Varaha Purana 77.26: Adhyaya 77, Shloka 26
Measurements of Mount Meru, the Boundary Mountains, and the Four Directional Great Trees
क्षीरोदमथने वृत्ते माला स्कन्धे निवेशिताः । इन्द्रेण चैत्यकेतोस्तु केतुमालस्ततः स्मृतः । तेन तच्छिह्नितं वर्षं केतुमालेति विश्रुतम् ॥ ७७.२६ ॥
kṣīroda-mathane vṛtte mālā skandhe niveśitāḥ | indreṇa caityaketos tu ketumālas tataḥ smṛtaḥ | tena tac-cihnitaṁ varṣaṁ ketumāleti viśrutam || 77.26 ||
जब समुंदर मनाया गया था, तब इंद्र ने उसके कंधे पर हार डाल दिया था। तब इंद्र ने उस्से केतुमाला नाम दिया। इसलिए उस इलाके का नाम भी केतुमाला हो गया।
Varāha (default, dialogue framework inferred)
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic aetiology (name-origin narrative) linking cosmological myth (the churning of the Ocean of Milk) with the naming of a geographic division (varṣa), illustrating how sacred geography is encoded through narrative memory.
Ketumāla-varṣa is named. In Purāṇic cosmography it denotes a mythic regional division of Jambūdvīpa rather than a single securely identifiable modern location; scholarly treatments typically classify it as part of the text’s cosmographic schema.
The verse primarily functions as an explanatory note on cultural memory and place-naming; any ethical dimension is indirect—emphasizing the preservation of markers (cihna) and narratives that structure communal understanding of landscape and heritage.
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