Nandana Vana

Nandana Vana, “the forest of delight”

Dvārapāla has other meanings too: see all meanings of Dvārapāla.

Nandana Vana, the Nandana forest, is the forest that lies on the north side of Meru, the king of mountains at the centre of Jambūdvīpa. The Agni Purāṇa names it in Agnideva’s description of the bhuvanakośa (the shape of the worlds), given to Vasishṭha Maharshi, as one of the four forests that surround Meru on its four sides: Caitraratha on the east, Gandhamādana on the south, Vaibhrāja on the west and Nandana on the north.

The four forests around Meru

Agnideva tells that the seven dvīpas, each ringed by its own ocean, have Jambūdvīpa in their middle, and in the middle of Jambūdvīpa stands the lofty Meru, eighty-four thousand yojanas high and going sixteen thousand yojanas down into the earth. It is like the karṇikā (pericarp) of the lotus that is the earth. Around it lies Ilāvṛta-varsha, nine thousand yojanas on every side. On its four sides stand four mountains, as if they were pillars set by Īśvara to hold up Sumeru: Mandarācala on the east, Gandhamādana on the south, Vipula on the west and Supārśva on the north, each ten thousand yojanas in extent.

Around Meru, Agnideva then names the varshas, the forests and the lakes. East of Meru is Bhadrāśva-varsha and west of it Ketumāla. The forests are Caitraratha on the east, Gandhamādana on the south, Vaibhrāja on the west and Nandana on the north. The lakes, in the east and the other directions, are Aruṇoda, Mahābhadra, Śītoda and Mānasa. On the summit of Sumeru is Brahmapurī, fourteen thousand yojanas in extent, and on its four sides are the cities of Indra and the other lokapālas. From Brahmapurī the Gaṅgā, who rose from the foot of Bhagavān Vishṇu, descends from svarga.

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 108