Let’s talk about your baseless assumption that literature on the Himalayas is a Sino-Pak monopoly or that such literature is merely rhetoric.

Those not born in the cradle of the Himalayas obviously fail to grasp that the Himalayas represent the soul of a nation.

[THREAD] 1/n https://twitter.com/MichaelKugelman/status/1279017456611274752

The Himalayas are not tools for political rhetoric. They encompass a profound sentiment of devotion.

Innumerable ancient Sanskrit texts beautifully expound the magnificence of the Himalayas, but I'm choosing excerpts from one of the masterpieces, Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam. 2/n

अस्त्युत्तरस्यां दिशि देवतात्मा हिमालयो नाम नगाधिराजः।
पूर्वापरौ तोयनिधी विगाह्य स्थितः पृथिव्या इव मानदण्डः॥ १-१

On the northern frontier of this country that forms the heartland of gods, intercalating himself into eastern and western oceans…3/n

…like a measuring stick of earth, there stands the sovereign of snowy mountains renowned as Himalaya.*

Far in the north, Himalaya lifting high
His towery summits till they cleave the sky,
Spans the wide land from east to west sea,
Lord of the Hills, instinct with Deity. † 4/n

Swami Vivekananda’s lucid translation (§) of this verse: The poet implies and suggests that the Himalaya is not a mere wall accidentally constructed by nature. It is ensouled by Divinity and is the protector of India and her civilization not only from the chill icy blasts…5/n

…blowing from the arctic region but also from the deadly and destructive incursions of invaders. The Himalaya further protects India by sending the great rivers Sindhu, Ganga, and Brahmaputra perennially fed by melted ice irrespective of the monsoon rains. 6/n

Manadanda implies that the poet affirms that the Indian civilization is the best of all human civilizations and forms the standard by which all the other human civilizations, past, present, and future, must be tested. Such was the poet’s lofty conception of patriotism. 7/n

अनन्तरत्नप्रभवस्य यस्य हिमं न सौभाग्यविलोपि जातम्।
एको हि दोषो गुणसन्निपाते निमज्जतीन्दोः किरणेष्विवाङ्कः॥ १-३

Whose snow has not become a despoiler of his exquisiteness for he is the fountainhead of innumerous products of high value; why because…8/n

a single blemish cannot be fingered when umpteen virtues are present; just like a speckle in the moon that does not despoil his exquisiteness, but wanes in the exquisite moonlight; such an unblemished Himavan is there in the North.* 9/n

आमेखलं सञ्चरतां घनानां च्छायामधःसानुगतां निषेव्य।
उद्वेजिता वृष्टिभिराश्रयन्ते शृङ्गाणि यस्यातपवन्ति सिद्धाः॥ १-५

At whose waistline clouds will meander enabling the demigods to enjoy in their shades, but they have to take recourse to that mountain’s sunny peaks when…10/n

…they are distraught by cloudbursts of the very same clouds, such a mountain loftier than the clouds is there in the North.*

सप्तर्षिहस्तावचितावशेषाण्यधो विवस्वान्परिवर्तमानः।
पद्मानि यस्याग्रसरोरुहाणि प्रबोधयत्यूर्ध्वमुखैर्मयूखैः॥ १-१६ (translation below) 11/n

Whose lotuses, growing in the lakes on the highest summits and left after being collected by the hands of the seven sages, the sun, moving on a lower level, blossoms by rays shooting upwards.‡

The Lotus-flowers upon Himalaya’s steep, (Contd.) 12/n

That the bright Seven who star the northern sky
Cull each a blossom from their seats on high;
And when the Sun pours forth his morning glow
In streams of glory from his path below,
They gain new beauty as his kisses break
His darlings’ slumber on the mountain lake.† 13/n

Neither the sages in highest constellation can bend down, nor can the sun with downward rays possibly shoot his rays up. This is only to show the loftiness of Himalayas.*

Citation
*RD Karmarkar, Professor of Sanskrit, New Poona College on SD Gajendragadkar's edition, 1923 14/n

‡ Kumarasambhava Cantos I-VII – Sanskrit Commentary, English Translation & Notes – MR Kale, Second Edition, 1917

†Birth of the War God, A Poem by Kalidasa – English Translation by RTH Griffith, 1853

§Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda - Third edition published, 1983 15/n

The very name of these glorious mountains is in the ancient Hindu language of Sanskrit.

हिमस्य आलय: इति हिमालय: भवति

The abode of snow, is therefore, the Himalaya.

Any attempt to ignorantly paint them as the monopoly of the Sino-Paks will be rebutted with full force. n/n