Ages
Dushama-sushama
Also Known As The Fourth Ara
Position 4 in Its Cycle
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Dushama-sushama is the fourth of the six ara of the avasarpini, the descending half of the beginningless Jain cosmic time cycle, an age more unhappy than happy and the last of the four ara measured in the largest cosmic time units before the scale shifts to ordinary years. Jain doctrine holds that liberation, moksha, is possible only during this ara and the one before it, Sushama-dushama, out of all twelve ara in the full cycle. This entry names its position in the cross traditional cycle of world ages this atlas already tracks; the doctrine page elsewhere in this atlas carries the fuller treatment of the avasarpini and utsarpini cycle itself.
Facts
Identity
SymbolNo individual glyph marks the age on its own; Jain tradition instead pictures all twelve ara of the avasarpini and utsarpini together as spokes on a single wheel of time, kalachakra, with Dushama-sushama occupying the fourth spoke of the descending half. 1 Dating
Proposed DatingMeasured in sagaropama, an inconceivably large unit of cosmic time, at one crore of crore sagaropama by Jain reckoning, the shortest of the four ara measured on this scale. No source in the tradition attempts a calendar conversion, and the atlas does not invent one. 1 Attributions
TraditionJain cosmological texts including the Tattvartha Sutra and its commentaries, which set out the avasarpini's six ara. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Belongs to Tradition
The fourth of the six ara of the avasarpini, the other of the two ara in which Jain doctrine holds liberation possible.
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