The Geography of the Puranas c12.s2: 6. Varāha Dwīpa
The Geography of the Purāṇas c12.s2
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6. Varāha Dwīpa
c12.s2.1
The characteristic features of this dwīpa are given as follows:
c12.s2.2
(i) Inhabited by numerous savage people.
c12.s2.3
(ii) Large number of prosperous cities.
c12.s2.4
(iii) Mountains, rivers and forests.
c12.s2.5
(iv) The Varāha mountain with gorges, waterfalls, and caves.
c12.s2.6
(v) The Varāhi river of clear and tasty water. It banks are regarded as holy.
c12.s2.7
(vi) Viṣṇu (in the form of ‘Varāha’) is the principal diety of this dwīpa.
c12.s2.8
Wilford⁹ describes a division of the world into seven dwīpas, but he does not mention its source. According to this description the divisions are:
c12.s2.9
Jambū is in the centre; to the west, reckoning from north to south are the dwīpas of Varāha, Kuśa and Saṅkha; to the east reckoning from south to north are Malaya, Yama and Aṅga’.
c12.s2.10
Our identifications detailed above very closely fit in with the above alignment with respect to Aṅga, Yama, Malaya, Saṅkha and Kuśa dwīpas mentioned by the Purāṇas in connection with the islands and peninsulas of the Indian Ocean. The only help we can get from Wilford’s statement is that Varāha must be an island or peninsula in the west, i.e. in the Arabian sea, somewhere adjacent to the Saṅkha Dwīpa which has been identified with Madagascar and the adjoining African Coast, and to the Kuśa Dwīpa of which a part is identical with the Arabian Peninsula.
c12.s2.11
Considering the characteristic features of the Varāha Dwīpa given in the Purāṇas and summarised above, one has to eliminate the dry and arid lands of Makran and the Persian Coast. The only area which can possibly, if not definitely, be identified with the Varāha Dwīpa, is the most perfect peninsula known as the African Horn which may be added in the Purāṇic list as Varāha Dwīpa. The only river Webbe Shibeli in the region represents the Varāhi river and the mountains of Arusi represent the Varāha Mt. of the Purāṇas. A large number of cities, forests and savage tribes can only be applicable to a portion of this peninsula of the Arabian Sea.