · 11 storeys1,32,000 yojana thick3 Vālukāprabhā15,00,000 hells · 9 storeys1,28,000 yojana thick4 Paṅkaprabhā10,00,000 hells · 7 storeys1,20,000 yojana thick5 Dhūmaprabhā3,00,000 hells · 5 storeys1,18,000 yojana thick6 Tamaḥprabhā99,995 hells · 3 storeys1,16,000 yojana thick7 Mahātamaḥprabhā5 hells · 1 storeys1,08,000 yojana thickKhara · 16,000 · Vyantara above, Bhavanavāsī belowPaṅka · 84,000 · Asurakumāra and RākṣasaAb-bahula · 80,000 · the first hells, in 13 storeys7,72,00,000 mansions of the Bhavanavāsīghanodadhi · dense water · 20,000ghanavāta · dense wind · 20,000tanuvāta · thin wind · 20,000you are heretrasanāḍī · 1 rajjuThe seven earths, in sectioneach earth broader than the one above — Tattvārtha 3.1drawn at equal height; the true thickness is printed on eachthe gaps between them are asaṃkhyāta and are not drawn to any scale84,00,000hells · 49 storeys
The seven earths, in section — Bhavanavāsī and Vyantara highlighted

Measurements and counts

Bhavanavāsī kinds10
Bhavanavāsī palaces7,72,00,000
Vyantara kinds16 · 8 Vyantara, 8 Vāṇavyantara
Their Indras20 and 32
Whereupper layers of Ratnaprabhā
Longest lifea little over 1 sāgaropama
Liberated?no

Connected

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

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

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10