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.s6.205.2

c5.s6.205.2

Seeing the many hundreds of millions of men that had come together at Kurujāṅgala to lay down their very lives for the sake of the earth, Dhṛtarāshṭra inquired of Sañjaya after the attributes of Earth, and the details about the countries and cities from which they had come. Sañjaya discoursed on the merits of the earth, and the various classes of creatures inhabiting it. Their twenty-four constituents are described as Gāyatrī (VI, 4). Dhṛtarāshṭra inquired about the rivers, mountains, and provinces of the earth, and their dimensions. Sañjaya spoke of the five elements and their attributes, earth being the foremost. Then he began the description of the dvīpa of Sudarśana (VI, 5). Sañjaya discoursed on the six mountains (*varshaparvatāḥ*, B.) that extend from the eastern to the western ocean, and are the resort of Si. and Cā.: Himavat, etc. (β), and the varshas between them—Bhārata-varsha, etc. (γ); Malyavat, Gandhamādana; Meru (description); the four islands beside Meru—Bhadrāśva, etc. (δ); the bird Sumukha (δ); on Meru sport D., G., As., Rā., and Aps., and Brahmān, Rudra, and Cakra perform sacrifices; Tumburu, etc. (ε), adore the gods with hymns; the seven Ṛshis and Kaśyapa repair thither on every parvan-day (i.e. the day of full moon and that of new moon); upon the summit is Ućanas with the Daityas; the jewels, etc., come from Meru, one-fourth part being enjoyed by Kubera, who gives only one-sixteenth to men. On the northern side of Meru is a forest of karṇikāras;