This fascinating, c.19th century, hand-painted map depicts the Aḍhāī-dvīpa of Jain cosmology. It depicts the 'Two and A Half Continents' on which Jains believed humans could live as a series of concentric circles alternating between land and sea.

The Jain Universe was divided into three worlds: the Upper World (ūrdhvaloka), the Middle World (madhya-loka), and the Lower World (adho-loka). The Upper World consists of the heavens and is inhabited by deities. The Lower World is formed of a pyramid of seven levels of hell, each one more torturous. The Middle World is the only realm where humans were able to exist and is made up of seven continents. Only two-and-a-half of those seven continents are depicted on this map as it was thought that humans could only be born in this small section of the Middle World. This region is known as the Aḍhāī-dvīpa, or 'Two and A Half Continents', and is the most important realm in Jain cosmology as only by living well as a human could a soul advance towards liberation.

The 'Two and A Half Continents' is composed of concentric rings of land and water. The central continent is Jambū-dvīpa, the location of Mt Meru, the holy centre of the Jain universe. Mt. Meru is depicted as a yellow circle at the very centre of the map. Jambū-dvīpa is divided by six mountain ranges into seven distinct regions. These mountains are pictured on the map as multi-coloured, horizontal bars running across the circular landmass. The central region of Jambū-dvīpa, flanked in the north by a green range of mountains and in the south by a red range of mountains, is known as Mahā-videha. It is believed to be a land of wonders inhabited by Universal Monarchs and only the greatest Jain scholars. The central continent of Jambū-dvīpa is ringed by the Lavaṇa-samudra, or 'Salt Ocean', which is inhabited by fish and other sea creatures.

Beyond the Salt Ocean is the second continent, Dhātakīkhaṇḍa. Wide orange mountain ranges divide both this second continent and the third continent (Puṣkara-dvīpa) into eastern and western sections. Either side of the orange mountains are crude illustrations of capital cities, palaces, and their rulers. Other Jain cosmological maps depict these cities and palaces in greater detail or with greater prominence. The relatively small size of this painting compared to other Jain cosmological maps we have seen likely restricted how much detail the painter could achieve. The yellow, blue, green, and red bars which run perpendicular to the ocean rings are mountain ranges and between these mountains are lakes (blue circles) and rivers (blue curves).

The second blue ring is Kālodadhi, or the 'Black-water Ocean'. This ocean is once again filled with fish and other sea creatures. Beyond Kālodadhi is the third continent, Puṣkara-dvīpa ('Lotus Island'), only half of which is reachable from the world of humans. This third continent is largely a copy of the second continent with the same cities, mountains, and rivers. Around the edge of Puṣkara-dvīpa, dividing it in half between the habitable and uninhabitable realms, is a mountain range, Mānuṣottara, depicted as an orange ring with faintly perceptible mountains of green and red. As humans cannot live beyond Mānuṣottara, this marks the edge of the map of the 'World of Humans'. The four corners of the map are decorated with Indian animals, including a tiger, a white horse, deer, and cobras.

Jain maps of this sort were largely produced in northwest India, usually in Rajasthan or Gujarat, with surviving institutional examples dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Though undated, the type of cotton suggests this example is likely early to mid-19th centuries.

Hand painted on cotton. [WLD4800]