The Geography of the Puranas c10.97

c10.97

The Purāṇic ‘nava khaṇḍas’ mentioned above are comparable to the division of Bhāratavarṣa into nine bhedas by the celebrated astronomers Parasara and Varāhamihira.⁶ These astronomers conceived the shape of India as that of a tortoise (Kūrma) lying outspread; they therefore describe the country as Kūrma-cakra. Each of the nine bhedas is called a ‘varga’ by Varāhamihira; Bhāratavarṣa is thus divided into nine parts conforming to nine of the ten points of the compass, e.g., the central, eastern, southern, western, northern, south-eastern or Agneya, south-western or Nairata, north-western or Vayava and north-eastern or Arsana. Pāñcāla was the main district in the central division, Magadha in the eastern, Pulinda in the north-eastern, Madra in the northern, Harahaura (Hara Huna) in the north-western, Sindhu in the western, Anarta in the south-western, Avanta in the southern and Kaliṅga in the south-eastern (Bṛhat Saṃ., XIV, 32, 33.). But when Varāhamihira describes details, he assigns Sindhu and Sauvira in the south-western division (Nairata) along with Pahlava and Kamboja and evidently Anarta also (ibid, XIV. 17). These details are also supported by the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, which assigns both Sindhu-Sauvira and Anarta to the south-west.