How an ancient religion maps the world @WellcomeCollection
How an ancient religion maps the world  @WellcomeCollection
Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Jambūdvīpa is the name for the human realm in Jainism, an ancient and enduring religion with its origins in India. In this video, our engagement facilitator Sana introduces us to an extraordinary illustration of this world and the animals, landscapes and elements we share it with: each seen by Jainism as possessing souls like our own. This wonderfully detailed map held in our museum's collection is arranged in concentric circles, linked by crescent-shaped rivers and annotated with tiny calligraphy.

Credit: Jambūdvīpa, the central continent of the middle world in Jain cosmology. Unknown maker, c. 19th century. Watercolour. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection. wellcomecollection.org/works/f4kg3zbd.

Music: "Ancient Winds" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

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How an ancient religion maps the world

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