=Meru, Sumeru.=—In the geography of the Agni Purana, the term is used as a substantial geographical limit;[2.1.6] and some of the rivers flowing from the mountainous ranges, whose relative position with Sumeru are there defined, still retain their ancient appellations. Let us not darken the subject, by supposing only allegorical meanings attached to explicit points. In the distribution of their seven dwipas, or continents, though they interpose seas of curds, milk, or wine, we should not reject strong and evident facts, because subsequent ignorant interpolators filled up the page with puerilities [22]. This sacred mountain (Sumeru) is claimed by the Brahmans as the abode of Mahadeva,[2.1.7] Adiswar,[2.1.8] or Baghes[2.1.9]; by the Jains, as the abode of Adinath,[2.1.10] the first Jiniswara, or Jain lord. Here they say he taught mankind the arts of agriculture and civilized life. The Greeks claimed it as the abode of Bacchus; and hence the Grecian fable of this god being taken from the thigh of Jupiter, confounding _meros_ (thigh) with the _meru_ (hill) of this Indian deity. In this vicinity the followers of Alexander had their Saturnalia, drank to excess of the wine from its indigenous vines, and bound their brows with ivy (_vela_)[2.1.11] sacred to the Baghes of the east and west, whose votaries alike indulge in ‘strong drink.’ These traditions appear to point to one spot, and to one individual, in the early history of mankind, when the Hindu and the Greek approach a common focus; for there is little doubt that Adinath, Adiswara, Osiris, Baghes, Bacchus, Manu, Menes designate the patriarch of mankind, Noah. The Hindus can at this time give only a very general idea of the site of Meru; but they appear to localize it in a space of which Bamian, Kabul, and Ghazni would be the exterior points. The former of these cities is known to possess remains of the religion of Buddha, in its caves and colossal statues.[2.1.12] The Paropamisan Alexandria is near Bamian; but the Meru and Nyssa[2.1.13] of Alexander are placed more to the eastward by the Greek writers, and according to the cautious Arrian between the Cophas and Indus. Authority localizes it between Peshawar and Jalalabad, and calls it Merkoh, or Markoh,[2.1.14] "a bare rock 2000 feet high [23] with caves to the westward, termed Bedaulat by the Emperor Humayun from its dismal appearance."[2.1.15] This designation, however, of Dasht-i Bedaulat, or ‘unhappy plain,’ was given to the tract between the cities beforementioned [24]. The only scope of these remarks on Sumeru is to show that the Hindus themselves do not make India within the Indus the cradle of their race, but west, amidst the hills of Caucasus,[2.1.16] whence the sons of Vaivaswata, or the ‘sun-born,’ migrated eastward to the Indus and Ganges, and founded their first establishment in Kosala, the capital, Ayodhya, or Oudh.