The Geography of the Puranas c12.30

c12.30

Towns and cities. The Purāṇas do not give a complete list of important cities and towns of Bhārata as such. There are, however, scattered references to capital or major cities or centres of religious importance in some of the Purāṇas. But a composite picture of urban centres or human agglomerations of Ancient India can be obtained with the help of contemporary Sanskrit, Buddhist (Sanskrit and Pali) and Jain literature. The accounts of foreign writers and travellers (particularly the Chinese) are quite helpful in finding and locating them. Cunningham, Law, Sircar and other writers have mentioned many, if not all the important centres of Ancient India. It is with the help of their works that the accompanying map of 'Cities and Towns of Ancient India' has been prepared. It gives the most probable sites of cities and towns mentioned in various works. It is not claimed that the map is complete. Many centres had to be left out on account of ambiguity regarding their name or site. It will, however, be helpful in visualising the pattern of population concentration in Ancient India, and also in locating the ancient routes depicted on the next map (Ancient Routes).