Cycles of Time: What Abu'l Fazl Learned About the Jain Universe

The Akbarnama, Abu'l Fazl's monumental history of Emperor Akbar's reign, is far more than a simple chronicle of battles and courtly life. It's a window into the diverse intellectual landscape of 16th-century India, reflecting Akbar's own insatiable curiosity about the world and its many philosophies. Abu'l Fazl, his trusted advisor and chronicler, meticulously recorded not just political events but also details about the customs, sciences, and beliefs he encountered. Among these fascinating inclusions is a description of the Jain concept of time, offering a glimpse into a worldview vastly different from the linear histories common elsewhere.

Unpacking Time's Grand Design

Abu'l Fazl, drawing on information from "learned and pious Indians," introduces the Jain (referred to in the text as "Sīārhā" or "Syauras") understanding of time, known as kāl. Unlike a simple progression, Jain time moves in immense cosmic cycles. They divide time into two main periods:

Avasarpiṇī (Descending Cycle): A period that begins with great joy and gradually declines into sorrow.
Utsarpiṇī (Ascending Cycle): The opposite cycle, starting with grief and ascending towards happiness.

Each of these vast cycles is further broken down into six distinct parts, called āras. Each āra has a name reflecting the prevailing conditions:

Avasarpiṇī Āras:
1. Sukhmān-sukhmān: Joy upon joy, happiness upon happiness.
2. Sukhmān: A time of felicity and joy.
3. Sukhām (Sukhmān) Dukhmān: Sorrow begins to mix with joy.
4. Dukhmān-sukhmān: Joy and freedom from care emerge within grief.
5. Dukhmān: A time of grief and sorrow.
6. Dukhmān-dukhman: Sorrow upon sorrow.

The āras of the Utsarpiṇī cycle mirror these names but occur in reverse order, starting with Dukhmān-dukhman and ending with Sukhmān-sukhmān.

Time Scales Beyond Comprehension

What truly sets the Jain concept apart is the staggering scale of these āras. Abu'l Fazl details the immense durations using Indian numerical terms:

100,000 = lak
10 laks = prayāt
10 prayāts = krör
100 krörs = arb (Note: The text mentions 100 krörs, but other sources suggest 10 krörs for arb)
10 arbs = kharba
10 kharbas = nikharb
10 nikharbs = mahāsaräj or padm
10 padms = sankha
10 sankhas = samudr or köräkör

The durations of the first three āras of Avasarpiṇī are given in korākōr-sāgar, a term that itself represents an almost unimaginable number. The fourth āra is slightly less than one korākōr by 42,000 years. The fifth and sixth āras, the current period according to the Jains Abu'l Fazl consulted, are much shorter, each lasting 21,000 years. At the time of the Akbarnama's writing, a little over 2,000 years of the fifth āra were believed to have passed.

The Abyss and the Hair: Visualizing Eternity

To help grasp the immensity of a sāgar, Abu'l Fazl recounts a thought experiment described by the Jains. Imagine an abyss (or well) ten miles deep, wide, and long. This abyss is filled with the finest possible hair – specifically, hair from a seven-day-old yugali infant (beings from an earlier, more perfect age, whose hair is 4096 times finer than that of a child from Delhi). If one single segment of this hair is removed every hundred years, the time it takes to empty the abyss is called a palipam. A sāgar is then ten samudr (or korākōr) of palipams. This analogy powerfully conveys a scale of time that dwarfs human experience and conventional historical records.

Spiritual Leaders Across Ages

Within these vast cycles, the Jains believe that 24 venerable spiritual leaders (ādam) emerge from the hidden realm into the manifest world during each six-āra period to guide humanity. The first of these is called Adinath (also Raghunath), and the last is Mahāvīra. Their periods of influence vary, with Adinath's sway lasting for fifty krors of laks of sāgaras, while Mahāvīra's lasts for 20,000 years (of which 2,000 had passed when Abu'l Fazl was writing). The belief is that these 24 figures have appeared and will appear many times throughout the endless cycles of time.

Why Include This?

Abu'l Fazl's inclusion of such detailed philosophical and cosmological concepts highlights the intellectual environment of Akbar's court. It shows a genuine interest in understanding the diverse belief systems within the empire, moving beyond mere tolerance to active inquiry. For Abu'l Fazl, recording this wasn't just about documenting history; it was about capturing the multifaceted nature of reality and the different ways humans have sought to understand the universe and their place within it. While he notes the vastness of these timelines and his own cautious approach to accepting them, he presents them respectfully as the deeply held beliefs of a significant community.

Preserving Ancient Wisdom

Today, Abu'l Fazl's account serves as a valuable historical record, preserving not just the political narrative of the Mughal Empire but also fragments of ancient Indian philosophy as understood and documented by a contemporary scholar. It reminds us of the long tradition of complex thought in India and the importance of cross-cultural intellectual exchange. The Jain concept of time, with its immense cycles and vivid analogies, remains a profound meditation on eternity, challenging our conventional perspectives and underscoring the enduring human quest to measure and understand the passage of existence.