The Geography of the Puranas c7.s2.6

c7.s2.6

To visualise the evolution of the Purāṇic world map it would be necessary to reconstruct a diagram of the world according to the Mahābhārata as we did in the case of the Rāmāyaṇa (Fig. 2). The diagram so constructed shows that it provided the blueprint on which the Purāṇas superimposed their ideas and improved. The two diagrams clearly show that the Rāmāyaṇa laid the foundation, the Mahābhārata reoriented it and the Purāṇas enlarged and perfected it⁶. The Purāṇas practically assign similar names and location to all the mountains, varṣas, rivers and oceans. They had only to rearrange and add details of the different regions of the world so conceived and complete the picture of the surface of the earth.