Lavaṇa Samudra
The salt ocean, a ring 2,00,000 yojana wide around Jambūdvīpa — a sea 1,000 yojana deep with a wall of water 16,000 high standing down its middle, and four abysses a lakh deep beneath it.
Its water is salt, and its floor slopes down from each shore for 95,000 yojana until it is 1,000 yojana deep. Then, over the 10,000 in the middle, the sea rises instead: a standing crest of water 16,000 yojana high, swelling and subsiding twice a day. Beneath it, sunk into the floor, are the four Pātāla-vessels, each a lakh of yojana deep, whose breathing wind is the tide — and 7,884 small vessels beside them.
The sea is kept to its bound by 1,74,000 nāga gods, whose Indras sit on eight mountains in the water — the four Velādhārin at 42,000 yojana from the shore and the four Anuvelādhārin at the corners — under Susthita, lord of the ocean, on his island Gautamadvīpa.
Fifty-six antardvīpas sit in this ocean, in the four quadrants off the ends of the Himavān and Śikharī ranges. Four suns and four moons circle above it.
Measurements and counts
| Ring width | 2,00,000 yojana |
|---|---|
| Greatest depth | 1,000 yojana, at 95,000 from each shore |
| The crest | 10,000 wide · 16,000 high |
| Tide | twice a day |
| Great vessels | 4, a lakh deep |
| Small vessels | 7,884 |
| Held by | 1,74,000 nāgakumāras |
| Islands | 56 antardvīpas |
| Suns / moons | 4 / 4 |