History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.47

v2.c28.s1.47

Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Śuktimān, Rikṣa, Vindhya and Pāriyātra. The first four are the well-known Eastern Ghats, Malaya, Western Ghats, and Girnar. Rikṣa is the Aravali range while Vindhya is the well-known range that stretches across India. But Pāriyātra is difficult to identify. It is described as the range to the south of which lies the Kaumāra Khaṇḍa; and from it rises the Veda—Smṛiti and other rivers. This description does not assist us much though we suspect that Pāriyātra now is some portion of the Western Vindhya range. The Narmadā and Sarasā properly rise from Vindhya but how can Śatadru and Chandrabhāgā rise from the Rikṣa range? Rishikulyā and Kumārī rise from the Śuktimān mountain of Kathiwar. The Tāpī, the Payoṣṇī, the Nirvindhyā, the Kāverī, the Kṛiṣṇā, the Veṇī, the Bhīmarathī rise from the Sahya which must be interpreted as including the Sātpura. And strangely the Godāvarī is conspicuous by its absence. The Kṛitamālā and the Tāmraparṇi rise from the Malaya Mountains while the Triśanu and the Rishyakulyā rise from the Mahendra. Probably the writer or recaster of the Purāṇa had not much acquaintance with northern or southern India and was a native of Gujarat or Malwa as he has described the Stambha (Khambayat), Prabhāsa, Avanti and Nāgara Tirthas with a fulness which bespeaks his partiality for and his familiarity with them. With these remarks we give the Skanda Purāṇa list of countries below: