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

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 occurrences 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
snow, Hemakuta, the golden, Nishada, Nila, the peacock-like, of many colours,
Śveta and Śringavant; the region between the Himavant and the Śringavant is
called Kailāsa, the play-ground of the Rakshasa and Apsaras.¹

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 north-
ern mountains are the snowy Himavant. In their centre lies Kashmîr, 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 Sla-
vonians (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 moun-
tain Sarayuśatî (?), 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 Śailôdâ, whence comes the river Śailôdâ.»