Jambudvipa or Jambudweep | Names of India | Episode 2

Jambudweep. Many people consider this term as an alternative ancient name for India. But after studying various ancient texts from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, only one thing is confirmed that it is not a mere alternative name for ancient India. But it was used to denote the entire Indian subcontinent or to an extent entire island of Eurasia. Many say it is the representation of the whole land mass of the earth. In today's video, we will try to figure out what is Jambudweep by referring to several ancient texts. But before starting this video, I must admit that as this video will discuss different theories and hypotheses around the mysterious Jambudweep, it is possible that instead of clearing various doubts in your mind, it may raise many more questions around it. So, be prepared for it and let's get started. We shall start with some historical references. The term Jambudweep was used by Mauryan Emperor Ashoka to represent his kingdom in the 3rd century BCE. He used this word to mean the whole of his empire, which covered nearly the entire Indian subcontinent, excluding the far southern part of its peninsula. The same term was used in later texts, such as the Mysore inscriptions from the 10th century CE, which also referred to the region, likely ancient India, as Jambudweep. As Emperor Ashoka was a Buddhist, so we will first see what Buddhism has to say about Jambudweep. According to one theory, Jambu refers to the Jambu tree, also known as the Indian blackberry tree and dweep means either island or continent. For your information, in Sanskrit, dweepa has a little different meaning. Together Jambudweep means the island of the Jambu tree. According to Dharmasamgraha, which was attributed to Nagarjuna, who lived around the 2nd century AD, the earth is divided into four Mahadeepas. Purvavideha, Jambudweep, Aparagodani and Uttarakuru. Jambudweep is the region where humans live and is the only place where 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. The other three continents of Buddhist accounts around Sumeru are inaccessible to humans from Jambudweep. For Buddhists, Jambudweep holds immense spiritual significance as the place where the teachings of the Buddha spread and flourished. Another reference is from the Buddhist text Mahabhamsa, where the emperor Ashoka's son Mahinda introduces himself to the king of Sihaladweepa, Devanampiyatissa, as from Jambudweep, referring to what is now India partially. Sihaladweepa is Sinhaldweep, which is now known as Sri Lanka. In Jain cosmology, Jambudweep is one of the continents of the middle world or Madhyalok encircled by the ocean named Laban Samudra. Laban Samudra means the sea of salt. The middle world contains innumerable concentric dweepas and as opposed to the upper world and the lower world, it is the only world where humans can be Some texts say Jambudweep has 9 zones or Kshetra. Some texts say Jambudweep is divided into 7 regions. In both cases, you will see the name of Bharat as one of the zones. Hence, Jambudweep is not equal to Bharat. Because Bharat is a part of Jambudweep. Jambudweep is the center of all continents and oceans like the navel. Mount Sumeru is the center of Jambudweep. It is also called Mount Sudarshan. Now we will move to the Puranic literature. Like Buddhism and Jainism, here also Jambudweep is considered the central continent of the world, surrounded by oceans and home to Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain believed to be the axis of the universe. According to Puranic cosmology, the world is divided into 7 concentric island continents which is known as Saptadweep, separated by the 7 encircling oceans, each doubling the size of the preceding one going out from within. The 7 continents of the Puranas are stated as Jambudweep, Plakshadweep, Shalmadweep or Shalmalidweep, Kushadweep, Kronchadweep, Shakadweep and Pushkaradweep. We also find the name of Gomedhadweep in place of either Plakshadweep or Kushadweep. The 7 intermediate oceans consist of salt water, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, yogurt, milk and water respectively. The mountain range called Loka Loka, meaning world no world, stretches across this final sea, delineating the known world from the dark void. Bharadwarsh is said to have been a part of Jambudweep. According to Vishnu Puran, Emperor Agnidhra was the ruler of Jambudweep. He had 9 sons. While retiring, he divided his kingdom among his 9 sons. Navi got the southern part called Bhimavarsha, which later became Bharadvarsha after his grandson's name. Though we do not find the name of Jambudweep in the Vedas, but we do see the mention of the name in Mahabharata. The proper geographical boundary is however unconfirmed in the current scenario. According to a conversation between Sanjay and Dhritarashtra in Mahabharata, Sanjay mentioned that there is a huge sacred Jambu tree called Sudarshan, which is eternal and used to grant all desires. He continues by saying the country has been named Jambudweep after the name of this tree. So it is clear that this land got its name due to a specific Jambu tree, not because of plenty of Jambu trees. Interestingly, in Puranas also, we saw Jambudweep known as Sudarshan Dweep. So one can relate both the names to a specific tree. The tree's position is between north of Nishad mountains and south of Nil mountain or Nilgiri. For your information, this Nilgiri mountain is not the modern Nilgiri of the western Ghat range. The identification of the Nilgiri and Nishad mountains is still unknown. The height of this particular tree is so high that it touches the heaven. The circumference of a fruit of that tree which bursts by itself when ripe is 11,500 cubits. Falling on the ground, they make a very loud noise. Then they pour out silvery juice on the ground which eventually becomes a river. Then it passes around the Meru mountain and goes to Uttarkuru. But if we consider these texts metaphorically instead of literally, then we can relate this very tall and large tree to a mountain peak and the fruits can be icebergs that broke off from that mountain glacier. When they melt, they do release silvery juice like water which is a source of the river. We find a similar description in Vishnu Puran. Here the fruits of the Jambu tree are said to be as large as 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 Jambu Nadi or Jambu river and flows through Jambudweep whose inhabitants drinks its water. Markandeya Puran and Brahmanda Puran divide Jambudweep into four vast regions shaped like four petals of a lotus with Mount Meru being located at the center like a pedicab. This is very much similar to Flemish geographer Gerard Mercator's 16th century mapping of the Arctic where we can see four major landmasses surrounding a polar sea with a massive rock mountain in the center called Polus Arcticus. There are many similar depictions of the Arctic area with these mystical four landmasses. But after we got to see the satellite picture of the North Pole, it looked different. Do you know how it looks? Have you seen the logo of the United Nations? Yes, it's just like that. The satellite images showed us that the Earth's North Pole sits on drifting ice. There isn't land or a rock structure for permanent facilities. But there is an unusual underwater ridge of continental crust in the Arctic Ocean close to that position. So the actual geographical position, area and boundary of Jambudweep are still mystical. The only thing we can say is that Bharatvarsh is a part of that land. It's not the entire Jambudweep. Thank you for watching this video about Jambudweep. If you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like, share and subscribe for more explorations into the ancient wisdom and history of India. Thank you again and keep watching us. See you in the next video. Till then, take care.