The Geography of the Puranas c10.4

c10.4

The topography of the country finds a prominent place in our ancient literature. This is but natural. High or steep mountains and broad and perennial rivers control and guide human movements and influence human settlement; thus from the human point of view they are very significant. The Purāṇas, therefore, always introduced regions, lands or countries, big or small by means of their important mountains and rivers. They also found it necessary to classify mountains according to their functional significance, for instance we have Maryāda parvatas (boundary mountains), Varṣa parvatas (regional mountains) Viṣkambha parvatas (subjacent mountains), Kula-parvatas (group or class mountains) and Kṣudra-parvatas (small hills). This classification is helpful in the identification of land features on a relief map of the country.