Mount Meru- Hindu LocationLocation · Landmark"Center of the Universe"

The Golden Mountain

Mount Meru rises at the center of the universe, a cosmic pillar connecting the lowest hells to the highest heavens. The Vishnu Purana gives its height as 84,000 yojanas, with roots extending 16,000 yojanas below the earth and a summit spanning 32,000 yojanas across. Its substance is gold that glows with its own radiance. The four faces of the mountain point to the cardinal directions, each a different material: ruby to the east, lapis lazuli to the north. The Surya Siddhanta places the sun, moon, and stars in orbit around the mountain, illuminating different faces at different times to create day and night.

Meru stands at the heart of Jambudvipa, the central continent, surrounded by concentric rings of continents and oceans extending outward in ever-larger circles. The continent takes its name from the Jambu tree that grows on Meru's slopes. Its fruits are the size of elephants, and the Bhagavata Purana says their juice forms the river Jambunada, whose waters turn to gold upon touching the earth.

The Summit

At the peak lies Brahmaloka, the realm of Brahma. Below it, on the upper slopes, sits Indra's capital Amaravati, where the gods feast in the Nandana garden beneath wish-fulfilling trees. A lake at the summit feeds rivers that flow toward the four directions; the Alakananda, flowing south, is the celestial Ganga before it descends to earth. When King Bhagiratha's austerities finally persuaded Brahma to release the river, her waters struck Meru's summit first, then cascaded downward with such force that Shiva had to catch them in his matted hair to keep the earth from shattering.

The Skanda Purana records that the demon Tarakasura, emboldened by his boon of near-invincibility, occupied Meru itself. The gods could not dislodge him. Only after Shiva's son Skanda was born and grew to warrior strength was the demon driven from the sacred mountain.

Dissolution

At the close of each kalpa, the universe dissolves into primordial water. Meru sinks beneath the flood as all creation returns to silence. When Brahma wakes and creation begins again, Meru is the first thing to rise from the ocean, the axis around which a new cosmos takes shape.