Astikaya

views updated

Astikaya (‘it exists’ + ‘a body’). The five elements of Jain ontology. According to Jains, there are five elements which pervade the universe (loka) and which keep it in being: (i) jīva, ‘life-permeation’; (ii) dharma, ‘movement’; (iii) pudgala, ‘atomic individuals’; (iv) ākāśa, ‘space’; all of these making up the fifth category of non-jīva, ajīva.