The Geography of the Puranas c7.s1.8

c7.s1.8

The description of topographical features in the later Vedic literature is slightly better developed than in the Ṛgveda. This is natural, since with the ‘Aryanisation’ of the far-flung areas, the need for a detailed knowledge of those areas was felt and provided for in the later works. As mentioned earlier, only a few mountains are referred to in the Ṛgveda. To the Ṛgvedic Himavanta and Mūñjavān, the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka and the Sūtra texts add an important feature—the Mahāmeru, which is the core of the Purāṇic mountain system. The Atharvaveda (19, 39, 8) and the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (1, 8, 1-10) add Navaprabhraṃśana in connection with the Great Deluge. The Yajurveda (Mait. Saṃh. and Kāthaka Saṃh.) for the first time mentions the three-peaked Trikakubha (or Trikakud of Atharvaveda and Śatp. Brāh.). Taitt. Āraṇyaka refers to two other mountains, the Maināka and the Krauñca. The southern Mountain (most probably the Vindhyas) appears for the first time in the Kauśitakī Up. (11, 13), while the name Vindhya occurs expressly in the Vasiṣṭha Dharma Sūtra (1, 9) and the Manusmṛti (11, 21). To this the Sūtras add the Pāripātra as the southern boundary of the Āryan land.