non-world (Aloka); they reside on the top of the
world; they leave their bodies here (below) and go there, on reaching
perfection.

"Twelve _yojanas_ above the (Vimana) Sarvartha is the place called
Ishatpragbhara, which has the form of an umbrella; (there the
perfected souls go). It is forty-five hundred thousand _yojanas_
long, and as many broad, and it is somewhat more than three times as
many in circumference. Its thickness is eight _yojanas_, it is
greatest in the middle, and decreases towards the margin, till it is
thinner than the wing of a fly. This place, by nature pure, consisting
of white gold, resembles in form an open umbrella, as has been said by
the best of Jinas.

"(Above it) is a pure blessed place (called ['S]ita), which is white
like a conch-shell, the _anka_-stone, and Kunda-flowers; [Footnote:
The gourd Lagenaria vulgaris.] a _yojana_ thence is the end of the
world. The perfected souls penetrate the sixth part of the uppermost
_kro['s]a_ of the (above-mentioned) _yojana_. There, at the
top of the world reside the blessed perfected souls, rid of all
transmigration, and arrived at the excellent state of perfection. The
dimension of a perfected soul is two-thirds of the height which the
individual had in his last existence.

"The perfected souls considered singly--_egatte[n.]a_ (as
individuals)--have a beginning but no end, considered
collectively--_puhutte[n.]a_ (as a class)--they have neither a
beginning nor an end. They have no (visible) form, they consist of
life throughout, they are developed into knowledge and faith, they
have crossed the boundary of the Sa[.m]sara, and reached the excellent
state of perfection."

* * * * *

Like both the Brahma[n.]s and Buddhists, the Jainas have a series of
hells--Narakas, numbering even which they name--

1. Ratnaprabha;
2. ['S]arkaraprabha;
3. Valukaprabha;
4. Pa[.n]kaprabha;
5. Dhumaprabha;
6. Tamaprabha;
7. Tamatamaprabha.

[Footnote: _Ratnasagara_, bh. II, p. 607; _Jour. As_. u.s. p. 263.]

Those who inhabit the seventh hell have a stature of 500 poles, and in
each above that they are half the height of the one below it.

Everything in the system as to stature of gods and living beings, their
ages and periods of transmigration is reduced to artificial numbers.

The Jaina Gachhas.

About the middle of the tenth century there flourished a Jaina h