The Geography of the Puranas c8.181

c8.181

Statement (c) can now be examined in the light of these observations. The Purāṇics are right in saying: ‘on the several peaks of Jarudhi mountain these are thousands of cities of Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, etc.’ The sheltered and well-watered intermontane valleys and piedmont belts of the ranges which have been identified as Jarudhi have always formed a part of the most populated northernmost belt of Asia containing compact settlements including large and flourishing nodal towns where routes from the east, west and south converged. Even now, large population centres of Kazakhstan, i.e., Jambu!, Frunze, Alma Ata, Tokmak, Rybachya, etc. lie in this belt. Statement (c) also affirms that there is a sacred lake Ānanda Jala of clear water in the central part of the Jarudhi range. Its size and the picture of the lake presented by the Purāṇas at once suggest that Ānanda Jala is lake Issak-Kul or Temurtu of the classics. Hueng-Tsang visited this lake which he calls L. Tsing and describes it as a limpid sheet of clear water, bluish black in colour and bitter salt in taste (although it is not so saltish as he says). The name of the lake literally means 'Hot Sea' signifying that the 'sacred' water of the lake gave a feeling of warmth to those weary travellers who came down to it through biting cold winds from across the encircling snow-covered mountains which rise abruptly to about 9,000 feet from the level of the lake. The Purāṇic legend that a dangerous Nāgapati named Canada lives there is fairly old. The legend probably originated and for a long time persisted among the Chinese who believed in the existence of a 'Dragon Lake' north of the Great Snowy Mountain, the Tien-Shan.