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MOUNT KAlLAS THE UPPER SATLAJ AND INDUS. 25
is also the connecting link between the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas. North-
west of it rises the Tise of the Tibetans, the Ka'ilas of the Hindus, whose pyramidal
mass is isolated from the other mountains in the Gang-dis-ri chain. When the
Hindus perceive in the distance its lofty crest presenting the form of a ruined
pagoda, they fall prostrate seven times, and seven times raise their hands towards
the heavens. In their it eyes is the abode of Mahadeo, or the Great God, the first
and grandest of all those Olympuses on whose summits the peoples at each succes-
sive stage of their westward migrations have seen in fancy the dazzling light of
their deities. It is the Mount JVIeru of the ancient Hindus the pistil of the sym-
bolic lotus flower which represents the world. Nor do the Tibetan lamas yield to
the Hindu yoghis in their veneration for the sacred mountain. The most daring
amongst them undertake a pilgrimage of several days round the Ka'ilas across the
snows and rugged ground. In the second century of the Christian era the first
Fig.
7- MOUNT KAII.AS AND THE FOUR SACKED RIVEKS.
Scale 1 : 3,000,000.
EoFG
. CO Miles.
Buddhist monastery on the plateau was built at the foot of this mountain, with its
four faces, "one of gold, the second of silver, the third of rubies, the last of lapis-
laxuli." The Hindu legends also here seek the mysterious grottoes whence emerge
the four divine animals the elephant, lion, cow, and horse symbols of the four
great rivers the Satlaj, Indus, Ganges, and Tsangbo. These mighty streams,
which flow in four different directions, rise on the flanks of the same mountain
within u space of not more than 60 miles in extent. The Aluknanda, Karnali,
and other head-stream! of the Ganges rise on the Indian side of the Himalaya*,
and the Indus receives its first waters from the northern snows of the Gang-di.s-ri.
But between these two extreme points occurs that deep depression where rise the
Satlaj and Tsangbo.
At a former geological epoch- the orescent-shaped depression skirting the
northern slope of the Himalayas was probably flooded by a vast alpine lake, of
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