A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.2094

c5.2094

VINDHYA. The mountains which stretch across India, and divide what Manu calls the Madhya-desa or ‘middle land,’ the land of the Hindus, from the south, that is, they divide Hindustān from the Dakhin. The mountain is personified, and according to a legend he was jealous of the Himālaya, and called upon the sun to revolve round him as he did round Meru. When the sun refused the mountain began to raise its head to obstruct that luminary, and to tower above Himālaya and Meru. The gods invoked the aid of Agastya, the spiritual guide of Vindhya. That sage called upon the mountain to bow down before him, and afford him an easy passage to and from the south. It obeyed, and Agastya passed over. But he never returned, and so the mountain remains in its humbled condition, far inferior to the Himālaya.