ABSTRACT
In the Kausitaki Upanisad are mentioned the southern (daksina) and the northern (uttara) mountains, evidently in allusion to the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges. Himavant, ‘snowy’ appears as an epithet of mountain in the Atharvaveda. It is also used there and in the Rigveda as well as later, as a noun. Baudhayana Dharmasutra defines Aryavarta as the land east of Vinasana; west of Kalaka-vana, ‘Black Forest’, or rather Kanakhala, near Hardvar; south of the Himalaya; and north of the Pariyatra or the Paripatra mountains. The Manava Dharmasutra in accord with the Vasistha Dharmasutra defines Aryavarta as a region between the Vindhya and the Himalayas the two ranges which seem to be the boundaries of the Aryan world in the Kausitaki Upanisad also. The vast areas across the Himalayas and Hindukush from Pamir up to Arctic (Somagiri) are stated by some to form ancient Uttar Kuru region and described in detail in the great epics, Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Himalayas are often mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures and were familiar to the Buddha himself. The Himalayas are the setting for numerous Jataka stories. After the Third Council convened by King Ashoka, five monk led by the arahat Majjhima were sent to the Himalayan region to spread the Dhamma The Jain scriptures also mention about a location in the Himalayas. ‘Ashtapad Maha Tirtha’ where the firth Tirthankar, Bhagwan Rushabhdev, attained nirvana. The Arthasastra underlines the importance of the Himalayas from different perspectives. The Arthasastra mentions that the land extending over thousands of yojanas from the east to the west and stretching northwards from the sea to the Himalayas was the cakravartin ksetra. The Himalayas straddled Indian imagination for millennia. Each peak and each valley was sancatified by the sages and seers. The local tradition and the Great tradition mirror each other in these valleys and the peaks.
