Cosmology in Jainism

The Jain universe is uncreated, eternal and finite in extent. Nobody made it, nobody governs it, and it will not end.

It is described as the Loka, shaped like a standing human figure, divided into upper, middle and lower regions, and surrounded by infinite empty space in which nothing exists. Time turns through descending and ascending half-cycles, each of six ages, in which human stature, lifespan and moral capacity rise and fall; twenty-four Tirthankaras appear in each. The middle world contains the continents and oceans, and the small part of it in which human beings can attain liberation. The scheme is set out in extraordinary numerical detail in the Jain karmic and cosmological literature.

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