Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 54, Shloka 20

Adhyaya 54 — Cosmography of Jambudvipa: Continents, Oceans, Varshas, and Mount Meru

Sanskrit

विपुलश्च सुपार्श्वश्च केतुपादपशोभिताः ।

कदम्बो मन्दरे केतुर् जम्बुवा गन्धमादने ॥

Transliteration

vipulaśca supārśvaśca ketupādapaśobhitāḥ / kadambo mandare keturjambuva gandhamādane

Translation

ဝိပုလ (Vipula) နှင့် သုပာရ္ရှွ (Supārśva) တောင်များကို ကေတု (Ketu) သစ်ပင်ဖြင့် တင့်တယ်စွာ အလှဆင်ထားသည်။ မန္ဒရ (Mandara) ပေါ်တွင် ကဒမ္ဗ (Kadamba) သစ်ပင်ရှိပြီး၊ ဂန္ဓမာဒန (Gandhamādana) ပေါ်တွင် ဇမ္ဗူ (Jambu) သစ်ပင်ရှိသည်။

Speakers

• Not identifiable from the supplied excerpt (cosmography narration)

Verse Rasa

{ "primaryRasa": "adbhuta", "secondaryRasa": "shanta", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }

Key Themes

• Cosmology
• Sacred Geography
• Sacred flora (mythic trees)

FAQs

What is the philosophical or ethical takeaway?

Nature is presented as sacralized: mountains are not inert masses but living landscapes marked by emblematic trees, encouraging reverence toward the environment as part of cosmic order.

How does this fit the Pancalakṣaṇa (5 characteristics)?

Sarga/Sthāna-type cosmography: cataloging features (mountains, trees) that constitute the world-description.

What is the esoteric significance?

Trees function as ‘signatures’ of regions—symbols of qualities or powers associated with each quarter—supporting visualization practices where each direction has a distinct emblem.