Bhū-maṇḍala

Bhū-maṇḍalaBhū-maṇḍalaBOO-mun-duh-luhThe traditional cosmography of seven islands and seven oceans. is the chart's representation of the traditional arrangement of seven islands and seven oceans. JambūdvīpaJambūdvīpajum-BOO-dvee-puhThe central island of Bhū-maṇḍala, containing Bhārata-varṣa. is central, pivoting around Mount Meru at its axis, and Bhārata-varṣaBhārata-varṣaBAH-ruh-tuh VUR-shuhThe region within Jambūdvīpa noted as ideal for spiritual effort. within it is associated with human religious and spiritual opportunity.

Material-cosmology panel — the horizontal map of Bhūrloka's islands and oceans, a different view of the same ground the Fourteen Planetary Systems describe vertically.

It's the chart's only zone that places ordinary human life on the map at all — everywhere else here is a realm beyond material experience, but Bhārata-varṣaBhārata-varṣaBAH-ruh-tuh VUR-shuhThe region within Jambūdvīpa noted as ideal for spiritual effort. inside Bhū-maṇḍalaBhū-maṇḍalaBOO-mun-duh-luhThe traditional cosmography of seven islands and seven oceans. is where the tradition says the reader of this chart is actually standing.

This is sacred cosmography. It carries theological meaning and should not be forced into a modern geographic grid.