Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 1)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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CHAPTER XXI.                             237

manda, has the dimension of 15 koti, i.e. 150,000,000
yojana. And above this is the darkness tamas, similar
to the lowest darkness, of 18,500,000 yojana."

We on our part found it already troublesome to
enumerate all the seven seas, together with the seven
earths, and now this author thinks he can make the sub¬
ject more easy and pleasant to us by inventing some more
earths below those already enumerated by ourselves!

The Vislinu-Burdna, when treating of similar subjects,
says: "There is a serpent under the seventh lowest
earth, which is called Seshdkhya, worshipped among
the spiritual beings. It is also called Ananta. It has
a thousand heads, and bears the earths without being
molested by their heavy weight. These earths, one
stored above the other, are gifted with good things
and happiness, adorned with jewels, illuminated by
their own rays, not by those of sun and moon. The
latter two luminaries do not rise in them. Therefore
their temperature is always equal, they have everlasting
fragrant flowers, blossoms of trees and fruits; their in¬
habitants have no notion of time, since they do not
become aware of any motions by counting them. Their
dimension is 70,000 yojana, the dimensions of each
being 10,000. Narada, the Rishi, went down in order
to see them, and to acquaint himself with the two kinds
of beings which inhabit them, the Daitya and Ddnava.
When he then found the bliss of paradise to be rather
insignificant in comparison with that of these earths,
he returned to the angels, giving his report to them,
and rousing their admiration by his description."

Further, the following passage : " Behind the sweet-
water sea lies the gold earth, the double of the totality
of the dvipas and seas; but not inhabited by men nor
by demons. Behind it lies Lokdloka, a mountain of the
height of 10,000 yojana, and of the same breadth. Its Page ng.
whole dimension is 50 koti, i.e. 500,000,000 yojana.^'

The totality of all this is in the Hindu language
  Page 237