• Sineru

A mountain, forming the centre of the world. It is submerged in the sea to a depth of eighty four thousand yojanas and rises above the surface to the same height. It is surrounded by seven mountain ranges -

1. Yugandhara,
2. Isadhara,
3. Karavīka,
4. Sudassana,
5. Nemindhara,
6. Vinataka and
7. Assakanna

(SnA..ii.443; Sp.i.119; Vsm.206; cp. Mtu.ii.300; Dvy.217; it is eighty thousand leagues broad, A.iv.100).

On the top of Sineru is Tāvatimsa (SnA..ii.485f), while at its foot is the Asurabhavana of ten thousand leagues; in the middle are the four Mahādīpā with their two thousand smaller dīpā. (The Asurabhavana was not originally there, but sprang up by the power of the Asuras when they were thrown down from Tāvatimsa, DhA.i.272; see, e.g., SnA.i.201).

Sineru is often used in similes, its chief characteristic being its un-shake ability (sutthuthapita) (E.g., Sn. vs.683). It is also called Meru or Sumeru (E.g., Cv.xlii.2), Hemameru (E.g., Cv.xxxii.79) and Mahāneru (M.i.338; also Neru, J. iii.247).

Each Cakkavāla has its own Sineru (A.i.227; v.59), and a time comes when even Sineru is destroyed (S.iii.149).

When the Buddha went to Tāvatimsa, he covered the distance there from the earth in three strides he set his right foot down on the top of Yugandhara and his left on Sineru, the next step brought him to Tāvatimsa, the whole distance so covered being sixty eight hundred thousand leagues. DhA.iii.216.