Various Hindu scriptures refer to the personification of the Himalayas by different names, and hence Himavat is also called Himavant (Sanskrit: हिमवन्त, lit. icy),Himavān (Sanskrit: हिमवान्, lit. snowy), Himaraja (Sanskrit: हिमराज, lit. king of snow), and Parvateshwara (Sanskrit: पर्वतेश्वर, lit. god of mountains).
Legend
Himavat (left top) performing wedding rituals of his daughter Parvati with Shiva (right).
Himavat fathered Ganga, the river goddess, as well as Ragini,[3] and Parvati, the second consort of Shiva. His wife and queen consort is the Vedic goddess Mainavati, the daughter of Mount Meru,[4] according to the Ramayana, or is the daughter of Svadhā and her husband Kavi, a member of the class of Pitṛs, as per some other sources like the Vishnu Purana.
The Shiva Purana describes the wedding between Himavat and Menā.[5]
The sacred text of Devi Gita, which is found in the last nine chapters (31-40) of the seventh skandha of Devi-Bhagavata Purana, is a dialogue between Parvati and her father Himavat. It deals with the universal form of the Devi, meditations on the major texts of Upanishads, ashtanga-yoga, the yogas of jnana, karma and bhakti, locations of the temples dedicated to the Devi and the rituals pertaining to her worship.
Krishna once performed a tapasya on the peaks of the Himalayas to appease Himavat, which led to his eldest son, Pradyumna, being born to his favourite wife, Rukmini.[7]
