Mount Meru () (also called Sumeru i.e the "Great Meru") is a sacred mountain in Hindu, Buddhist cosmology, and Jain mythology, and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. It is believed to be the abode of Lord Brahma and the Demi-Gods (Devas).

The mountain is said to be 84,000 Yojanas high. Many Hindu temples, including Angkor Wat, the principal temple of Angkor in Cambodia, have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain.

For the equivalent central mountain in Buddhist cosmology, see Sumeru.

Location

Mount Meru of Hindu traditions has clearly mythical aspects, being described as 84,000 Yojanas high, and having the Sun along with all its planets and stars in the Solar System revolve around it as one unit.

Geographical

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 (including Earth itself) circumbulate the mountain, make determining its location most difficult, according to most scholars. However, a handful of western scholars have tried to identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, north-east of Kashmir.

In epic times, the Pamirs had formed the parts of Ancient Kamboja--more precisely, the Parama Kamboja of the epic Mahabharata (II.2.27) .

Cosmological

The Suryasiddhanta mentions that Mt Meru lies in 'the middle of the Earth' ("bhugola-madhya") in the land of the Jambunada (Jambudvipa).
Narpatijayacharyā, a 9th century text, based on mostly unpublished texts of Yāmala Tantra, mentions " Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu" ('Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen there'). Vārāha Mihira, in his Panch-siddhāntikā, locates Mt Meru at the North Pole (though no mountain exists there as well).
Suryasiddhānta, however, mentions a Mt Meru in the middle of Earth, besides a Sumeru and a Kumeru at both poles. Therefore, Sumeru was used both for North Pole as well as for the central Mt Meru by ancient authors. There is a town Meru at the foot of Mt Kenya at the equator, as well as a Mountain called Meru lying in neighbouring Tanzania, a place named Kinyan-giri is in Tanzania, which translates as Mt Kinyan or Kenya, etc.

Height

One Yojana can be taken to mean roughly 8 miles 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 Suryasiddhānta. The Bhāgvata Purāna gives the exorbitant dimension of 80,000 Yojanas for Mt Meru, while the Mahābhārata gives 18,000 Yojanas as the extent of Jambudvipa; hence it is not possible to determine the height of Mt Meru on the basis of these accounts.

Puranic legends

Mount Meru finds mention innumerable times in Hindu lore. 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 was shielded by Garuda with his wings (he was flying high). However, after a year Garuda took respite for some time. Thus the apex of the mountain was broken and it fell into the sea and created the island of Sri Lanka.

The legends, Puranas and Hindu epics frequently state that Surya i.e. the sun-God, along with all its planets and stars, together circumambulates Mount Meru everyday.

As alleged geographic knowledge of the rivers of South Asia developed and the hydrographic nexus was located near Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar in southwestern Tibet where the sources of the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Karnali (a large tributary of the Ganges) cluster together, Mount Kailash was sanctified as a possible representation of Mount Meru and became an important pilgrimage site.

Literary references

In the novel Far, Far the Mountain Peak by English novelist John Masters, the central character, Peter Savage, becomes obsessed by the task of making the first ascent of a newly-discovered mountain in the north-west part of the then British India. In the sory, the mountain is named Meru, in a conscious reference to the legendary mountain: "There have always been legends in Asia about a sacred mountain somewhere in Western Tibet, and it has always been called Meru, though no one has definitely found it ... so they are going to call this one Meru..." (Penguin edition, p. 78).

In his poem Meru, William Butler Yeats has both named his poem after the mountain, and also refers to "Hermits upon Mount Meru or Everest."