Jambudvīpa


Jambudvīpa is a term for the Indian Subcontinent, often used in ancient Indian sources.
The term comes from ancient Indian cosmogony and is based on the concept of dvīpa, meaning "island" or "continent". The term Jambudvipa, was used by Ashoka to describe his realm in the 3rd century BC. The same term is also found in subsequent texts, for instance the Kannada inscriptions from the 10th century CE, to refer to the region, presumably ancient India.
The word Jambudvīpa literally means "the land of jambu trees", with jambu being the Sanskrit term for the Syzygium cumini tree.

In Hinduism

According to Puranic cosmography, the world is divided into seven concentric island continents separated by the seven encircling oceans, each double the size of the preceding one. The seven continents of the Puranas are stated as Jambudvipa, Plaksadvipa, Salmalidvipa, Kusadvipa, Krouncadvipa, Sakadvipa and Pushkaradvipa. Seven intermediate oceans consist of salt-water, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, yogurt, milk and water respectively. The mountain range called Lokaloka, meaning "world-no-world", stretches across this final sea, delineating the known world from the dark void.
Jambudvipa, also known as Sudarśanadvīpa, forms the innermost concentric island in the above scheme. Its name is said to derive from the jambu tree, Syzygium cumini. The fruits of the jambu tree are said, in the Viṣṇupurāṇa, to be as large as Asian elephants, and when they become rotten and fall upon the crest of the mountains, a river of juice is formed from their expressed juice. The river so formed is called the Jambunadi "Jambu River" and flows through Jambudvipa, whose inhabitants drink its waters. Insular continent Jambudvipa is said to comprise nine varshas and eight significant parvatas.
The Markandeya Purana portrays Jambudvipa as being depressed on its south and north and elevated and broad in the middle. The elevated region forms the varsha named Ila-vrta or Meruvarsha. At the center of Ila-vrta lies the golden Mount Meru, the king of mountains. On the summit of Mount Meru, is the vast city of Brahma, known as Brahmapuri. Surrounding Brahmapuri are eight cities – the one of Indra and of seven other Devatas.
Markandeya Purana and Brahmanda Purana divide Jambudvipa into four vast regions shaped like four petals of a lotus with Mount Meru being located at the center like a pericarp. The city of Brahmapuri is said to be enclosed by a river, known as Akasha Ganga. Akasha Ganga is said to issue forth from the foot of Vishnu and after washing the lunar region falls "through the skies" and after encircling the Brahmapuri "splits up into four mighty streams", which are said to flow in four opposite directions from the landscape of Mount Meru and irrigate the vast lands of Jambudvipa.
The common names of the dvīpas, having their varṣas with a mountain and a river in each varṣa, is given in several Purāṇas. There is a distinct set of names provides, however, in other Purāṇas. The most detailed geography is that described in the Vāyu Purāṇa.

In Buddhism

The Buddhist cosmology divides the into three separate levels: Kāmadhātu, Rūpadhātu, and Ārūpyadhātu. In the Kāmadhātu is located Mount Meru, which is said to be surrounded by four island-continents. The southernmost island is called Jambudvīpa. The other three continents of Buddhist accounts around Sumeru are not accessible to humans from Jambudvīpa. Jambudvīpa is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south, somewhat like the Indian subcontinent. In its center is a gigantic Jambu tree from which the continent takes its name, meaning "Jambu Island".
Jambudipa, one of the four Mahādīpas, or great continents, which are included in the Cakravāla "cosmos" and are ruled by a cakravartin. They are grouped round Mount Sumeru. In Jambudvīpa is Himavā with its eighty-four thousand peaks, its lakes, mountain ranges, etc.
This continent derives its name from the Jambu-tree which grows there, its trunk fifteen yojanas in girth, its outspreading branches fifty yojanas in length, its shade one hundred yojanas in extent and its height one hundred yojanas On account of this tree, Jambudīpa is also known as Jambusanda. The continent is ten thousand yojanas in extent; of these ten thousand, four thousand are covered by the ocean, three thousand by the Himālaya mountains, while three thousand are inhabited by men.
Jambudvīpa is the region where the humans live and is the only place where a being may become enlightened by being born as a human being. It is in Jambudvīpa that one may receive the gift of Dharma and come to understand the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and ultimately realize the liberation from the cycle of life and death. Another reference is from the Buddhist text, the Mahāvaṃsa, where the emperor Ashoka's son Mahinda, after becoming a Bhikku, introduces himself to King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura as from Jambudvipa, referring to what is now the Indian subcontinent. This is described in the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra in Mahayana Buddhism.

In Jainism

According to Jain cosmology, Jambūdvīpa is at the centre of Madhyaloka, or the middle part of the universe, where the humans reside. Jambūdvīpaprajñapti or the treatise on the island of Roseapple tree contains a description of Jambūdvīpa and life biographies of and King Bharata. Trilokasāra, Trilokaprajñapti, Trilokadipikā and are the other texts that provide the details of Jambūdvīpa and Jain cosmology.
Madhyaloka consists of many continent-islands surrounded by oceans, first eight whose names are:
Mount Meru is at the centre of the world surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, in form of a circle forming a diameter of 100,000 yojanas.
Jambūdvīpa continent has six mountains, dividing the continent into nine zones. The names of these zones are:
  1. Bharat Kshetra
  2. Mahavideha Kshetra
  3. Airavat Kshetra
  4. Ramyakwas
  5. Hariwas
  6. Hairanyvat Kshetra
  7. Haimavat Kshetra
  8. Devkuru
  9. Uttarkuru

    Architecture

Jain tirtha in Hastinapur, constructed under supervision of Gyanmati Mataji, is a depiction of Jambudvipa as per Jain cosmology.

Jambudvipa in geopolitical sense

The term Jambudvipa is used by Ashoka perhaps to represent his realm in 3rd century BCE, same terminology is then repeated in subsequent inscriptions for instance Mysorean inscription from the tenth century AD which also describes the region, presumably India, as Jambudvipa.