国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

> > > >
カラー New!IIIFカラー高解像度 白黒高解像度 PDF   日本語 English
0102 Southern Tibet : vol.1
南チベット : vol.1
Southern Tibet : vol.1 / 102 ページ(白黒高解像度画像)

New!引用情報

doi: 10.20676/00000263
引用形式選択: Chicago | APA | Harvard | IEEE

OCR読み取り結果

 

 

54

are pressed like olives or grapes, in consequence of which the rain pours down, and the clouds never pass beyond the mountains ... This rule seldom has an exception; however, a certain amount of extraordinary meteorological occurrances is peculiar to every province of India.»

He has not much to give us as far as positive new orographical knowledge is concerned. He believes in the detailed orography of the Matsya-Purana, and enumerates the great mountains round Meru: the Himavant, always covered with

Nila, Hemakuta, the golden, Nishada, N ila, the peacock-like, of many colours, Sveta and Sringavant; the region between the Himavant and the Sringavant is called Kailâsa, the play-ground of the Rakshasa and Apsaras.'

Again having quoted the Matsya-Purana and the Vaya-Purana in connection with the rivers rising in the mountains of Himavant, he returns for a while to the solid ground of sound reality, saying:

»The reader must imagine that the mountains form the boundaries of India. The northern mountains are the snowy Himavant. In their centre lies Kashmir, and they are connected with the country of the Turks. This mountain region becomes colder and colder till the end of the inhabitable world and Mount Meru. Because this mountain has its chief extension in longitude, the rivers rising on its north side flow through the countries of the Turks, Tibetans, Khazars, and Slavonians, and fall into the Sea of Jurjân (the Caspian Sea), or the sea of Khwârizm (the Aral Sea), or the Sea Pontus (the Black Sea), or the northern Sea of the Slavonians (the Baltic); whilst the rivers rising on the southern slopes flow through India and fall into the great ocean, some reaching it single, others combined. — The rivers of India come either from the cold mountains in the north or from the eastern mountains, both of which in reality form one and the same chain, extending towards the east, and then turning towards the south until they reach the great ocean, where parts of it penetrate into the sea at the place called the Dike of Râma. Of course, these mountains differ very much in cold and heat.»

This excellent resumé does not need any commentaries. Under the name of Himavant he means the whole Himalaya. Speaking of rivers entering India from the east, he may refer to the Brahmaputra without having any nearer information about that river. As the fifth river of the Panjab he correctly mentions Shatladar or Satlej.2 And of the Ganges he says that the Hindus believe it flowed in ancient times in Paradise. Here again he quotes the Matsya-Purana. In his chapter about pilgrimage3 he gets his knowledge entirely from the Puranas. The holy ponds are situated in the mountains round Meru. Thus, for instance, the pond Vishnupada is near the mountain Nishadha and gives rise to the rivers Sarasvatî and Gandharvi.

»In the mountain Kailâsa there is the pond Manda, as large as a sea, whence comes the river Mandâkini ... South-east of Kailâsa there is the mountain Lohita, and at its foot a pond called Lohita. Thence comes the river Lohitanadî. South of Kailâsa there is the mountain Sarayusatî (?), and at its foot the pond Mânasa. Thence comes the river Sarayû. West of Kailâsa there is the mountain Aruna, always covered with snow, which cannot be ascended. At its foot is the pond Sailôdâ, whence comes the river Sailôdâ.»

THE ARABIAN GEOGRAPHERS.

I Ibidem p. 247.

2 Op. cit. p. 26o.

3 Op. cit. Vol. II, p. 142.