The Geography of the Puranas c12.113

c12.113

The Purāṇas occasionally, the Arabs generally, and the Greeks invariably, made the mistake of joining the African Coast round the Indian Ocean to the East Indian Islands. Sumātrā and Malaya on Ptolemy's maps show the African Horn pulled far eastwards to the south of Sumātrā and Jāvā, thus enclosing the Indian Ocean in the south. In the beginnig of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, the peninsula of Malaya and Sumātrā join the 'Island or Dwīpa of Saṅkha' (or Zeng). Raneh of Arabian writers, which includes Madagascar and the surrounding islands, was also recognised by the Purāṇics who called it Hariṇa which is mentioned by the Bhāgawata Purāṇa along with Saṅkha Dwīpa, in the south-western quarter of Jambū Dwīpa.