Manusyaloka, Map of the Human World

Jainism is an Indian religion, which was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira, a spiritual leader called the Jina (conqueror), in the sixth century B.C. Jainism teaches nonviolence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice rely mainly on the effort of advancing the soul on the spiritual ladder to divine consciousness in a universe that has no beginning or end. Jainism has its own version of geography and cosmology, in which the universe is divided into three kingdoms: the upper is the realm of the heavens and the celestials; the middle is the domain of humans, animals, and plants; and the lower, which belongs to the damned and the disorderly. This 19th-century cosmological diagram of the manuṣyaloka (the human world), comes from western Rajasthan, a state in India with one of the largest Jain populations. The chart shows the Adhai-dvipa, or the two and a half continents inhabited by mortals. The continents are shown as concentric circles surrounded by ring-shaped oceans filled with swimmers and fish, complex networks of rivers and lakes, and mountain ranges. The continent Jambudvipa (rose-apple tree island) is shown in the center of the chart, encircled by a blue ring that

Date

1890–1899

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

1,062 × 1,024 pixels

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