Trikuta

Trikuta is a three peaked mountain. It appears in Hindu mythology, and also appears as a geographic feature of Jammu and Kashmir in India.

Significance on History and Hinduism

Trikuta is one of the twenty mountains surrounding Maha-Meru. The height is said in the Bhagavata Purana to be 10,000 yojanas, and the three peaks are iron, silver and gold. We find its references in the Sundarkand chapter of the Ramayana and its location is believed to be in Lanka. Srimad Bhagavatam further tells us that it contains a nice garden called Rumak, constructed by Varuna, and it also contains a beautiful lake with elephants (see: Gajendra Moksha) inhabiting the region.[1] Trikuta is historically viewed as a legendary reference to the tallest peak of the island, the mountain Sivanoli Padam of the Malaya mountainous range, surrounded by lakes and gardens and capital of Ravana's kingdom. Jatavarman Veera Pandyan I mentions Trikutagiri alongside the Koneswaram temple of Konamalai as two different places in a country of the island Eelam that he conquered and placed atop the victory bull flag of the Pandyan kingdom in 1262.

Trikuta finds mention in the Ramayana as being where the city of Lanka is built, while Vayu Purana (300 CE) mentions it as being on Malaya Dvipa, to the east of which on the coast lies the Shiva shrine of Koneswaram at Gokarna bay.[2][3] The Vividhatirthakalpa, a 14th-century Jain text mentions that at Trikutagiri in Kishkindha of Lanka there was a magnificent Jain temple which was dedicated by Ravana for the attainment of supernatural powers.[4] To fulfil a desire of Mandodari, his queen consort, Ravana is said to have "erected a Jain deity statue out of jewels; this was thrown into the sea when he was defeated by Rama Chandra. King Sankara, a royal of Kalyananagara of Kannada, came to know about this statue and he recovered it from the bottom of the sea with the help of Padmavatidevi, a prominent "Goddess of the Jainas.""[5]

Indian geography

Trikuta is located in Jammu, which is one of the three administrative divisions within Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost state in India. Trikuta, the triple peak, is where the holy shrine of Vaishno Devi can be found.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Srimad Bhagavatam: Withdrawal of the cosmic creations By A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, page no.41
  2. ↑ H.N. Apte, Vayupurana, Chapter 48 verses 20-30, Poona, 1929
  3. ↑ S. Pathmanathan, The Kingdom of Jaffna, Colombo, 1978. pages 135-144
  4. ↑ Kiskindhayam Lankayah patalankayam Trikutagrirau Srisantinathah
  5. ↑ Vividhatirthakalpa, pp. 93.
  6. ↑ Eck, Diana. India: A Sacred Geography, p. 282 (Random House 2013).
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