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Mount Meru is a sacred mountain with five peaks〔(Angkor Wat : Image of the Day )〕 in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the center of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. Meru ((サンスクリット:मेरु)), also called Sumeru (Sanskrit) or Sineru (Pāli) (), to which can be added the approbatory prefix su-, resulting in the meaning "excellent Meru" or "wonderful Meru" and Mahameru i.e. "Great Meru" ((中国語:須彌山) ''Xumi Shan''；Pāli Neru； (ビルマ語:မြင်းမိုရ်) Myinmo). Many famous Hindu and similar Jain as well as Buddhist temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain. The highest point (the finial bud) on the pyatthat, a Burmese-style multi-tiered roof, represents Mount Meru. ==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 circle the mountain, make determining its location most difficult, according to most scholars. Some researchers identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, north-west of Kashmir.〔The Geopolitics of South Asia: From Early Empires to the Nuclear Age, 2003, p 16〕〔Graham P. Chapman - Social Science; The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus, p 15〕〔George Nathaniel Curzon; The Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism, 1968, p 184〕〔Benjamin Walker - Hinduism; Ancient Indian Tradition & Mythology: in Translation, 1969, p 56〕〔Jagdish Lal Shastri, Arnold Kunst, G. P. Bhatt, Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare - Oriental literature; Journal of the K.R. Cama Oriental Institute, 1928, p 38〕〔K.R. Cama Oriental Institute - Iranian philology; The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, 1997, p 175〕〔Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal - History; Geographical Concepts in Ancient India, 1967, p 50〕〔Bechan Dube - India; Geographical Data in the Early : A Critical Study, 1972, p 2〕〔Dr M. R. Singh - India; Studies in the Proto-history of India, 1971, p 17〕〔Dr Dvārakā Prasāda Miśra - India.〕 The Suryasiddhanta mentions that Mt Meru lies in 'the middle of the Earth' ("bhurva-madhya") in the land of the Jambunad (Jambudvip). Narpatijayacharyā, a 9th-century text, based on mostly unpublished texts of Yāmal Tantr, mentions " Prithvī-madhye shrūyate drishyate na tu" ('Su-meru is heard to be in the middle of the Earth, but is not seen there').〔cf. second verse of Koorm-chakr in the book Narpatijayacharyā〕 Vārāhamihira, in his Panch-siddhāntikā, claims Mt Meru to be at the North Pole (though no mountain exists there as well). Suryasiddhānt, however, mentions a Mt Meru in the middle of Earth, besides a Sumeru and a Kumeru at both the Poles. There exist several versions of Cosmology in existing Hindu texts. In one of them, cosmologically, the Meru mountain was also described as being surrounded by Mandrachal Mountain to the east, Supasarv Mountain to the west, Kumuda Mountain to the north and Kailash to the south.〔J.P. Mittal, History of Ancient India: From 7300 BC to 4250 BC, page 3〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mount Meru」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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