The Himalayas

Kalidasa, in Megha-duta, describes the peaks of Kailasa as “the accumulated laughter of Siva”, laugh being, in Sanskrit literature, traditionally “white”. In Kumara Sambhava he describes the Himalayas as “King of mountains” and as “God of the north”.

Manikka-vachahar, in Kirti-tiruvahaval section of Tiruvachaham, sings “On the golden stage of Chidambaram, luminous like the gold-capped peaks of the Himalayas, He (Siva) dances.”

F. W. Bain, in his preface to An Incarnation of the Snow says “...I looked and saw, pendent in the purple air like a great yellow Indian topaz lost in an amethystine void, the digit of the moon, poised as if on tiptoe, on the very brim of the brow of the hill, whose sable edge it seemed to touch, with a fringe of soft and almost imperceptible iridescence, with magical contradiction, making the dark thing fair. “There the Great God stood, before me, with his Jewel on his brow.”

Indeed all the physical aspects of Siva may be viewed symbolically in terms of the Himalayas, and conversely, the Himalayas may be described in terms of the symbols of the Great God, as has been done in the following lines:

King of snow
that laughs the white laugh,
frozen, blinding,
of Siva,

God of the north
that wears the white moon
crested over your rocks
as caught in Siva's locks,

Home of silver peaks
lovely and austere
like Uma* lost
in white adoration

Mighty Himalayas
that hold, the Ganga
as entwined
in Siva’s hair,

Of you sang Kalidasa
in Sanskrit speech
resplendent
like your snow.

To you I offer
these words and echoes
sans the thunder
of Sanskrit.

* Uma: the daughter of God Himavan (the Himalayas), consort of Lord Siva, of austere penance, the benign aspect of godhead.