Vishnupurana 2.2.10

The Vishnu Purana: A System of Hindu Mythology and Tradition 2.2.10

Language: English

2.2.10

Meru, then, is confined between the mountains Níla and Nishadha (on the north and south), and between Mályaván and Gandhamádana (on the west and east): it lies between them like the pericarp of a lotus. The countries of Bhárata, Ketumála, Bhadráśwa, and Uttarakuru lie, like leaves of the lotus of the world, exterior to the boundary mountains. Jat́hara and Devakút́a are two mountain ranges, running north and south, and connecting the two chains of Nishadha and Níla. Gandhamádana and Kailása extend, east and west, eighty Yojanas in breadth, from sea to sea. Nishadha and Páriyátra are the limitative mountains on the west, stretching, like those on the east, between the Níla and Nishadha ranges: and the mountains Triśringa and Járudhi are the northern limits of Meru, extending, east and west, between the two seas. Thus I have repeated to you the mountains described by great sages as the boundary mountains, situated in pairs, on each of the four sides of Meru. Those also, which have been mentioned as the filament mountains (or spurs), Śítánta and the rest, are exceedingly delightful. The vallies embosomed amongst them are the favourite resorts of the Siddhas and Chárańas: and there are situated upon them agreeable forests, and pleasant cities, embellished with the palaces of Vishńu, Lakshmí, Agni, Súrya, and other deities, and peopled by celestial spirits; whilst the Yakshas, Rákshasas, Daityas, and Dánavas pursue their pastimes in the vales. These, in short, are the regions of Paradise, or Swarga, the seats of the righteous, and where the wicked do not arrive even after a hundred births.

2.2.10.n1

The text applies the latter name so variously as to cause confusion: it is given to one of the four buttresses of Meru, that on the south; to one of the filament mountains, on the west; to a range of boundary mountains, on the south; and to the Varsha of Ketumála: here another mountain range is intended, or a chain running north and south, upon the east of Ilávrita, connecting the Níla and Nishadha ranges. Accordingly the Váyu states it to be 34000 Yojanas in extent; that is, the diameter of Meru 16000, and the breadth of Ilávrita on each side of it, or together 18000. A similar range, that of Mályaván, bounds Ilávrita on the west. It was probably to avoid the confusion arising from similarity of. nomenclature, that the author of the Bhágavata substituted different names for Gandhamádana in the other instances, calling the buttress, as we have seen, Merumandara; the southern forest, Sarvatobhadra; and the filament mountain, Hansa; restricting the term Gandhamádana to the eastern range: a correction, it may be remarked, corroborative of a subsequent date.

2.2.10.n2

These eight mountains are similarly enumerated in the Bhágavata and Váyu, but no mention is made in them of any seas, and it is clear that the eastern and western oceans cannot be intended, as the mountains Mályavat and Gandhamádana intervene. The commentator would seem to understand 'Arńava' as signifying 'mountain,' as he says between the seas means within Mályavat and Gandhamádana; The Bhágavata describes these eight mountains as circling Meru for 18000 Yojanas in each direction, leaving, according to the commentator, an interval of a thousand Yojanas between them and the base of the central mountain, and being 2000 high, and as many broad: they may be understood to be the exterior barriers of Meru, separating it from Ilávritta. The names of these mountains, according to the Bhágavata, are Jat́hara and Devakút́a on the east, Pavana and Parípátra on the west, Triśringa and Makara on the north, and Kailása and Karavíra on the south. Without believing it possible to verify the position of these different creations of the legendary geography of the Hindus, it can scarcely admit of doubt that the scheme was suggested by imperfect acquaintance with the actual character of the country, by the four great ranges, the Altai, Muztag or Thian-shan, Ku-en-nun, and Himálaya, which traverse central Asia in a direction from east to west, with a greater or less inclination from north to south, which are connected or divided by many lofty transverse ridges, which enclose several large lakes, and which give rise to the great rivers that water Siberia, China, Tartary, and Hindustan. (Humboldt on the mountains of Central Asia, and Ritter. Geogr. Asia.)

Linked texts (1)

Viṣṇupurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit