The Geography of the Puranas c7.s4.1

c7.s4.1

Travellers' accounts, religious, commercial or expeditionary appear to have influenced the Purāṇic description of the different regions of the world. It is to be noted that all the Purāṇas, though basically identical as regards their geographical content, show variations in their regional accounts, according to their knowledge of various lands acquired through this source. For instance, the Vāyu and the Matsya give far more details about Bhadravaṛṣa and Ketumāla, i.e., extra-Indian territories as compared with others. Obviously these reflect the closer contacts of India with China, South-East Asia and the Trans-Oxus regions which developed during the period when these Purāṇas were composed. Similarly the later Purāṇas also bring out in varying degrees the changing pattern of communities (or tribes) and acquaintance with the topographic details of different regions of India and their inhabitants by the addition or substraction of names to or from the traditional lists of similar features given in the Epics and earlier Purāṇas.