The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.30

v1.c24.30

The account of the *manvantara* of Manu Svāyambhuva, the first in the series of fourteen, includes a description of the universe as it now exists or is supposed to exist. The greater part of this description is, like the chronology, imaginary. The world, according to this primitive geography, consists of seven concentric continents separated by encircling seas. These are the 'seas of treacle and seas of butter' at which Lord Macaulay, with his utter inability to understand any form of early culture, scoffed in his celebrated minute on Indian education. The innermost of these continents, which—and here we come to actuality—is separated from the next by salt water, is Jambudvīpa; and of Jambudvīpa the most important region is Bharatavarsha or Bhārata, that is to say, the sub-continent of India: