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

adorned with pearls.» ¹ Everywhere appears the deepest veneration for the Kailas,
»that lord of mountains, Kailāsa.» ² Further: »There is a monarch of mountains in
a mighty forest, the great refuge of ascetism, the worker of the weal (of all), an
Asura, celebrated by the name of Himavant containing great cascades and furnished
with many fountains and caves.» ³ In the monkey stories in the same work both
Himalaya and Kailas and other mountains are mentioned. In Vol. V it is said of
a palace that it was »high as the lord of mountains and white as the Kailāsa hill»,
and in Vol. VI that the God of Death was living on mount Kailāsa, encircled by
Yakshas. Of a certain Kumbhakarṇa it is said: »as he yawned, his mouth resembling the subterraneous regions, looked like the sun stationed at the summit of Meru.
A Brahmarshi, foremost of ascetics, repairing to the asylum of Triṇavindu at the side
of the mighty mountain, Meru, took up his abode there. ⁴ The same volume tells
of Rāvana: »And leaving behind cities and streams and hills and woods and groves,
he in a moment came to the mountain Kailāsa.» Further: »meditating for some
time the lord of Lankā went to the region of the sun and spent the night upon
the picturesque summit of the mount Meru.» — »When Rāvaṇa arrived at the banks
of the western Ocean a person was seen on the island, a highly powerful person
amongst men like . . . the Meru amongst the mountains, with legs like the mount
Kailāsa, . . . and he was not more agitated than the Sumeru by the King of ser-
pents; — and of Rāvaṇa is said: the mounts Himalaya, Hemakūṭa, Mandara, and Meru
are his bones.» — »There is a mountain named Meru, highly picturesque, made of
gold and greatly charming. The middle peak is much liked by the celestials, on
which is situate the beautiful assemblage hall of Brahmā extending over a hundred
leagues. The four-mouthed deity, sprung from lotus, always resideth there».
The Purāṇas celebrate, as DOWSON says, the powers and works of positive
gods, and represent a later and more extravagant development of Hinduism, of which
they are in fact the Scriptures. ⁵ The best known is the Vishnu Purāṇa translated
by Professor WILSON. In the first chapter of its second Book is given the descrip-
tion of the earth, much as has been related above, though still with some interest-
ing geographical details making it worth a fuller quotation.
Jambu is one of the seven great insular continents, and there are seven great
seas. »Jambu-dvīpa is in the centre of all these: and in the centre of this conti-
nent is the golden mountain Meru. The height of Meru is eighty-four thousand
Yojanas; and its depth below the surface of the earth is sixteen thousand. Its
diameter at the summit is thirty-two thousand Yojanas; and at its base, sixteen
thousand: so that this mountain is like the seed-cup of the lotus of the earth.