The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c4.51

c4.51

The same division of five great provinces was adopted by the Chinese pilgrim Hwen Thsang in the seventh century, who names them in the same manner, as North, South, East, West, and Central, according to their relative positions.* He compares the shape of the country to a half-moon, with the diameter or broad side to the north, and the narrow end to the south. This is not unlike the configuration of India in Ptolemy’s Geography; but a much more accurate description is given by the Chinese author of the Fah-kai-lih-to, who says, “this country in shape is narrow towards the south and broad towards the north;” to which he humorously adds, that “the people’s faces are the same shape as the country.”†