24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead, in the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burning furnace.
25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lokáloka or polar mountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueduct begirds the base of a tree.
26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has the inhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternal darkness reigning on the other.
27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starry sphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of a star by the beholders below.
28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deep and dark abyss of infinite void.
29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond it was the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of impervious darkness.
30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black bees, and as the shade of the black tamála trees; there is neither the stable earth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void is devoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time. (This is chaos).
CHAPTER CXXVII.
Cosmology of the Universe.
Argument:—Account of the Earth and the starry frame below the endless Vacuum, which envelops the Universe.
Ráma said:—Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth is situated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do the stars revolve about the same.