The Buddhist Cosmos

by Punnadhammo Mahathero

  There is no detailed description of the cakkavāḷapabbata in the Pali sources, but we may infer that it rises from the sea as a steep cliff; the suffering beings in the lokanatara niraya (“inter-world hell”) outside the wall of the world are said to cling to it “like bats.”65 The whole cakkavāḷa is compared to a wheel, with the cakkavāḷapabbata as the rim (DN-a 14). The Abhidharmakośa tells us that they are made of iron (AK 3:5. p452).

  1:10 MAHĀDĪPA—THE ISLAND-CONTINENTS

  Within the great outer ocean there lie four island-continents (mahādīpa) each of which is surrounded by five hundred lesser islands (Vism 7.44). Even the four great islands are tiny compared to the scale of the cakkavāḷa. These islands are the abode of human beings. These island-continents cannot be equated with the continents of modern scientific geography. They are so remote that they cannot be reached by ordinary means, although beings with psychic power can visit them (Mil 2–3:7,9, Eng. v1, p117).

  The southern continent, Jambudīpa, is the one upon which we live and upon which all human history as we know it has played out. It is shaped like a cart (sakaṭasaṇṭhāno), which is usually taken to mean a blunt nosed triangle with the narrow end facing south (KdpA 6 and Vism-mhṭ 7). This would roughly agree with the shape of the Indian sub-continent, which would have constituted the known world at the Buddha’s time. It has been suggested that the term sakaṭa was a reference to the constellation Rohinī, roughly equivalent to Taurus; a triangular formation of stars with the apex being Aldebaran.66 Jambudīpa is ten thousand yojana across at its greatest width (Vism 7.44).

  The eastern continent, Aparagoyanā, is seven thousand yojana across and it shaped like a mirror (ādāsasaṇṭhāno), that is to say, round. The northern continent, Uttarakuru, is eight thousand yojana wide and is shaped like a chair (pīṭhasaṇṭhāno) which is generally taken to mean it is square like the seat of a chair. The western continent, Pubbavideha, it is half-moon shaped (addhacandasaṇṭhāno) and is seven thousand yojana wide (Khp-a 6 and Vism-mhṭ 7.1).

  Jambudīpa is the only continent for which we have any information pertaining to its internal geography. It is, as we have seen, roughly triangular in shape and ten thousand yojana in extent (parimāṇo). It is not specified whether this refers to the north-south axis or to the northern base of the triangle; perhaps both measures are equal. Of these ten thousand yojana, three thousand comprise the habitat of humanity, three thousand are covered by the Himavā (“snowy”) mountain mass and four thousand are covered by ocean (Ud-a 5:5). The area of human habitation we can take as being roughly equivalent to the Indian subcontinent of modern geography. The Himavā is a rough equivalent of the Himalayas and is the abode of yakkhas, nāgas, and wild animals as well as serving as a refuge for religious seekers. The six thousand yojana covered by sea presents something of a puzzle. The Pali, padeso udakena ajjhotthaṭo samuddoti saṅkhaṃ gato, can be read as meaning “this land is reckoned as having been submerged by the sea.” A likely interpretation is that this refers to a large area which was flooded in some previous epoch67

  It is said that in this Jambudīpa there are pleasant meadows, forests and lotus ponds but that these are few, whereas steep slopes, raging rivers, grounds full of stakes and stumps and rough mountains are far more common (AN 1: 322, Eng. 333). There are many thousands of human cities in Jambudīpa. In the remote past there were eighty thousand cities, but this has “now” (i.e. at the time the texts were compiled) dwindled to sixty thousand and will continue to dwindle in this declining age until there are only twenty thousand left (Sn-a 1:3).

  The portion of Jambudīpa inhabited by humans represents the lands of ancient India and as such belongs more to the study of geography than to cosmology or mythology. It should be noted in passing that the measure given, three thousand yojana, is about 36,000 km or at least ten times greater than the actual extent of the sub-continent, whether measured north-south or east-west. This discrepancy may be attributed in part to the ancient Indian tendency to inflate large numbers but might also represent an awareness that the inhabited world was larger than India. However, most of the foreign lands known to ancient India could only be reached by a sea voyage and were probably considered as being among the five hundred minor islands associated with Jambudīpa. These would have included Laṅkādīpa or Tambapaṇṇidīpa (Sri Lanka), Suvaṇṇabhūmi (“The Golden Land” or S.E. Asia), Bāveru (Babylon) and the lands of the Yona (Ionians, or Greeks).68

  1:11 THE HIMAVĀ

  The Himavā (or Himavant) lying to the north of the lands of the humans, is 3000 yojana in extent, 500 yojana high and consists of 84,00069 separate mountain peaks (Vism 7.42). Although many features of the Himavā are named and even described in the texts, we cannot say how they all lie in relation to each other, making it impossible to construct a map. In the introduction to the Kuṇāla Jātaka the Buddha conveys some bhikkhus to a secluded spot in the Himavā and while flying through the air with them, points out some of the landmarks:

  The Teacher by his own power took them up into the air and brought them to the Himavā. Standing in the sky over the delightful land of the Himavā he showed them its various features;

  Kañcana (“Golden”) Mountain, Rajata (“Silver”) Mountain, Maṇi (“Jewel”) Mountain Hiṅgulika Mountain, Añjana Mountain, Sānu (“Table”) Mountain, Phalika (“Crystal”) Mountain and various other mountains.

  Five great rivers and the seven lakes; Kaṇṇamuṇḍa, Rathakāra, Sīhapapāta, Chaddanta, Tiyaggaḷa, Anotatta and Kuṇāla.

  This great Himavā is five hundred yojana high and three thousand yojana in extent. In one delightful region he showed them, by his own power, prepared resting places (katanivāsa i.e. shelters for hermits). In one region he showed them the abode of lions, tigers, elephants and other animals. He showed them pleasant groves, trees bearing flowers and fruits, various flocks of birds, flowers of the land and of the water.

  To the east of the Himavā is a golden plain, to the west is a vermilion plain. (Jāt 536)

  The picture we have of the Himavā is of a wild and magical place, thickly forested and mountainous.

  The earth there bears many kinds of herbs and flowering vines. There are elephants, buffaloes, deer, yaks, antelopes, rhinoceros, horned oxen, lions, tigers, panthers, bears, wolves, otters, wild cats and hares roaming about with their young, as well as great boars, snakes and families of elephants living in herds. There are issa-deer, sākha-deer, sarabha-deer, enī-deer, vāta-deer and pasada-deer. There dwell non-human beings (purisālu), kinnaras, yakkhas and rakkhasas.

  There are upright trees bearing clusters of delightful flowers on top. Spreading out among these trees are osprey, partridge, eagle, peacock, cuckoo, jīvañjīvaka birds, celāvakā birds and bhiṅkāra birds, living in flocks, mad with joy.

  There are many hundreds of mineral substances covering and adorning the region; red arsenic, yellow orpiment, vermilion, gold and silver. Such is this delightful forest. (Jāt 536)

  When King Vessantara was exiled from his kingdom and fled to the Himavā, he at first tried to dissuade his wife, the loyal Maddī, from following him. He called the Himavā a “terrible forest, filled with wild beasts.” In reply Maddī sang the praises of the Himavā in verse:

  When you see the elephant, the tusker sixty years of age,

  Roaming alone through the forest, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see the elephant, the tusker sixty years of age,

  Wandering morning and evening through the forest, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see the herd of she-elephants, with their lord in front of his flock; and hear the tusker trumpeting, the elephant sixty years of age; hearing that roar, you will not long for your kingdom.

  From both sides the forest spreads, and when you see your every desire, wild beasts everywhere, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see the deer bearing five-pointed antlers that come in the evening, and when you see the dancing of the kimpur
isas,70 you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you hear the roar of the flowing river, and the song of the kimpurisas, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you hear the shout of the screech howl living in a mountain cleft, you will not long for your kingdom.

  Lion and tiger, rhinoceros and buffalo; when you hear the roaring of these beasts in the forest, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see a peacock dancing on the mountaintop, surrounded by his peahens, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see the peacock, egg-born, gaily colored, dancing before his peahens, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When you see the peacock, blue necked, crested, dancing before his peahens, you will not long for your kingdom.

  In the winter, when you see the flowers springing from the earth, wafting their fragrance, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When in the winter months, you see the fat green beetles (indagopaka)71 covering the ground, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When in the winter, you see the flowers covering the earth;

  the kuṭaja, bimbajāla, and loddapaddhaka (names of flowers), blowing forth their gorgeous scent, you will not long for your kingdom.

  When in the months of winter, you see the forest flowering with buds and blossoms, you will not long for your kingdom. (Jāt 547)

  The Himavā is a prominent location in the Jātaka tales, featuring as at least a secondary locale in 167 Jātakas, or almost a third of the total. In these stories, the Himavā is clearly distinguished from the realms of human habitation. In one story a farmer searching for his missing cattle “leaves the paths of men and enters the Himavā” (Jāt 516). In another story, when the nāga prince Bhūridatta is lost, his three brothers divide their search into the world of the devas, the world of men and the Himavā (Jāt 543). Although human beings do not normally live in the Himavā, there are exceptions; it is the favoured locale for the ascetic spiritual seekers known as isi (“rishis”). No less than ninety Jātakas mention a spiritual seeker who has renounced the world and went to the Himavā taking the isipabbajjā (“hermit’s going-forth”) to live in a leaf hut and practise meditation, eating the fruits and nuts of the forest. Sometimes these hermits return to the lands of men for the rainy season, (Jāt 312) or to procure “salt and vinegar” (Jāt 313). These excursions often result in interactions with kings or other persons which constitute the main plot of the story.

  Besides the ordinary hermits, the Himavā is also the abode of paccekabuddhas, fully awakened beings who arise in the ages between Buddhas.72 It is also sometimes a place of refuge for exiled kings and princes.73 Besides these, ordinary humans sometimes enter the Himavā to hunt74 or to gather wood.75 In the Jātaka stories these individuals are most often depicted as being of a low moral character, acting as the villain of the tale.

  Many of the Jātaka tales are stories about animals and many, if not most, of these occur in the Himavā; there are fifty three Jātakas featuring animal characters which take place in the Himavā; these most often involve elephants, monkeys, lions and various kinds of bird.76 The Himavā as depicted in the Jātakas is also the abode of various non-human beings, particularly the kinnara or kimpurisa, a race of diminutive bird-like little people.77 It is also the preferred site for the yakkhas to hold their assemblies (Jāt 347).

  1:12 LAKE ANOTATTA

  The most important single feature of the Himavā is surely Lake Anotatta. This is one of the seven great lakes, each of which is fifty yojana in length and breadth and has a circumference of one hundred and fifty yojana (MN-a 54 and Ud-a 5:5). These measurements imply a circular shape. It is the source of all the great rivers of Jambudīpa including the five major rivers which water the human portion: the Gaṅgā (Ganges), the Yamunā, the Aciravati, the Sarabhū and the Mahī. A detailed description of Lake Anotatta and its environs is found in the commentaries:

  Lake Anotatta is surrounded by five mountain peaks; Mt Sudassana, Mt Citta, Mt Kāḷa, Mt Gandhamādana and Mt Kelāsa. All of these mountains are three hundred yojana high, shaped like a crow’s beak, curving inward and thus covering over (or “concealing”) the lake. Mt Sudassana is made of gold, Mt Citta is made of the seven precious things,78 Mt Kāḷa is made of antimony (añjana), Mt Gandhamādana is made of chalcedony (masāragalla) and Mt Kelasa is made of silver.

  There, through the power of devas and nāgas, it rains and rivers flow and all these waters enter Lake Anotatta. The sun and the moon, as they travel overhead either to the north or to the south cast their light in between the mountains, but they do not shine onto the Lake from directly overhead. Thus it came to be called “Anotatta” (an-ava-tatta, “not warmed” i.e. “cool”).

  There are bathing places there, with delightful jeweled stairs leading to a flat stone floor. The water is pure, clear as crystal and free of fishes and turtles. These places have arisen for the enjoyment of beings solely through the power of their kamma. In these places, paccekabuddhas, disciples possessing psychic power and rishis bathe and devas and yakkhas play in the water. (MN-a 54 and Ud-a 5:5)

  The text goes on to describe the four great rivers which issue from Lake Anotatta. These flow out through four “mouths” (mukkha); the Lion’s Mouth, the Elephant’s Mouth, the Horse’s Mouth and the Bull’s Mouth. In the country surrounding each mouth, the appropriate species of animal predominates. Each of these rivers flows outward from one of the four cardinal directions (although the text does not specify the place of each mouth), flows completely around Lake Anotatta three times in a clockwise direction without interfering with the other rivers, and then finds its way to the Great Ocean (ibid). An attempt to sketch this geography will quickly reveal that it is quite impossible if we assume these are ordinary rivers. However, the course of the Gaṅgā, the great river which enters the human portion of Jambudīpa, is described in some detail and this includes both an underground tunnel and a portion where it passes through the air. Although it is not stated, we must assume the other rivers also possess these “overpasses” and “underpasses.”

  The river issuing from the southern mouth of Anotatta flows three times around the lake; this stretch of the river is called the Āvaṭṭagaṅgā (“Winding Ganges”). It then proceeds in a southerly direction for sixty yojana across the surface of an upright rock; there it is known as the Kaṇhagaṅgā (“Dark Ganges”). Having struck the surface of the rock, it then rises up into the air forming a torrent of water three gāvutas79 across which flies through space for sixty yojana. This portion of the river is named the Ākāsagaṅgā (“Sky Ganges”). The Gaṅgā then lands upon the rock called Tiyaggaḷā (“Triple Bolt”)80 and there the force of the water, breaking the rock, has made a fifty yojana pond and that portion of the river is known as the Tiyaggaḷapokkharaṇī (“Triple Bolt Pond”). From the banks of the pond, the river then cleaves the rock and enters (a cleft in) the boulder for a distance of sixty yojana where it is called the Bahalagaṅgā (“Dense Ganges”). After which it breaks into the solid earth and flows through an underground tunnel for sixty yojana. This portion of the river is named the Umaṅgagaṅgā (“Subterranean Ganges”). Then it strikes the horizontal rock called Viñjha and splits into five branches, like the fingers from the palm of a hand. Thereafter it is reckoned as five rivers; the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā, the Aciravati, the Sarabhū and the Mahī.81

  The five rivers are thus all forks of the Ganges. The Aciravati is the modern Rapti River, which drains into the Ghagara which in turn may be identified with the Sārabhū (Sanskrit Sarayū) and the Mahī is the modern Gandak.82 The basin of the Ganges River system was the central area for the ancient civilization of Buddhist India and was the region in which the Buddha wandered throughout his life. It was called the Majjhimadesa, the “Middle Country.” The inhabited portions of Jambudīpa outside the Majjhimadesa were called the Paccantajanapada, “The Border Countries.” It is not surprising that the mythical geography of Jambudīpa focuses on this river system to the exclusion of
, for instance, the Indus.

  That section of the upper Gaṅgā which flies through the air, the Ākāsagaṅgā, is visible from lower Jambudīpa and nowadays it is known as “the Milky Way.” This identification is assumed but not made explicit in the Pali texts but it was a common heritage of ancient India that the Ganges descended from the heavens, and the idea is found in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa,83 for example.

  We can see in all this the great importance of Lake Anotatta as the ultimate source of the waters which give life to human civilization. We have seen that the waters of this lake are cool, pure and free of contamination by fish or turtles. The lake itself is centrally located and secluded by the mountains which overhang it. Water from Lake Anotatta was highly sought after for its cleansing and healing properties. On the night of the Bodhisatta’s conception, his mother dreamt that the Four Great Kings took her in her bed to the shore of Lake Anotatta where female devas bathed her in Anotatta water (DN-a 14). During the rainy season that the Buddha spent teaching the devas in Tāvatiṃsa, he would return to Jambudīpa every day for his meal. Part of this daily routine was to rinse his mouth with the water of Lake Anotatta (Dhp-a 14:2). Indeed, this is the place where all previous Buddhas have rinsed their mouths, (MN-a 26) as well as paccekabuddhas (SN-a 3:20) and sometimes arahants (Dhp-a 8:2) and anāgāmīs (MN-a 23). When the paccekabuddhas meet for their uposatha ceremonies, the hall is magically prepared for them in advance; a wind springs up which cleanses the floor with water blown from Lake Anotatta (Sn-a 1:3). When the Buddha’s arahant disciple Anuruddha came down with indigestion, it was only a drink of Anotatta water which could cure him (Dhp-a 25:12). It is even said that the devas brought King Asoka sixteen jars full of Anotatta water every day (Vin-a-nid). So highly prized was this water that King Vessavaṇa, the Great King (Cātumahārājika) of the North, sends the yakkhinīs (female yakkhas) who are in thrall to him to fetch it, and he works them so hard at this task that they sometimes die of exhaustion (Dhp-a 1:4).