Джамбудвипа: Древнеиндийский континент в космологии и истории.

Sanskrit endonym of the Indian subcontinent
philosophical region in Indians religions

Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit; Jambudīpa) is a name often used to describe the territory of Greater India 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.

According to Puranic cosmography, the world is divided into seven concentric island continents (sapta dvipa vasumati) separated by the seven encircling oceans, each double the size of the preceding one (going out from within). The seven continents of the Puranas are stated as Jambudvipa, Plaksadvipa, Salmalidvipa, Kusadvipa, Krouncadvipa, Sakadvipa, and Pushkaradvipa. Seven intermediate oceans consist of salt water, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, yogurt, milk and water respectively. The mountain range called Lokaloka, meaning "world no world", stretches across this final sea, delineating the known world from the dark void. 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 Viṣṇupurāṇa (ch.2), to be as large as Asian 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 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 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. 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 Vāyu Purāṇa.

The Buddhist cosmology divides the bhūmaṇḍala (circle of the earth) into three separate levels: Kāmadhātu (Desire realm), Rūpadhātu (Form realm), and Ārūpyadhātu (Formless realm). In the Kāmadhātu is located Mount Meru (Sumeru), which is said to be surrounded by four island continents. The southernmost island is called Jambudvīpa. The other three continents of Buddhist accounts around Sumeru are not accessible to humans from Jambudvīpa. Jambudvīpa is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south, somewhat like the Indian subcontinent. In its center is a gigantic Jambu tree from which the continent takes its name, meaning "Jambu Island". 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 introduces himself to King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura as from Jambudvipa, referring to what is now the Indian subcontinent. This is described in the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra in Mahayana Buddhism.

Jambudweep Jain tirtha in Hastinapur, constructed under supervision of Gyanmati Mataji, is a depiction of Jambudvipa as per Jain cosmology.

The term Jambudvipa is used by Ashoka perhaps to represent his realm in 3rd century BCE, same terminology is then repeated in subsequent inscriptions for instance Mysorean inscription from the tenth century AD which also describes the region, presumably India, as Jambudvipa. text=‘ the Kuntala country (which included the north western parts of Mysore and the southern parts of the Bombay Presidency) was ruled by the nava Nanda, Gupta kula, Mauryya kings ; then the Rattas ruled it : after whom were the Chalukyas; then the Kalachuryya family; and after them the (Hoysala) Ballalas. '’ Another, at Kubatur, expressly states that Chandra Gupta ruled the Naga khanda in the south of the Bharata kshetra of Jambu dvipa : this is the Nagara khanda Seventy of so many inscriptions, of which Bandanikke (Bandalike in Shimoga) seems to have been the chief town. And further, a record to be noticed below says that the daughters of the Kadamba king were given in marriage to the Guptas.|sign=|source=Annual Report Of Mysore 1886 To 1903