Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 57

48
INTRODUCTION and Mahendra as the breasts of the earth (2.8). Landslide massés from the Malaya and the Mahendra are described as being carried by the waves to each other's slopes (8.10). Bāņa likewise says that the Mahendra joins the Malaya.'
In the Rāmāyaṇa (4.66.34 ff.) Hanūmat jumps across to Lankā from Mount Mahendra; and Sampāti tells the Vānaras how on one occasion his son Supārsva, while standing guard on the hill, barring the way to all creatures that were flying over to the sea, allowed Rāvaņa to continue his flight with Sītā when he begged him for passage (4.58.13 ff). The Mahendra hill mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa and the Setubandha is thus different from the hill of that name in the Ganjam District of Orissa. The Vamanapurāna, in fact, mentions the Northern and the Southern Mahendra separately. The Arthaśāstra 2.11 refers
to Mahendra pearls, i.e., those found in the streams of Mount Mahendra, situated on the seashore, as explained in the Cāņakyaļīkā of Prabhamati (earlier than the middle of the twelfth century).3 The southern Mahendra is also described in the Bhałţikāyya (10.44 ff.) which refers to its contiguity to the sea (v. 49)
The Mahendra hill mentioned above is identified with the Mahendragiri peak, 14 miles from Nanguneri, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.5
1 malayalagna eva ca mahendraḥ Har şacarita, chap. 7. 2 57.10, 11, 12; 63, 10, 11. Critical ed. Varanasi, 1967. The verse 57.11 is more cor.
rectly given in the 1968. ed with English trans, Ardhanāriśvara is stated to be the presiding deity at Daksina Mahendra, and Somapithin or Somapãyin Gopāla at Uttara Mahendra. The Mahendra is also mentioned in the Byhatsamhita 14.11 where
it is included in the list of Southern mountains along with the Malaya. 3 Canak yatik ā, ed. G. H. Sastri, p. 139. See Supplement to JOR, Vol. 28 and Introd.
to Jayamangala in Suppl. to Vol. 26. 4 In a description of the sea in Haribhadra's Samaraiccakaha. chap. 4, p. 202, the
elephants of the Mahendra hill are spoken of as trampling down the shore. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. 23, p. 362. South of the Agastyamalai peak, 'half in Tinnevelly and half in Travancore,' 'the watershed turns south-east as far as