Mount Meru

Mount Meru 

Mount Meru is a sacred mountain with five peaks in Vedic cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes.

Meru is also called Sumeru (Sanskrit) or Sineru (Pāli)

Many famous Hindu and similar Jain as well as Buddhist temples have been built as symbolic representations of thismountain. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru.

The dimensions attributed to Mount Meru, all the references to it being as a part of the Cosmic Ocean, along with several statements like that the Sun along with all the planets circle the mountain, make determining its location most difficult, according to most scholars.

The Surya Siddhanta mentions that Mt Meru lies in 'the middle of the Earth' ("Bhugol-madhya") in the land of the Jambunad (Jambudvip). Narpatijayacharyā, a 9th-century text, based on mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions "Sumeruḥ Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu" ('Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen there').



Vārāhamihira, in his Panch-siddhāntikā, claims Mt Meru to be at the North Pole (though no mountain exists there as well). Suryasiddhānt, however, mentions a Mt Meru in the middle of Earth, besides a Sumeru and a Kumeru at both the Poles.

There exist several versions of Cosmology in existing Hindu texts. In one of them, cosmologically, the Meru mountain was also described as being surrounded by Mandrachal Mountain to the east, Supasarv Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain to the north and Kailash to the south.

Sanatana Dharma legends

Mount Meru of Hindu traditions has clearly mythical aspects, being described as 84,000 Yojan high (which is around 1,082,000 km (672,000 mi), or 85 times the Earths's diameter), and having the Sun along with all its planets in the Solar System revolve around it as one unit.

One Yojana can be taken to mean about 11.5 km (8 or 9 mi) though its magnitude seems to differ over time periods. E.g. the Earth's circumference is 3,200 Yojanas according to Vārāhamihira and slightly less so in the Āryabhatiya, but is given to be 5,026.5 Yojanas in the Surya Siddhānta.

The Matsya Purana and the Bhāgvata Purāna along with some other Vedic texts consistently give the height of 84,000 Yojanas to Mount Meru which translates into 672,000 miles or 1.082 million kilometers. Mount Meru is also the abode of Lord Brahma and the Demi-Gods (Dev).
Om Tat Sat~