Jambudvīpa (Pali; Jambudīpa) is a name often used to describe the territory of Indian Subcontinent in ancient Indian sources.
The term is based on the concept of dvīpa, meaning "island" or "continent" in ancient Indian cosmogony. The term Jambudvipa was used by Ashoka to represent his realm in the third century BCE. The same terminology was used in subsequent texts, for instance Kannada inscriptions from the tenth century CE which also described the region, presumably Ancient India, as Jambudvipa.
The word Jambudvīpa literally refers to "the land of jambu trees", where jambu is Sanskrit for Syzygium cumini.
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 Vishnu Purana (ch.2), to be as large as , 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 (zones) and eight significant parvatas (mountains).
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 Indian 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.Geographical Data in the Early Puranas. A Critical Study, Dr M. R. Singh: University of Rajasthan/Jaipur. Punthi Pustak, Calcutta. 1972. p. 5
The common names of the dvīpas, having their varṣas (9 for Jambu-dvīpa, 7 for the other dvīpas) 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 Vayu Purana.
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 (also called Naga) 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 (Vin.i.30; SNA.ii.443; Vsm.i.205f; Sp.i.119, etc.) On account of this tree, Jambudīpa is also known as Jambusanda (SN.vs.552; SNA.i.121). 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 (SNA.ii.437; UdA.300).
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 Bhikkhu, introduces himself to King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura (Anuradhapura being the then capital city of the independent island found at the tip of India, now known as Sri Lanka) as from Jambudvipa, referring to what is now the Indian subcontinent. This is described in the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra in Mahayana Buddhism.
Continent/ Island | Ocean |
Jambūdvīpa | Lavanoda (Salt - ocean) |
Dhatki Khand | Kaloda (Black sea) |
Puskarvardvīpa | Puskaroda (Lotus Ocean) |
Varunvardvīpa | Varunoda (Varun Ocean) |
Kshirvardvīpa | Kshiroda (Ocean of milk) |
Ghrutvardvīpa | Ghrutoda (Ghee ocean) |
Ikshuvardvīpa | Iksuvaroda (Ocean of Sugarcane Juice) |
Nandishwardvīpa | Nandishwaroda |
Mount Meru is at the centre of the world surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, in form of a circle forming a diameter of 100,000 yojanas.Schubring, Walther (1995)Pp. 204-246
Jambūdvīpa continent has six mountains, dividing the continent into nine zones (Kshetra). The names of these zones are:
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