Wikipedia Trail: From Sita to Mount Meru

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 For this week's reading notes, I went to the Wikipedia page on Sita to learn more about the character and refresh myself on the Ramayana. The article mentioned Sita choosing Rama from the crowd of suitors and their exile into the Dandaka forest. I wanted to learn more about this forest, and it led me to my second Wikipedia page on Dandakaranya. This is a historical region in the central-east part of India, and it spans across a variety of states. This area is considered a sacred land for Hindus, and exiled people had to cross it in order to reach the Vindhya Mountains. I was curious on what the Vindhya mountains were as well as their significance, which led me to third Wikipedia page on the Vindhya Range. This article described it as a complex chain of mountains in west-central India, and they play a significant role in Indian mythology. The mountains were described as dangerous and inaccessible, and there were a variety of stories about the mountain. One story that caught my eye was the mountain's competition with Mount Meru, as both mountains grew tall enough to block the sun until a sage requested that they stop. This led me to my fourth Wikipedia page on Mount Meru. Mount Meru is considered a sacred, five-peaked mountain that acts as the center of the physical and spiritual universes in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology. The actual location of this mountain is vague, and some researchers consider it to be the Pamir mountains in Kashmir. Nevertheless, this idea is so significant that many temples are designed to emulate Mount Meru.

The Buddhist MahaBodhi temple represents Mount Meru. Source: Wikipedia


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