 Well, the title of my talk today, Can the Lifespans of Rishabha, Bharata, Shri Ramzanar, tell us something about the history of the concept of Meru, is related to my work in progress on my doctoral dissertation, Mount Meru in Bramanical Sacred Geography, some historical questions raised by the introduction of the concept of Mount Meru into the Sanskrit epics and Puranas, which I'm writing under the supervision of Professor Johannes Bronkhorst at the University of Lausanne. My dissertation focuses on the historical implications of the late introduction of the concept of Mount Meru into Bramanical Literature and seeks to address questions related to its origin and why it was introduced from a sociopolitical as well as religious point of view. I will begin today with a brief introduction to my topic and then divide my presentation into two parts. The first part will present examples of the number 84 and its multiples, a little bit of mathematics early in the morning, which is a special group of numbers associated with cosmological phenomenon or entities found in the Jainah and Buddhist canons. And the second part will present examples of the concept of Mount Meru, also found in the Jainah and Buddhist canons. I will conclude with some brief remarks about the historical implications of the late introduction of the concept of Mount Meru into Bramanical Literature. For textual examples to support my claim that the number 84 and its multiples and the concept of Mount Meru are absent from Bramanical Literature prior to the Bishma Parvan of the Mahabharata, I have added appendixes to the pre-conference draft of this paper. And the relevant passage from the Bishma Parvan of the Mahabharata is also appended to the pre-conference draft. I look forward to your questions and comments. The lifespans of Vrishaba, Bharata, Suryamsa and Arah, as well as the height of Mount Meru, are designated by a special group of numbers, the number 84 and its multiples, which are associated with cosmological phenomenon or entities of importance to the Jainah tradition. Furthermore, this group of numbers and the concept of Mount Meru defined hereafter as the mountain at the center of the earth and the universe around which the heavenly bodies revolve. These two concepts are prominent in both the Jainah and Buddhist canons, yet strikingly absent from Bramanical Literature prior to the Bishma Parvan of the Mahabharata. Provisionally, and I underline the word provisionally, this strongly suggests that the concept of Mount Meru may have entered Bramanical Literature under the influence of the culture out of which Jainism and Buddhism arose, the culture, of course, of Greater Magadha. The important connection between the Tirthankaras and Mount Meru is the testitude in passages of the Jainah Canon, which described the consecration ceremony for every newborn Tirthankara infant, performed on lustration platforms by Indra and the gods in the Pandaka Forest on the summit of Mount Meru. And this is what we saw so beautifully yesterday in the paintings that the Tirthankaras are always consecrated on the summit of Mount Meru. Also in passages which describe the idols of the Tirthankaras located in temples in the forest and the four forests on Mount Meru. However, another less obvious connection between the Tirthankaras and Mount Meru is a special group of numbers, the number 84 and its multiples, which are associated with the extraordinarily long lifespans of Rishaba, Shreyamsa, and Arah, and the extraordinary height of the four of the five Jainah Merus. For example, Rishaba's earthly lifespan is held to have been 8,400,000 pruva, and the two Merus on the island continent of Datakikanda as well as the two Merus on the half-island continent of Prashkarada are held to rise 84,000 yojanas above the earth, respectively. The number 84 and its multiples and the concept of Mount Meru in Jainah and Buddhist literature are relevant to the study of the history of the concept of Mount Meru in Brahmanical literature for the following reasons. First, the number 84 and its multiples, when they are associated with cosmological phenomenon or entities, and the concept of Mount Meru are strikingly absent from Vedic literature, while occurring in Jainah and Buddhist literature from the start. Secondly, the main cosmological features of the Brahmanical Meru in the Bishma Parvon of the Mahabharata correspond to those of the Jainah and Buddhist Mount Merus, namely the height of 84,000 yojanas and the location at the very center of the earth and the universe, and around which the sun, the moon, the planets, and stars revolve. Furthermore, the late introduction of the concept of Mount Meru into Brahmanical literature marks the shift from Vedic to Epic and Paranic cosmology at a time when Brahmanical contacts with Buddhism, Jainism, and their region of origin, Greater Magadha, were possible and presumably established. Thus, provisionally, these factors suggest that the concept may have been borrowed from the religious traditions of Greater Magadha. It is to be noted that this hypothesis is not based upon research into the symbolism of the number 84 and its multiples. For although these numbers are very prominent, their significance is nowhere explained. Thus, regardless of any symbolic meaning, the number 84 and its multiples may have possibly but not necessarily had for the various religious traditions in the early historical period. There is evidence for these numbers associated with cosmological phenomenon or entities in the Jainah and Buddhist canons. And none for them in Brahmanical literature prior to the Mahabharata. This alone, I believe, is a sufficient basis for the study of their historical implications. My hypothesis runs counter to that of Wuli Bal Kierfels, found in his major study of Indian cosmology, the Cosmographie der Inde Nacktenkellen Dargesteld. In his study, Kierfels compares the Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jainah cosmological systems and concludes that the early Brahmanical cosmology formed the basis of the later cosmology, found not only in the epics and piranhas, but in the Buddhist and Jainah systems as well. Suzuko Ohira also adheres to Kierfels' point of view and claims in her chronological analysis of the Bhagavati Sutra, both Jainahs and Buddhists built their cosmological features after the models of the Hindus. However, in a recent article by Asco Parpola entitled The Beginnings of Indian Astronomy, with reference to a parallel development in China, Parpola underlines that certain aspects of Brahmanical cosmology, such as astral names, appear rarely in Vedic literature, yet frequently in the epics and piranhas, and are traceable to non-Vedic traditions from greater Magadha. The following examples that I will present today are found in the earliest Jainah and Buddhist literature, and this suggests to me, at least provisionally, that the concept of Mount Meru may also be an aspect of Brahmanical cosmology traceable to the religious traditions of greater Magadha. So these are the following examples concerned with the number 84 and its multiples. And in relation now to the lifespans of Rishabha, Bharata, Shreyamsa, and Arah. The Kalpasutra, a Shwetambhara canonical text, states that Rishabha's earthly lifespan was 8,400,000 Purva. The Jambudvipa Prajnapati, the sixth upanga of the Shwetambhara Canon, also attests to 8,400,000 Purva for Rishabha's lifespan and the same number of Purva for Bharata's lifespan. The universal history, which is a non-canonical text, confirms Rishabha's and Bharata's lifespans, again of 8,400,000 Purva, and mentions Shreyamsa's lifespan of 8,400,000 years and Arah's of 84,000 years. The Vyakya Prajnapati, or Bhagavati, the fifth upanga of the Shwetambhara Canon, states more generally that the lifespans of Naradeva, Chakravartins, last a minimum of 700 years and a maximum of 8,400,000 Purva, and those of Devahideva, Chitankaras, a minimum of 72 years and a maximum of 8,400,000 Purva. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that in both the Shwetambhara and Digambhara traditions, the number 84 and its multiples are omnipresent in the category of calculable kanita time measures. Their function is to designate calculable time periods of great magnitude within the Avasarpini down-moving and Utsarpini up-moving, to have motions of Jaina cosmic time. Hence, the use of these numbers for designating the extraordinarily long lifespans of Rishabha, Bharata, Shrayamsa and Arah. The textual paradigms for the Shwetambhara Ganesha time measures are found in the Dhyakya Prajnapati and the Jambudvipa Prajnapati. And those of the Digambhara Ganesha time measures are found in the Triloka Prajnapati, Trilokasara and Trilokya Dipika. The Dhyakya Prajnapati and Jambudvipa Prajnapati cite the Gallica time measures from the smallest unit of time, one samaya, up to the largest calculable unit, one shesha prahelika. And from the time unit of 84, Varshashata Sahasra upwards, the number 84 and its multiples are omnipresent. And this is what the system looks like in part. And here I am showing this to you because it is apparent to me that this is a system. Now Walter Schubring is the only person that I know of and perhaps somebody else here can tell me something else today that talks about the number 84 and its multiples. And when he talks about it, he says, well, this is a number which is used by the giants when they don't have another number to reflect something that is not based on fact. And he just brushes it off like that. Whereas this seems to me to show that this is a system, this is something, a concept which has been developed. And if this is the case, then the mention, which I will explain later, of the height of Mount Meru in the Mahabharata, the first time that the number is used with cosmological significance in the Brahmanical literature is mentioning the height of Mount Meru as 84,000 eugenas high. But here you have something much more developed and systematic. Now I will talk about, give some examples of the number 84,000 and the height of Mount Meru. The Digambara Triloka Prajnapati states that there are five mirrors in all. One on Jambu Vipa, which rises 99,000 eugenas above the earth and descends 1,000 eugenas below it. But then there are two on the continent, island continent of Datakikanda, which both rise 84,000 eugenas above the earth and descend 1,000 eugenas below it. And two more on the half island continent of Pushkarada which have the same height, that is 84,000 eugenas respectively. The Trilokya Sara provides the same information as the Trilokya Prajnapati. In the Pali Khanate, the Angutara Nikaya state-set Siniru is 84,000 eugenas high and wide and that it descends 84,000 eugenas beneath the sea. There are other significant occurrences of the number 84,000 in Buddhist literature. For example, there are the 84,000 Dharmaskandas of the Buddha, that is the portions of the teaching relating to the laws. And the 84,000 stupas containing the relics of Shakyamuni, which were distributed by Ashoka out of the original eight portions. The examples cited above for the number 84,000 are significant because the Bhishma Parvon of the Mahabharata and the Puranas state that Meru rises 84,000 eugenas above the earth and descends 16,000 eugenas below it. However, it is noteworthy that the height given for Mount Meru in the Mahabharata is the first occurrence of the number 84 in its multiples with cosmological significance in Brahmanical literature. And now I'll go on to some examples of the number 8,400,000. The Vyakya Prajnapati lists the seven regions of the lower world, Aheloga, and gives the number of places of hell, Nirayavasa, for each respective region. The total number of places of hell is 8,400,000. Also in the Vyakya Prajnapati, the number 8,400,000 refers to the number of Mahakapas through which a person must pass before he can reach salvation. This is reminiscent of the 8,400,000 Kalpas a person must pass through according to the Ajivikas. The relevant passage attributed to the teachings of Makhalikosala is found in the Samana Phalasuta of the Buddhist diga, Nikaya. Finally, Padmanat S. Jayani, referring to the Tathvata Sutra and its commentary on the Tathvata Siddhi, draws attention to quote the fact that the number 8,400,000 has been retained in the Jainist system to the present day, although in a significantly altered context, another context in the Ajivikas. This number is for the Jainas, the sum total of conceivable birth situations, Yoni, in which souls may find themselves again and again as they circle through samsara. Now I will turn to just a few examples concerning the concept of Mount Meru. The Jambavita Prajnapati describes Mount Meru as being situated in the middle of the innermost continent of Jambavita, the center of the earth and the universe, and as the mountain around which the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars revolve. However, the concept of a central mountain, around which the heavenly bodies revolve, is absent from Vedic literature and only introduced into Brahmanical literature in the Bhishma Parvan of the Mahabharata. In the seventh chapter of the Jambavita Prajnapati, an extensive description of the movements of the heavenly bodies are given in relation to their respective distances from Mount Meru. The Surya Prajnapati and the Triloka Prajnapati also attest to the sun, the moon and the sun and the moon revolving around Meru. And the Kalpasutra mentions the concept in one of the 14 dreams of Trishala, the soon-to-be mother of Mahavira. On the Buddhist side, the Pallikanen also attest to Mount Meru because it's Siniru or Neru. There is a Siniru Sutta in the Samyuta Nikaya and a Neru Jataka. In Buddhist literature, Meru is associated with two systems. The first is the Chakravala or single-world system which describes the cosmos as a flat disk with heavens and meditation realms above and hells below. There are seven concentric golden mountain, did something change, no. There are seven concentric golden mountain ranges with Mount Meru at the center and the Chakravala, a circular mountain range made of iron lies of the outermost perimeter of the disk. The second system is known as Sahasra cosmology which has a thousand universes, each with its own Meru. Seven concentric circle rings of mountains, a sun and a moon. In both systems, the wind, the moon, the sun and the stars revolve around Mount Meru. So just some concluding remarks then. The examples presented here are far from exhaustive but attest nonetheless to the prominence of the number 84 and its multiples and the concept of Mount Meru in the earliest Jaina and Buddhist literature as well as the concept of 8,400,000 great kalpas in Ajivikism. Provisionally, one can say that this strongly suggests that the concept of Mount Meru may have entered Brahmanical literature under the influence of the spiritual culture of Greater Magadar. It is possible that the concept of Mount Meru was introduced into Brahmanical literature as part of the overall response to the crisis which Brahmanism faced under the Nandas and the Marias. At that time, Buddhism, Jainism and other heterodox sects were favored by rulers over Brahmanism. A situation which threatened Brahmanism's survival. Brahmanism responded by developing various strategies to regain its form of prominence in society. The reworking of Vedic cosmology by introducing key concepts like Mount Meru may have been one of those strategies. For example, the heavenly Ganges was said to fall down to earth on the summit of Mount Meru and the heavenly Ganges, which actually refers to the Milky Way, was held to be the main source of the supernatural powers of the Brahmins. And it was the Brahmins who knew how to manipulate and control these supernatural powers for the benefit or the detriment of rulers. This was one of the ways that Brahmins could regain their power. That is, by making themselves indispensable to rulers who believed that the Brahmins possessed the supernatural powers that they needed to conquer their enemies, protect their kingdoms, obtain reign, mail progenitor and a place in heaven. From the Mahabharata onwards, the concept of Mount Meru has remained unchanged and prominent in Brahmanical literature and sacred geography to the present day. Thank you.