Mount Meru Mythology - Encyclopedia

For the mountain in Tanzania, see Mount Meru, Tanzania.

Mount Meru or Mount Sumeru is a sacred mountain in Hindu and Buddhist mythology considered to be the center of the universe. It is believed to be the abode of Brahma and other deities of both religions. The mountain is said to be 80,000 leagues (450,000 km) high and located in Jambudvipa, one of the continents on earth in Hindu mythology. Angkor Wat, the principal temple of Angkor in Cambodia, was built as a symbolic representation of Mount Meru.

Mount Meru finds mention innumerable times in Hindu mythology. Some of the better-known legends are recounted here.

Legends say that Mount Meru and the wind god Vayu were good friends. However, the sage Narada approached Vayu and incited him to humble the mountain. Vayu blew with full force for one full year, but Meru did not submit. However, after a year Meru took respite for some time. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Vayu increased its force. Thus the apex of the mountain was broken and it fell into the sea and created the island of Sri Lanka.

Another legend well-known to this day in India, is regarding the daily circumnambulation of the sun around mount Meru, and involves the sage Agastya. The legend goes thus:

The Vindhya mountains that separate north and south India from each other once showed a tendency to grow so high as to obstruct the usual trajectory of the sun. This was accompanied by increasing vanity on the part of that mountain range, which demanded that Surya, the sun-God, circumnambulate the Vindhya mountains daily, just as he does Mount Meru (identified by some as being the north pole). The need arose to subdue, by guile, the Vindhyas, and Agastya was chosen to do that.

Agastya journeyed from north to south, and on the way encountered the now impassable Vindhya mountains. He asked the mountain range to facilitate his passage across to the south. In reverence for so eminent a sage as Agastya, the Vindhya mountains bent low enough to enable the sage and his family to cross over and enter south India. The Vindhya range also promised not to increase in height until Agastya and his family returned to the north. Agastya settled permanently in the south, and the Vindhya range, true to its word, never grew further. Thus, Agastya accomplished by guile something that would have been impossible to accomplish by force.

The legends, puranas and Hindu epics frequently state that Surya, the sun-God, circumnambulates Mount Meru every day. This, coupled with evidence indicating that the early Aryans resided in the arctic regions, has led many to infer that Mount Meru actually refers to the north pole. Some beliefs, local to that area of the Himalayas, associate mythical Mount Meru with a mountain along the bank of Lake Manasarovar called Kailasa in modern times.

Buddhists refer to the mountain as Mt. Sumeru and believe it exists on the Circle of Iron. Surrounding the mountain on the same level are the Seven Rings of Mountains and Seven Seas, followed on the outside by four islands: Uttarakuru, Purvavideha, Jambudvipa, and Godavaniya. Humans exist on Jambudvipa, and various hell realms exists below this island. Resting on Mt. Sumeru are Heaven of Thirty-Three, higher planes of The Realm of Desire, the Realm of Pure Form, and the Formless Realm. This Sumeru-centric world system defines everything except for nirvana, which is an escape from samsara and the entire concept of a world system. Mt. Sumeru rests on several concentric rings (the Ring of Gold, the Ring of Water, and the Ring of Air).

• Mount Olympus
• Axis mundi
• Buddhism
• Hinduism

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Mount Meru Mythology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page