The Geography of the Puranas c7.s1.3

c7.s1.3

Ideas regarding the causes of the winds, clouds and rainfall, the movement of the sun, the moon and the planets, the phenomena of the seasons, of day and night, of eclipses and the cardinal points, all of which are linked with problems of cosmology and cosmogony, are reflected in subsequent literature, particularly the Purāṇas. The topography of the Ṛgveda is limited to the description of 21 rivers¹ in all (5, 53, 9), (10, 64, 6) and (75, 5, 6). In verse (10, 64, 9) the Saraswatī, Sarayū and Sindhu are mentioned as the ‘leaders’ of these rivers—the Saraswatī as that of the first group (10, 75, 5), the Sindhu of the second group (10, 75, 6) and the Sarayū of the third (5, 53, 9). Of the mountains only the Himavanta (10, 121, 4) and Muñjavān (10, 34, 1) find a place in the Ṛgvedic hymns. All these rivers, their names and the order in which they are mentioned figure in the Purāṇas.