The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c21.45

v1.c21.45

The geography of the Sūtras illustrates very forcibly the limited reach of interest at the same time that knowledge of a wider country was thoroughly disseminated. Kaliṅga on the eastern coast is even the subject of versification, ‘He sins in his feet who visits the Kaliṅgas,’ and one who travels to their country must perform a purificatory sacrifice; as must they who visit the Āraṭṭas (in the Punjab) or the Puṇḍras and Vaṅgas (in Bengal), while the inhabitants of the country lying about Multān, Surat, the Deccan, Mālwā, western Bengal, and Bihār are all declared by Baudhāyana to be of mixed origin; and (by implication) their customs are not to be followed. The ‘country of the Āryans’ embraces in fact only the narrow district between the Patiāla district in the Punjab and Bihār, and between the northern hills (Himālayas) and those of Mālwā; some even confine the definition of Āryāvarta (country of the Āryans) to the district between the Ganges and Jumna¹.