A mountain, forming the center 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 -
(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 Távatimsa (SNA.ii.485f), while at its foot is the Asurabhavana of ten thousand leagues; in the middle are the four Mahádípá with their two thousand smaller dípá. (The Asurabhavana was not originally there, but sprang up by the power of the Asuras when they were thrown down from Távatimsa, DhA.i.272; see, e.g., SNA.i.201).
Sineru is often used in similes, its chief characteristic being its un-shakeability (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 Maháneru (M.i.338; also Neru, J.iii.247).
Each Cakkavála 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 Távatimsa, 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 Távatimsa, the whole distance so covered being sixty eight hundred thousand leagues. DhA.iii.216.