East Europe as a proto-homeland of the Indo-Europeans - страница 15

Such descriptions, creating the image of a mythical, happy country, would seem to doom any attempt at real localization of the sacred mountains of Aryan antiquity. But in addition to purely mythical motifs in the descriptions of the sacred mountains, there are a number of very interesting, repeated in various sources, details.

So the White Island, on which the wise men of Ekat, Dvat, Trita plunged into the radiance of the «thousand-breasted God,» and Narada saw the Supreme Creator in the form of the Polar Lights, located according to many texts, northwest of Mount Meru and the coast of the Milk Sea. Moreover, this localization is constantly emphasized: so Narada, having climbed Meru, «looked to the northwest» and «saw a wonderful, glorious image. In the north of the Milk Sea there is a large island known as the White Island (Svetadvipa).» Ekata, Dvata, Trita report that «The northern slope of Meru, the coast of the Milk Sea is the country where we have committed the most severe killing of the flesh… In the north of the Milk Sea there is the radiant Shvetadvipa (White Island)».

The estate above the spurs Meru «all the stars, all the stars and the lord of the sun» move in a circle, paying tribute to the «pristine mountain», here is the «ascended Golden Ladle Road», here «the Great Ancestor strengthened the North Star».

According to the Mahabharata, all the great rivers of the earth flow from the Meru Mountains, only one of them flows to the south, to the South Sea, and others – to the north to the Milky.

On the tops of these mountains dense forests rustle, birds sing, different animals live.

There are many «crystal clear lakes» inhabited by «white swans and all sorts of other waterfowl»: gray geese, ducks, geese, gulls, dives and mallards. On the surface of the water bloom blue, gold and red lotuses, lilies and water lilies.

Northern lotuses, lilies and water lilies

From the rocky cliffs «numerous keys and streams are swiftly overthrown. Ores of various metals adorn the great mountain, in some places black as antimony, in some places golden, yellowish, cinnabar red. Moreover, it is repeatedly emphasized that the slopes of the mountains seem striped: «as if rubbing, spread with a finger, veins of ores – gold, red, white – were visible».