Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c9.s3.1

c9.s3.1

GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND OF JAMBŪDVĪPA : Indian art did not exist in isolation but as part of a wider cultural context named after Jambūdvīpa which is the name in the Purāṇas for the vast area from China to the Caspian sea and from India to Siberia. In earlier geography of the four continents (*Chaturdvīpī-Bhūgola*) the earth was conceived in the form of a four-petalled lotus (*Chaturdala-Bhūpadma*), with Meru mountain in the centre as pericarp, and with *Bhadrāśva* in the east, *Bhārata* in the south, *Ketumāla* in the west and *Uttarakuru* in the north. Later on this geographical conception gave place to that of seven continents, in which the whole of Asia became Jambūdvīpa. In this chapter Jambūdvīpa is used in this particular sense to conceive of the art and culture which spread over this wide territory.