Jain units of time range from an infinitesimally small, indivisible measurement of time known as a samayā[1] to innumerable lengths of time measured in sagaropama and palyopama years, including cycles of cosmic time (kalachakras) that repeat general events in Jain cosmology. Each cycle is divided into two eras of equal duration described as the avasarpini and the utsarpini. The former is a descending era in which virtue gradually decreases. The latter is an ascending era in which the reverse takes place.[2][3] The present era is stated to be the former.[4]
^Per Jain cosmology: Sirsapahelika, or 10194, is the highest measurable number in Jainism. Higher than that is a palyopama (pit-measured years), explained by an analogy of a pit: a hollow pit of 8 x 8 x 8 miles tightly filled with hair particles of a seven-day-old newborn. [A single hair cut into eight pieces seven times results in 2,097,152 particles]. One particle is removed after every 100 years, the time taken to empty the whole pit = 1 palyopama. (1 palyopama = countless years.) Hence a palyopama is at least 10194 years. A sāgaropama is 10 quadrillion palyopamas, or more than 10210 years.
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