The Geography of the Puranas c10.98

c10.98

The Purāṇas as well as the Mahābhārata give and follow a simpler though less scientific regional division of Bhāratavarṣa, i.e., its division into 5 or 7 regions. The division of India into five regions is as old as the Atharvaveda (XIX. 17. 1-9) and the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (VIII. 14), and was adopted by the later Brāhmaṇical and Buddhistic authorities.7 Thus Smṛti writers like Baudhāyana seem to suggest a fivefold division while Rājaśekhara in his Kāvyamīmāṃśa actually adopts it. Buddhist writers like Yuan Chwang and the authors of earlier texts also follow the same division. The Mahābhārata also describes five divisions in detail, the central or Madhyadeśa, the eastern, southern, western and northern and at least three Purāṇas, the Matsya, Vāyu and Viṣṇu, agree with it. According to the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Madhyadeśa was occupied by the Kurus and Pāñcālas, the east by the people of Kāmarūpa, the south by the Puṇḍras, Kaliṅgas and Magadhas, the west by the Saurāṣṭras, Suras, Abhiras, Arbudas, Karusas, Mālavas, Sauviras and Saindhavas, and the north (?) by the Huṇas, Salvas, the people of Sakala, Ambasthas, Parasikas, Ramas, etc. (Wilson's Viṣṇu Purāṇa, Vol. II. Bk. II. 3. p. 132); there is, however, no mention of the northern division in the text but it is nevertheless evident. The Viṣṇu Purāṇa list of countries is very meagre; the Mahābhārata has a much longer catalogue, but it is without any arrangement; so also is the Padma Purāṇa.