Markandeyapurana 54
English (machine translation) 54
- Language
- English
Contents
- 54.32 — 2 parts
54.1
Krauṣṭuki said: / How many continents or oceans are there, and how many mountains, O twice-born? / How many realms are there, and what are their rivers, O sage?
54.2
And what is the measure of the great elements, and likewise of Lokāloka, / the overturning and the dimensions, and also the course of the moon and the sun?
54.3
Tell me all this in detail, O great sage.
54.4
Mārkaṇḍeya said: / The earth extends for fifty crores [of yojanas] in its entirety, O twice-born. / I shall describe its complete arrangement; hear it!
54.5
Those continents that were spoken of by me, beginning with Jambudvīpa, O twice-born, / and ending with Puṣkara, O illustrious one—hear their extent again.
54.6
Each continent is twice the size of the preceding continent: Jambu, Plakṣa, then Śālmala, / Kuśa, Krauñca, and likewise Śāka, and Puṣkaradvīpa itself.
54.7
They are surrounded on all sides by oceans of salt water, sugarcane juice, wine, clarified butter, / curds, milk, and fresh water, each doubling progressively in size.
54.8
I shall explain the configuration of Jambudvīpa; understand it from me. / It is one hundred thousand yojanas across in breadth and length in its circular form.
54.9
Himavat, Hemakūṭa, Ṛṣabha, and Meru itself, / Nīla, Śveta, and Śṛṅgin are the seven boundary mountains in it.
54.10
Two great mountains in the middle there are one hundred thousand yojanas in length. / The two mountains to the south of them, and those to the north,
54.11
are progressively less by ten thousand [yojanas] each. / All of them are two thousand [yojanas] in height, and equally wide.
54.12
Six boundary mountains in this [continent] enter into the ocean. / The land slopes down to the south and north, and is high and wide in the middle.
54.13
On one half of the altar there are three realms in the south, and three in the north; / between them lies Ilāvṛta, shaped like a half-moon.
54.14
East of that is Bhadrāśva, and Ketumāla is in the west; / in the middle of Ilāvṛta stands Meru, the golden mountain.
54.15
Eighty-four thousand [yojanas] is the height of that great mountain; / it penetrates sixteen [thousand] beneath, and is sixteen [thousand] wide [at the base].
54.16
Because it is shaped like a shallow saucer, it extends thirty-two [thousand] at the summit. / It is white, yellow, dark, and red, in the east and the other directions respectively,
54.17
corresponding to brahmin, vaiśya, śūdra, and kṣatriya according to its color. / Above it, likewise, are eight cities in the cardinal directions respectively,
54.18
belonging to the world-protectors beginning with Indra; in the middle of them is the assembly hall of Brahmā, / rising to a height of fourteen thousand yojanas.
54.19
Below it, of ten thousand [yojanas] in height, are the supporting mountains, / in order from the east and the other [directions]: Mandara, Gandhamādana,
54.20
Vipula, and Supārśva, adorned with banner-like trees: / a kadamba tree is the banner on Mandara, a jambu on Gandhamādana,
54.21
an aśvattha on Vipula, and a huge banyan tree on Supārśva. / These mountains are eleven hundred yojanas in extent.
54.22
Jaṭhara and Devakūṭa are two mountains in the eastern direction, / reaching to Nīla and Niṣadha, joined continuously to one another.
54.23
Niṣadha and Pāriyātra are on the western flank of Meru; / like the former two, these two also extend as far as Nīla and Niṣadha.
54.24
Kailāsa and Himavat are two great mountains in the south; / extending east and west, they are situated within the ocean.
54.25
Śṛṅgavat and Jārudhi are likewise two northern mountains; / just as in the south, so they are situated within the ocean.
54.26
These eight are called the limiting mountains, O best of the twice-born, / set in relation to the mountains beginning with Himavat and Hemakūṭa.
54.27
Nine thousand yojanas to the east, north, south, and north [again],
so too around Meru in Ilāvṛta in the four directions.
54.28
The fruits of the jambū tree on Mount Gandhamādana,
as large as the bodies of elephants, fall upon the mountain summit.
54.29
From their exudation arises the river known as Jambū,
where the gold called jāmbūnada is produced.
54.30
Having circled Meru, that river enters again into the root of the jambū tree,
O tiger among brahmins, as it is drunk by those people.
54.31
In Bhadrāśva, Viṣṇu is the horse-headed one; in Bhārata, he exists as the tortoise;
in Ketumāla, the boar; and likewise, in the north, he has the form of the fish.
54.32
From the arrangement of the asterisms in them, regions are situated
in all four, O best of brahmins, indicating the affliction caused by planets.
54.32.p1
Thus ends the fifty-fourth chapter, entitled 'Description of Jambūdvīpa in the Description of the Universe,' in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
54.32.p2
Chapter Fifty-Five
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit