जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Nandīśvara · the white mountains

The sixteen Dadhimukha

दधिमुख

Sixteen white mountains, one standing in the middle of each lake — cylinders, the same width at the top as at the bottom.

Dadhi is curd, and that is the colour: crystal white. Each is 64,000 yojana high with 1,000 more underground, and 10,000 across at both ends — so unlike every other mountain in this cosmology it does not taper. It is a drum, not a peak.

One rises from the centre of each of the sixteen lakes, four to each Añjana. Each carries an eternal temple exactly like the ones on the black mountains and the jewelled ones.

The sources give the sixteen no individual names, and none are supplied here.

Measurements and counts

Count16
Height64,000 yojana
Below ground1,000 yojana
Width10,000 yojana, top and bottom
Shapea cylinder
Colourwhite
Namednone of them

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समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10