Himālaya

I go to the Himālaya, the mountain mass of rock, on the northern bank of the Jāhnavī.

Going to the slopes of the Himavat, frequented by Kiṃnaras and serpents, he of great austerities performed tapas in order to propitiate Mahādeva.

Having spoken thus to her who had behaved wickedly, the greatly splendid Gautama, that great ascetic, abandoned this hermitage and performed austerities on a beautiful peak of the Himālayas, frequented by Siddhas and Cāraṇas.

Born in the north from the Himālaya, thou art conveyed to the people of the east;

You are Kuṣṭha, fashioned by the gods, brought forth from the Himālaya, dug up with sharp spades — you have cut out the virulence of poison.

Of all these waters, the Himālaya is their udder, Soma is their calf, and Parameṣṭhin is their overlord.

But the region between those two mountain ranges, from the eastern sea to the western sea, the wise know as Aryavarta.

The land which lies between the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains, to the east of Vinashana and to the west of Prayaga, is called the Middle Country.

Once, in the past, sages approached Vyāsa, who was seated in focused meditation in a forest of Devadāru trees on the summit of the Himalaya mountain, and they asked him: