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Jaina World View
Jainism, an Indian religion distinct from Hinduism and Buddhism, was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira, called "the Jina" (conqueror), who lived in the sixth century B.C. Among other variations from Hindu culture, Jainism has its own version of geography and cosmology. This chart from the nineteenth century shows the world of human habitation as a central continent with mountain ranges and rivers, surrounded by a series of concentric oceans (with swimmers and fish) and ring-shaped continents.
Sacred Cows
This poster represents the figure of the cow as containing all the Hindu gods and quotes Sanskrit texts: O noble folk, protect the cow, who protects your stomach, for . . . "Brahma is in her back, Vishnu in her throat, Rudra (i.e. Shiva) is established on her face . . . Sun and Moon are in her eyes . . ." This poster was published by an organization dedicated to the protection of cattle and to convincing all people that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten.
Medieval Islamic Map
of the World
At the center of the map are the two holiest cities of Islam: Mecca and Medina. The map showsChina and India in the north and the "Christian sects and the states of Byzantium" in the south. The outer circles represent the seas. The manuscript is a cosmology, not meant to be accurate geographically, but only to present the reader with a systematic overview of the existing knowledge about the world at the time.
Islamic World Map
This geographical treatise and collection of wondrous tales was exceedingly popular in mediaeval and early modern Islamic society. The map shown here is unusual in its portrayal of several creatures supporting the world in the firmament. While it uses a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf, the map also shows the Ottomans' early use of geographic information based upon European cartographic methodologies and explorations.
Rescuing the Earth
The Hindu view of the world is cyclic. The universe is destroyed and re-emitted again in endless cycles. Periodically, Vishnu, the great god whose function is to maintain the world, comes into it temporarily in bodily form to rescue it from one disaster or another. Once a great flood swallowed up the entire earth, and Vishnu, taking the form of a gigantic wild boar, plunged to its bottom and brought the earth back up on his tusks. In this illustration, the boar incarnation is flanked by two images of Vishnu in his normal four-armed human shape.
Rescuing the Earth
In the second illustration, Vishnu in triumph tramples the demon who had abducted the earth to the ocean bottom. Scroll books are exceedingly rare in India, and this handwritten scroll with its ultra-minuscule script was probably meant as a tour de force and work of piety rather than a reading copy.
Wheel of Life
In the Tibetan Buddhist world view, the six realms of existence (Gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings) are all held in the grasp of the Lord of Death. In the center of the wheel are the three root poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance symbolized by the cock, snake, and pig, and on the outer rim are the twelve links of dependent origination by which all causes and effects are determined. The ultimate goal, shown by the monks in the left inner circle and the Buddha in the upper right, is to follow a path that frees one from these cycles.
The Burmese Buddhist World
In Buddhist cosmology, deriving from Indian origins, the world is viewed as a system of continents and oceans, either in rings (as in the center here) or floating detached in the ocean. This nineteenth-century Burmese manuscript shows in one image both sorts of continents, and a cosmic ocean symbolized by fish, crabs, and snails. Other sections of the book show and describe the various heavens and hells. Folding accordion-style manuscripts on thick paper are common in Southeast Asia, along with loose-leaf manuscripts made from palm leaves.
Buddhist World Map
Compiled during Japan's age of national isolation (1636-1854), this world map is representative of Buddhist cosmology. Drawn in 1710 by Htan (1654-1738), a Buddhist monk, it is characteristic of a type of early East Asian map that were not based on objective geographic knowledge, but on the more or less legendary statements in Buddhist literature. The map is centered on India andshows the mythical Anukodatchi-pond, which represents the center of the universe and from which four rivers flow in the four cardinal directions.
Although published in 1482, this map is based on the writings of Claudius Ptolemy (87-150 A.D.) and presents a composite geographical image of the world as known to classic Greek and Roman scholars. Ptolemy's geographical writings, known as Geographia or Cosmographia, survived through the Middle Ages in various manuscript copies and was one of the first geographical texts to be put into print. This edition was the first edition to be printed outside Italy and the first to include maps printed from woodcuts.
Jaina World View
Jainism, an Indian religion distinct from Hinduism and Buddhism, was founded by Vardhamana Mahavira, called "the Jina" (conqueror), who lived in the sixth century B.C. Among other variations from Hindu culture, Jainism has its own version of geography and cosmology. This chart from the nineteenth century shows the world of human habitation as a central continent with mountain ranges and rivers, surrounded by a series of concentric oceans (with swimmers and fish) and ring-shaped continents.
Sacred Cows
This poster represents the figure of the cow as containing all the Hindu gods and quotes Sanskrit texts: O noble folk, protect the cow, who protects your stomach, for . . . "Brahma is in her back, Vishnu in her throat, Rudra (i.e. Shiva) is established on her face . . . Sun and Moon are in her eyes . . ." This poster was published by an organization dedicated to the protection of cattle and to convincing all people that cattle should not be slaughtered or eaten.
Medieval Islamic Map
of the World
At the center of the map are the two holiest cities of Islam: Mecca and Medina. The map showsChina and India in the north and the "Christian sects and the states of Byzantium" in the south. The outer circles represent the seas. The manuscript is a cosmology, not meant to be accurate geographically, but only to present the reader with a systematic overview of the existing knowledge about the world at the time.
Islamic World Map
This geographical treatise and collection of wondrous tales was exceedingly popular in mediaeval and early modern Islamic society. The map shown here is unusual in its portrayal of several creatures supporting the world in the firmament. While it uses a traditional Islamic projection of the world as a flat disk surrounded by the sundering seas which are restrained by the encircling mountains of Qaf, the map also shows the Ottomans' early use of geographic information based upon European cartographic methodologies and explorations.
Rescuing the Earth
The Hindu view of the world is cyclic. The universe is destroyed and re-emitted again in endless cycles. Periodically, Vishnu, the great god whose function is to maintain the world, comes into it temporarily in bodily form to rescue it from one disaster or another. Once a great flood swallowed up the entire earth, and Vishnu, taking the form of a gigantic wild boar, plunged to its bottom and brought the earth back up on his tusks. In this illustration, the boar incarnation is flanked by two images of Vishnu in his normal four-armed human shape.
Rescuing the Earth
In the second illustration, Vishnu in triumph tramples the demon who had abducted the earth to the ocean bottom. Scroll books are exceedingly rare in India, and this handwritten scroll with its ultra-minuscule script was probably meant as a tour de force and work of piety rather than a reading copy.
Wheel of Life
In the Tibetan Buddhist world view, the six realms of existence (Gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-beings) are all held in the grasp of the Lord of Death. In the center of the wheel are the three root poisons of desire, hatred, and ignorance symbolized by the cock, snake, and pig, and on the outer rim are the twelve links of dependent origination by which all causes and effects are determined. The ultimate goal, shown by the monks in the left inner circle and the Buddha in the upper right, is to follow a path that frees one from these cycles.
The Burmese Buddhist World
In Buddhist cosmology, deriving from Indian origins, the world is viewed as a system of continents and oceans, either in rings (as in the center here) or floating detached in the ocean. This nineteenth-century Burmese manuscript shows in one image both sorts of continents, and a cosmic ocean symbolized by fish, crabs, and snails. Other sections of the book show and describe the various heavens and hells. Folding accordion-style manuscripts on thick paper are common in Southeast Asia, along with loose-leaf manuscripts made from palm leaves.
Buddhist World Map
Compiled during Japan's age of national isolation (1636-1854), this world map is representative of Buddhist cosmology. Drawn in 1710 by Htan (1654-1738), a Buddhist monk, it is characteristic of a type of early East Asian map that were not based on objective geographic knowledge, but on the more or less legendary statements in Buddhist literature. The map is centered on India andshows the mythical Anukodatchi-pond, which represents the center of the universe and from which four rivers flow in the four cardinal directions.
Although published in 1482, this map is based on the writings of Claudius Ptolemy (87-150 A.D.) and presents a composite geographical image of the world as known to classic Greek and Roman scholars. Ptolemy's geographical writings, known as Geographia or Cosmographia, survived through the Middle Ages in various manuscript copies and was one of the first geographical texts to be put into print. This edition was the first edition to be printed outside Italy and the first to include maps printed from woodcuts.
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