An Index to the Names in the Mahabharata, with Short Explanations and a Concordance to the Bombay and Calcutta Editions and P. C. Roy's Translation c5.s5.139

c5.s5.139

Hemakūṭa. § 890b (Tīrthayātrāp.): On the mountain H. the utterance of words (so PCR., who follows the various reading cited by Nil., "vācā yatra bhavan," instead of "vatābaddha bhavan") caused the gathering of clouds and stones by thousands. There the recitation of the sacred scriptures was heard, but nobody was seen; in the evening and the morning there was seen fire, and biting flies would interrupt the austerities. Lomaça explained that formerly on this Rṣabhakūṭa (i.e. Hemakūṭa) dwelt a great and resentful ṛṣi, who was many hundred years old, and was named Rṣabha. When practising austerities he had been spoken to by others, and in wrath he caused the mountain to throw stones on him who should utter any word there, and forbade the wind to have any noise. Therefore, as soon as a man utters any word here he is forbidden by a roaring cloud. Formerly, when the gods came to the Nandā, many men came to see them, but the gods with Indra at their head did not like to be seen, and therefore they rendered the spot inaccessible by raising obstructions in the form of mountains, and from that day onwards men could not see that hill, far less ascend it. Lomaça further said: "Here all the gods performed the best sacrifices, and the marks thereof may be seen to this day, the grass resembling kuça grass, and many trees resembling yūpas; the gods and ṛṣis dwell there to this day, and it is their fire which is seen in the evening and the morning. By bathing