The Geography of the Puranas c8.100

c8.100

THE Purāṇic description of these regions is rather sketchy as compared with the descriptions of the western, eastern and southern regions of Jambū Dwipa. The best geographical account given in the Purāṇas is naturally that of Bhārata. In the case of Ketumāla and Bhadravaṛsa, full details of the mountainous region and some information about the streams and provinces of the Bhadravaṛsa proper¹ (i.e., the Hwang-Ho basin or North China) and Ketumāla (i.e., the Oxus basin)² are given. For the northern regions there is a list of mountains situated to the north of Meru, a brief, rather very brief, account of two or three intermountainous regions and a paragraph on the course of the Northern River. But even this sketchy description is so precise that it is not difficult to identify the topographical features of this region satisfactorily on a modern map in spite of lack of sufficient data or geographical facts in the Purāṇas.