1. Kelása.-A mountain range in Himavá. It is one of the five ranges which stand round Anotatta and is of silver colour, two hundred leagues high, bent inwards "like a crow's beak." (SNA.ii.437f; MA.ii.585; UdA.300; AA.ii.759). It is sixty leagues in breadth, and Álavaka, on his way to his house, having heard to his great anger that the Buddha was there, placed his left foot on Manosilátala and his right on Kelásakúta. The touch of his foot sent pieces of the rock flying, and his shout "I am Álavaka" was heard throughout Jambudípa (SNA.i.223; SA.i.248).
Kelása is often used in similes to describe an object that is perfectly white (E.g., J.iv.232; vi.490, 515; the horse Kanthaka, Mbv.26; DhA.i.192; Cv.lxxiii.114), very stately (E.g., an elephant's head or a big building, J.i.321; v.52, 53; Cv.lxxviii.77), or difficult to destroy (E.g., J.v.39).
In the Mahávastu (ii.97, 109; see also iii.309, 438), Kailása is mentioned as the abode of the Kinnaras.
In Sanskrit mythology, Kailása is given as the abode of the gods, chiefly Siva and Kubera. See, e.g., Epic Mythology passim and Ved. Ind. s.v. The mountain range has been identified as belonging to the trans-Himálayan system and consisting of a group of mountains over twenty thousand feet in height (see Cv.Trs.i.280, n.4).
2. Kelása.-A vihára in Ceylon, probably in the district of Malagana. At one time sixty thousand monks dwelt there with Khuddatissa at their head (M.xxxii.53). This is probably not the Kelása vihára (in Jambudípa?) whence, we are told, Suriyagotta came with ninety thousand monks to the foundation of the Mahá Thúpa. M.xxix.43.