Mount Meru is a Sanskrit word meaning a sacred mountain with five peaks or a golden mountain according to Hindu, Jain mythology and Buddhist cosmology. The sacred peak is called as Mahameru, Sineru or Semeru. It is the axis of the world and is located in the centre of the universe. It is thought to be the center of all the spiritual, metaphysical and physical universes.
The Himalayas are its foothills. Ancient India which is called ‘Lands of the Sons of Bharata’ extends towards its south. Meru is represented by the roof tower that crowns the Hindu temple shrine. Mount Meru expands into the heavens and reaches into the nether regions down below the ground. It is believed that the heavenly kingdoms of all the main deities are located on or near Mount Meru. According to Hindu mythology, devotees after their death live inside Mount Meru and wait there till they attain their next reincarnation.
This mountain is symbolically represented as Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples. References related to proportions or size of Mount Meru indicates that it is part of the Cosmic Ocean. Many of the statements state that ‘the mountain is circled by the planets and the Sun’, while some researchers identify the mountain with the Pamirs, located northwest of Kashmir or located in the centre of the Earth as mentioned in the Suryasiddhanta. In Hindu texts, many versions of cosmology indicate that the Meru Mountain is surrounded on the east by the Mandrachala Mountain, to the north by the Kumuda Mountain, on the west by the Suparshva Mountain and to the south by the Kailasa.
