imagery, has scarcely overrated what all men must find
beyond the power of adequate expression:
I He who thinks on Himachal (i.e., the Himalayan
snows), though he should not behold him, is greater than
he who performs all worship in Kashi (Benares), and he
who thinks of Himachal shall have pardon for all sins,
NANDA KOT AND ITS GLACIERS, TAKEN FROM AN ALTITUDE OF 20,000 FT.
ON NANDA DEVI
and all things that die on Himachal, and all beings that
in dying think of his snows, are freed from sin. In a
hundred ages of the gods I could not tell thee of the
glories of Himachal, where Siva lived and where the
Ganges falls from the foot of Vishnu like the slender
thread of a lotus flower. I behold Mansarowar, and there
in the form of a swan dwells Siva. This lake was formed
from the mind of Brahma: there dwell also Mahadeo
and the gods. When the earth of Mansarowar touches
any one’s body, or when any one bathes in the lake, he
shall go to the paradise of Brahma, and he who drinks
its waters shall go to the heaven of Siva and shall be
released from the sins of a hundred births, and even the
beast who bears the name of Mansarowar shall go to the
paradise of Brahma. Its waters are like pearls. There
NANDA DEVI (L E FT) AND EAST PEAK (RIGHT) AS SEEN
FROM NANDA KOT
is no mountain like Himachal, for in it are Kailas and
Mansarowar. As the dew is dried up by the morning
sun, so are the sins of mankind dried up at the sight
of Himachal ” (Ramayana).
I t is interesting to note the steps by which this region
came to occupy its present position in the. religious life
of the Hindus, for it is not on the main route by which the