The Geography of the Puranas c10.18

c10.18

Sūktimat, Suktimān or Suktimanta (Matsya) is one of the seven principal ranges of Peninsular India (cf. Rājaśekhara's Kāvyamīmāṃsā). One of the principal rivers coming down this mountain, Ṛṣikulyā has been included among the rivers flowing from the Mahendra mountain by the majority of Purāṇas while Matsya Purāṇa excludes it from the former. The Kūrma Purāṇa speaks of Trisāmā, Ṛṣika (Ṛṣikulyā) and Vaṃśadhāriṇī as flowing from the Sūktimat and not from Mahendra as other Purāṇas say. This means that the Ṛṣikulyā, Pitrisomā and Vaṃśadhārā are doubtful rivers in the sense that they may be associated either with the Mahendra mountain or Sūktimat mountain. They were border cases, hence it may safely be concluded that the Mahendra and Sūktimat mountains are so close to, and so mixed up with, each other that a river or rivers may be taken as coming from one or the other mountain. Such cases are not uncommon in Purāṇic descriptions. For instance, the majority of the Purāṇas mention the Payoṣṇī, the Nirvindhyā and the Tāpī as rivers rising in the Vindhyas while the Viṣṇu Purāṇa considers them as rising in the Rikṣa mountain. Thus the inference is that the two mountains are so close to each other and their extent so undefined that some rivers may be associated with either of them. In fact the two ranges, the Vindhya and Rikṣa are so mixed up with each other that some Purāṇas give instead of a separate list of rivers from each, a composite list of rivers having their sources in both these mountains. It is also possible that there may be rivers of the same name in two entirely different regions but the Purāṇic descriptions are so clear on this point that one would like to favour the earlier conclusion, that the same rivers have been included in both the lists.