The Geography of the Puranas c8.92

c8.92

Similarly we must look for the Uttara Mānasa lake where Meru meets the northern east-west range, i.e., the Nila. A glance at any modern map of the Pāmirs will show that the Uttara Mānasa lake (or rather the Twin Lake resembling the twin lakes of Dakṣiṇa Mānasa) is certainly the Kara Kul of northern Pāmirs. The Kara Kul in fact consists of two lakes named as Payodā and Puṇḍarīka in the Purāṇas, adjoining each other just like the Mānsarovara and Rakṣasa Tāla of the Kailāsa region. Although the basin of these lakes is that of inland drainage (like that of Mānsarovara lakes), the Purāṇas extend the source of the rivers Maksu and Markus to these lakes. They assert that the rivers Mṛgayā and Mṛgakāntyā rise from it.