National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

GAURISÂNgAR—GkYa.   193

G au r is a n k a r, in Nepal, the highest peak of our globe as yet

measured, attaining a height of 29,002 ft., Lat. 28°, Long. 86° TIMITV Sanskr.

Gauri, white or fair, is one of the surnames of Pirvati, the wife of Siva; Sankar, or Sankara = Siva, much venerated by the Pandits of Nepal. This name shows a remarkable identity with Chamalhari; Chama = Gauri; Lha = Siva; but to the Tibetan name ri , mountain, is added; whilst the Hindus consider it, not a mountain called after Gâuri and Siva, but as one of, the forms assumed by them.

The name Gaurisankar, used for incorporations of Mahadéo and Parvati, or personifications of Lingo, and Yôni, is not unfrequently met with on Indian antiquities. Compare Maisey, Journ. As. Soc. Beng., 1849, p. 190. Its application to geographical objects was, however, as novel to me as unexpected; happily, the name Chamalhâri most perfectly, and quite independently, confirms the application of this name to be congenial to Hindu mythology.

In Tibetan this peak is called Chfngo-pgi-ma-ri, a word for which I could obtain no explanation. The G. T. S., besides the usual accurate definition by longitude and latitude, gave to A the name Mount Everest, or No. XV. See our Vol. II., Hypsometry, p. 297.

Mr. B. H. Hodgson, who with his well known scientific energy, made numerous inquiries from Darjiling, to ascertain the proper native name of this peak, had the kindness to communicate to me, before I came to Kathmandu, the following names:—

Nepalese names: Devadunga, Bhairabthan, Bhairablangur.

Tibetan names: Gnalham, Tangla, Gnalham thangla.

In his Papers on the Himalaya mountains and Nepal (Calcutta, Govt. Selections, 1857, XXVII.), he had printed: Nyanam, Dhevadhunga and Bhairablangur (p. 108), as the names then most probable to him.

However, when in the spring of 1857 my visit to Nepal enabled me to direct my telescope, in the presence of Jhang Bahadur and several of his well-informed Pandits to this mountain, which is such a prominent object in most of the views of the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayan crest, they, most positively only called. it Gaurisankar, or Chingo-pl-ma-ri in Tibetan; and when then asked about the other names they had mentioned to Mr. Hodgson, they repeatedly averred that they had not so clearly understood which was the particular mountain meant in the previous questions, alluding to the difficulty of finding the exact peak asked for without any other definition than the latitude and longitude.

Gaya in Bahia., Lat. 24°, Long. 84° ...    . :jÿj Sanskr.

The name of a saint in whose honour the town received this name, and who is venerated here by the pilgrims. It was Vishnu, who granted the sanctity of the town to the prayers of its dying chief, killed by' the deity. Wilson, Diet.

The Mussalmans call it Sahib-ganj.

25