Shloka 356
Adhyāya 6: Pañca-mahābhūta–guṇa-nirdeśa and Sudarśana-dvīpa
Five Elements, Sensory Qualities, and a Cosmographic Island
एकादश सहस्राणि वर्षाणां परमायुष: । गन्धमादनके अन्यान्य पार्श्चर्ती पर्वतोंपर दूसरी-दूसरी नदियाँ हैं, जहाँ निवास करनेवाले लोगोंकी आयु ग्यारह हजार वर्षोकी होती है
ekādaśa sahasrāṇi varṣāṇāṃ paramāyuṣaḥ | gandhamādane anyāni pārśvavartī parvatopari dvitīya-dvitīyā nadyaḥ santi, yatra nivāsinaḥ janāḥ ekādaśa-sahasra-varṣa-āyuṣaḥ bhavanti |
Wika ni Sañjaya: “Sa Gandhamādana ay may iba pang mga ilog, na dumadaloy sa mga tagiliran ng bundok. Ang mga taong naninirahan sa mga pook na iyon ay sinasabing may sukdulang haba ng buhay na labing-isang libong taon.”
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The passage underscores the Mahābhārata’s vision of graded worlds and extraordinary regions: sacred geography is linked with exceptional human conditions (such as longevity), suggesting that environment, merit, and cosmic order are interconnected.
Sañjaya is describing wondrous features associated with Gandhamādana—rivers on the mountain’s flanks and the extraordinary lifespan of the people living there—within a broader descriptive account rather than battlefield action.