ABSTRACT
With regard to the cause why the water of the ocean always remains as it is, we quote the following passage from the Matsya-Purâṇa:—“At the beginning there were sixteen mountains, which had wings and could fly and rise up into the air. However, the rays of Indra, the ruler, burned their wings, so that they fell down, deprived of them, somewhere about the ocean, four of them in each point of the compass—in the east, Ṛishabha, Balâhaka, Cakra, Mainâka; in the north, Candra, Kaṅka, Droṇa, Suhma; in the west, Vakra, Vadhra, Nârada, Parvata; in the south, Jîmûta, Draviṇa, Mainâka; Mahâśaila (?). Between the third and the fourth of the eastern mountains there is the fire Saṁvartaka, which drinks the water of the ocean. But for this the ocean would fill up, since the rivers perpetually flow to it.
Quotation from the Matsya-Purâṇa.
