Some Jaina Canonical Sutras c22.7

c22.7

portions. It is 526 1/10 leagues in extent.¹ The text speaks of six varsaparvatas in Jambudvīpa, namely, Himavān, Hemakūṭa, Nisadha, Nila, Śveta and Śṛṅgavān, enumerated from south to north, each forming a long range from sea to sea. The Jambudīvapannaṭṭi connects the origin of the Ganges with a flow through the eastern outlet of a great lake in the Lesser Himalayan range and that of Sindhu with a flow through its western outlet. It speaks of a similar lake in the Greater Himalayan range. The lake Anotatta has, like the lotus lake, four outlets on its four sides, from each of which flows a river. The four rivers that flow from the four outlets of the lotus lake (Padmahrada) are Gaṅgā, Rohitā, Sindhu, and Harikāntā.² Many rivers fall into the Ganges through which they enter the eastern sea,³ not directly. In this text we have mention of eight peaks of the Greater Himalayan range, of eleven of the Lesser range and of nine of the Vaitādhya range which divides India into two halves. The eight peaks of the Greater Himalayan range are Haimavatapati, Rohitanadīsurī, Harivarsapati, Hrīsurī, Mahāhimavadadhisthātr, Harikāntānadīsurī, Siddhāyatana, and Vaidūrya.⁴ The eleven peaks of the Lesser range comprise Kumāradeva, Siddhāyatana, etc.⁵ The list of nine peaks associated with the Vaitādhya range begins with Siddhāyatana and ends in Tamisraguhā.⁶ The text derives the name of Bhāratavarsa from king Bharata whose sovereignty was established over it. Its shape is described as one like that of a half-moon. The Bhāratavarsa is described as a peninsula with seas on its three sides, east, south and west.⁷ Kuśāvatī, the capital of Dakṣinakośala, may have been precisely the city, which, under the name of Ayodhyā, is associated with the Vaitādhya range along which there were sixty Vidyādhara towns.⁸ Magadha is called Magahatitthakhetta in this text. The text seems right in suggesting that there were two lakes each called Mahāpadmahrada, one connected with the Ksudrahimavanta or western Himalayan range and the other connected with the Mahāhimavanta or eastern Himalayan range.