Sītā (river)

Sītā · sītā, “the furrow”

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

Sītā is the eastern of the four streams into which the Gaṅgā divides as she falls from the sky. The Brahma Purāṇa tells of it in Chapter 18, in the account of the earth and of Meru at its centre given to the munis.

On the summit of Meru stands the city of Brahmā, fourteen thousand yojanas wide, with the cities of the eight dikpālas at its eight corners. The Ākāśa-gaṅgā, the Gaṅgā of the sky, issues from the foot of Bhagavān Vishṇu, flows through the orb of the moon and falls on all four sides of Brahmapurī. Falling so, she becomes four streams in the four directions: Sītā, Alakanandā, Cakshu and Bhadrā.

Sītā travels through the sky from the eastern mountain to another mountain, then passes over the mountains of the Bhadrāśva varsha and reaches the ocean. Bhadrāśva is the varsha east of Meru, and there Bhagavān Vishṇu dwells in the form of Hayagrīva. Of the other streams, Alakanandā flows south into Bhārata-varsha, divides into seven and enters the ocean; Cakshu crosses the western mountains into Ketumāla and joins the ocean; and Bhadrā crosses the northern mountains through the lands of the Uttara Kurus to the northern ocean.

Source: Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 18

Sources

• Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 18