Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Geography of the Puranas c15: Chapter II

The Geography of the Purāṇas c15

Language
English

Chapter II

c15.1

1 On the number 'seven', see also 'Christomathie arabe' of M. de Sacy, Vol. II, p. 250. 2 Book 1, Ch. XXII. 3 *Nat. Hist.* of Pliny, Bk. VI, last chapter. 4 M. Reinaud, *Geographie d' Aboulfeda*, Vol. II (Paris, 1848), p. 11. 5 *Ibid.*, p. 9. 6 *Zend Avesta*, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, p. xxx; Vol. II, pp. 357, 363, 409 (Bombay edn.). 7 Masūdī adds in *Kitāb-al-Tanbīh* that the name of Khommneretz was also used by the Chaldeans and Assyrians. This name is written by him as Khanrath and elsewhere as Khibuth. 8 M. Reinaud and Langles, *Relations des voyages des Arabes et des Persans dans l'Inde et a la Chine* (Paris, 1845), Vol. I, p. 81. 9 Masūdī, *Muruj al-Dhhāb* (Ed. Barbier de Meynard, Paris, 1861-77), Vol. I, p. 70. 10 *Foe-kou-ki*, p. 82. 11 This is discussed in the next chapter. 12 W. E. Clarke, *Sakadwipa and Swetadwipa*, *JAOS*, Vol. 39, 1919, pp. 209-42. 13 So named in the Mahābhārata (6, 6, 13) and by unanimous Purāṇic tradition which in spite of the development of an enlarged theoretical geography kept this older concept as the basis for the description of Jambū Dwipa. 14 For the four oceans, see Hopkins, *JAOS*, 1910, p. 371, and *Epic Mythology*, p. 122. Compare Harivaṁśa, 220 (2, 370), 70 (1, 303), where four oceans are referred to along with four castes, four ages and 'quatres holocausts' 44 (1.205). Varuna is described as surrounded by the four oceans. 15 See 143 (2.88); 148 (2.115); 149 (2.120). 16 Seven dwipas, 4 (1.26); 33 (1.154-5, 157), 149 (2.120), 188 (2.115); 'Seven Dwipas and Seven Seas', 30 (1.136). Are the seven dwipas and seven seas of the Harivaṁśa merely conventional, or is the Purāṇic geography implied? For the conventional use of 'seven' in the Mahābhārata, see Hopkins, *JAOS*, 1910, pp. 378-81. 17 See Hardy, *Manual of Buddhism*, pp. 3, 4, 12 and *Legends and Theories of the Buddhists*, pp. 80 (especially p. 85). 18 Translated by Burgess and Whitney, *JAOS*, 6.390. 19 *Indian Antiquary*, 30, 243-4. 20 Colebrook, *Essays*, II, p. 200, notes that Videha is divided into two parts, eastern and western (Pūrva and Apara). Compare with this the Pūrvavideha of the Buddhists and see Weber, IA, 30, 243. The name of the northernmost region (Airāvata) agrees with the name of the northernmost region of Mahābhārata (6.6. 37-9).

c15.2

²¹ Taittirīya Āraṇyaka names a mountain Sudarśana (1.31.2). The Rāmāyaṇa (4.40.61) mentions, a Sudarśanadvīpa, and (4.43.16) locates a mountain Sudarśana in the north.

c15.3

²² For reference to 'many dvīpas', see Hopkins, JAOS, 1910, pp. 370-2. The number 'seven' is not to be taken too literally—cf. 1.75.19: Purūravas 'had sway over thirteen dvīpas of the sea'; 3.3.52: 'The whole earth with her thirteen dvīpas'; 3.134.20: 'Thirteen dvīpas exist on earth'; 7.70.15 refers to eighteen dvīpas; 12.14.25: After the statement that the king had conquered Bhadrāśva, Ketumāla, Bhārata and Uttarakuru it is said that he penetrated the ocean and ruled the populous dvīpas and antardvīpas. It seems clear that these passages describe the whole earth and reveal no knowledge of concentric dvīpas.

c15.4

²³ Although six mountains are enumerated in Kuśa and in Krauñca.

c15.5

²⁴ Vāyu, 44.4; Mārkaṇḍeya (55.10) describes a Mt. Kṛṣṇa in the west in Ketumāla. Mārkaṇḍeya (55.10) describes a Mt. Kṛṣṇa west of Meru.

c15.6

²⁵ Probably Sumātrā. At any rate it corresponds to the later Suvarṇabhūmi.

c15.7

²⁶ Harivaṃśa, 220 (2.370), gives this as the name of a mountain in the east. In Vāyu, 33, 32-3, it is the name of a district in Plakṣadvīpa, in Viṣṇu, 2-2-26, and Bhāgavata, 5.16.27, the name of a mountain near Mt. Meru, in Varāha (p. 331,1.7), the name of a prince of Śakadvīpa.

c15.8

²⁷ Compare the Red Sea named Lohitya in Harivaṃśa, 231 (2.401), mentioned in connection with the milk ocean and Mt. Udaya in the east. Compare also the Jaina Aruṇadvīpa and the Aruṇodaya (red) sea. Viṣṇu, 2.2.24, locates a lake named Aruṇoda in the east in Bhadrāśva. Cf. Lohitya (in the east in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, 14.6).

c15.9

²⁸ Nowhere is the name Ṛṣabha connected with Śakadvīpa and the milk ocean, but Mbh. 5, 112.22 and 5, 113.1 locate a Mt. Ṛṣabha in the east (5, 112.1-2), across the ocean. In Mbh. and the Purāṇas it is the name of a mountain in India and of a mountain north of Meru; cf. Wilson, The Viṣṇu Purāṇa, 2.117.141 note. Vāyu, 49.11, locates Mt. Ṛṣabha in Plakṣadvīpa; Rāmāyaṇa, 4.41.40, and Harivaṃśa, 220 (2.371), locate it in the south. In Kathāsaritsāgara, 54.16, Vṛṣabha is the name of a mountain in Narikeladvīpa located by the Bṛhatsaṃhitā in the south-east).

c15.10

²⁹ Bhāskara (in passage quoted above); Vāyu, 47.76, locate it in the south; Mbh. 12.347.59 in the north-east.

c15.11

³⁰ By a curious coincidence the medieval traveller Marginolli (Yule Cordier, Cathay and the Way Thither, 3, 231), who voyaged from China to India, describes a sea which 'blazed like fire, as if in flames, and fire-spitting dragons flying by'.

c15.12

³¹ Mahābhārata, 6, 12.9, describes a mountain in Kuśadvīpa as abounding in corals.

c15.13

²² For this whole passage see Hardy, *Manual of Buddhism*, p. 13.

c15.14

²³ There are two peninsulas of Asia which resemble the ears of a hare. They are Kamchatka (in the N.E.) and Malay Peninsula (in the S.E.). The former may be the Kāśyapadwīpa and the latter, the Nāgadwīpa of the Mahābhārata (see also Chapter XII).

c15.15

²⁴ Do-ab (Persian)=dwīpa (Sanskrit)=jezira (Arabic).

c15.16

²⁵ V. Kennedy, *Researches into the Nature and Affinity of Ancient and Hindu Mythology*, p. 407; Barth, *The Religions of India*, pp. 431-2; E. W. Hopkins, *Epic Mythology*, JAOS, 1910, pp. 369-72; Charpentier, *Journal Asiatique*, 1910, Vol. II, p. 605; Frazer, *A Literary History of India*, pp. 231-3; R. G. Bhandarkar, *Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems*, pp. 5-7, 32ff (Strassburg, 1913); Howell, *The Soul of India*, pp. 533-4, 546; Lanfer, *American Anthropologist*, 1916, pp. 572-3.

c15.17

²⁶ W. F. Warren, ‘Śākadwīpa in the Mythical World-View of India’, *JAGS*, 1920, Vol. 40, pp. 356-8.

c15.18

²⁷ Col. Gerini, *Researches on Ptolemy’s Geography of Eastern Asia* (1909), p. 725.

c15.19

²⁸ F. Wilford, *Asiatic Researches*, Vol. VIII, p. 267-346.

c15.20

²⁹ V. V. Iyer, ‘The Seven Dwīpas of the Puranas’, *The Quarterly Journal of the Mythical Society* (London), Vol. 15, No. 1, p. 62, No. 2, pp. 119-127; No. 3, pp. 238-45; Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 273-82; Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 30-45; No. 2, pp.94-105.

c15.21

³⁰ See Chapter XII.

c15.22

³¹ *Asiatic Researches*, Vol. VIII, p. 300.

c15.23

³² *Q.J. of Mythical Soc.*, Vol. 15, p. 62-75.

c15.24

³³ See Chapter V on ‘The Northern Regions of Jambū Dwīpa’.

c15.25

³⁴ *Matsya Purāṇa*, 123, 12

c15.26

³⁵ *Ibid.*, 123, 13.

c15.27

³⁶ Fujiyama means literally ‘The Peerless Peak.’ It is regarded as the ‘Heavens’ by the Japanese.

c15.28

³⁷ See Chapter XII.

c15.29

³⁸ Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (58, 23) mentions a Krauñca Dwīpa in Southern India and so does Bṛhat Saṃhitā (14, 13). It appears that there were two Krauñca mountains.

c15.30

³⁹ *Matsya Purāṇa* (122, 89).

c15.31

⁴⁰ *Vāyu Purāṇa* (49, 68, 69).

c15.32

⁴¹ *Matsya Purāṇa* (122, 79).

c15.33

⁴² Because, uninhabited regions, as mentioned earlier, do not find a place in the Purāṇic scheme of dwīpas.

c15.34

⁴³ V. V. Iyer’s thesis in which he has tried to identify Krauñca Dwīpa with Asia Minor is quite interesting (see his ‘The Seven Dwīpas of the Purāṇas’, *Q.J. of Mythical Soc.*, Vol. 15, pp. 119-127).

c15.35

¹ Zend Avestā, Vol. II, p. 357, and Shāhnāmah, I, 81.

c15.36

² Fou-Kou-ki.

Linked texts (12)