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Historical Geography of Ancient India c5.s1: I. Sources

Historical Geography of Ancient India c5.s1

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English

I. Sources

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To reconstruct a systematic geography of ancient India Vedic literature, *Brāhmaṇas*, *Upaniṣads*, *Dharmasūtras* and *Dharmaśāstras* render us some help. Of the geographical names in the *Ṛgveda* those of the rivers alone permit of easy and certain identifications. The Epics and the *Purāṇas* are recognized as a rich mine of geographical information about ancient India. They contain some chapters giving a fairly accurate account of not only the different territorial divisions of India but also of her rivers, mountains, lakes, forests, deserts, towns, countries and peoples. The *Tirthayātrā-Digvijaya* sections of the *Mahābhārata*, the *Jambukhaṇḍavinirmāṇaparva* of the same epic, and the *Kiṣkindhyā-kāṇḍa* of the *Rāmāyaṇa* are rich in geographical information. The *Bhuvanakoṣa*, the *Jambudvīpavarṇanā*, the *Kūrmavibhāga* sections of the *Purāṇas*, the *Bṛhatsaṃhitā*, the *Parāśaratantra* and the *Atharvapariśiṣṭa* are equally important in eliciting valuable geographical information. No less important are Pāṇini’s *Aṣṭādhyāyī* (4.1.173, 178; 4.2.76; 5.3. 116-117, etc.), Patañjali’s *Mahābhāṣya*, *Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra* and the *Yoginītantra* for a study of early Indian geography.

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The geographical accounts in the different *Purāṇas* are more or less identical, and the account in one is often repeated in another; in some cases a larger account is summarized into a shorter one. The list in the *Vāyu*, *Matsya* and *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇas* is a long one, while that in the *Viṣṇu* is very short. The Pauranic lists of countries and peoples occur also in the *Mahābhārata*, sometimes in a more detailed form. The particulars of the country of Bharata as given in the *Bhīṣmaparva* of the *Mahābhārata* (ślokas 317-78) are almost the same as in the *Purāṇas*, but in some cases additional information can be gathered. It is obvious that these lists are framed in pursuance of a traditional account handed down from earlier times. But it must be admitted that the accounts are substantially correct. The fabulous element as pointed out by Cunningham is confined, as a rule, to outside lands, and their allusions to purely Indian topography are generally sober.

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The *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* list of countries is very meagre; the *Mahābhārata* has a much longer catalogue without any arrangement; so also in the *Padmapurāṇa*. The longest list of countries and peoples of India is, however, contained in the *Mārkaṇḍeya*, the *Skanda*, the *Brahmāṇḍa* and the *Vāyu Purāṇas*. The *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* contains a description of Jambudvīpa and mentions the forests, lakes and mountains around Meru. It mentions the nine divisions of Bhārata, the seven mountain ranges in India and twenty-two separate hills. It describes the course of the Ganges and refers to the famous rivers in India, grouping them according to the mountain ranges out of which they arise. The principal peoples in India and on its borders are also mentioned in it, arranged according to the natural regions of the country. The majority of the names of countries and peoples found in the *Purāṇas* is very much the same as we find in the *Nadyādivarṇanā* section of the *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa*, but there is also quite a good lot of names that are entirely new and original. The *Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa* (Ch. 57) which really contains the strictly geographical information of other major *Purāṇas*, has a section called the *Kūrmavibhāga* containing a list of countries and peoples of India arranged according to the position of the country conceived as a tortoise, as it lies on water resting upon Viṣṇu and looking eastwards.¹ This arrangement is based on earlier astronomical works, like those of Parāśara and Varāhamihira. This chapter is invaluable from the topographical standpoint. The Bhāgavatapurāṇa also contains some geographical information. So we find that the Purāṇas are really very important for a geographical study of ancient India.

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¹ This conception fits well with our present knowledge of the topography of India.

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The innumerable Māhātmyas require to be carefully studied from the geographical standpoint. The extensive Māhātmya literature which contains portions from the Purāṇas or Saṃhitās, deals with the topography of the various tīrthas or holy places. Their geographical importance is very great in the sense that evidences may be adduced from them to enable us to locate important sites. One finds it tedious to read the legendary history of tīrthas or holy places, but to a geographer it will never be a fruitless study.

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The later Sanskrit literature abounds with geographical information. As for example, Rājaśekhara’s Kāvya-mīmāṃsā (p. 93) clearly states the five traditional divisions of India. It contains some useful geographical information about Utkala, Sumha, Niṣadha, and Kāśmīra (Ch. 17), Aṅga, Vaṅga, Puṇḍra, Vālhika, Pañcāla, Śūrasena, etc. (Ch. 3). The Raghuvaṃśa (4th sarga, śls. 35, 38), the Naiṣadhīyacarita by Śrīharṣa (5th sarga, śls. 50, 98), the Meghadūta by Kālidāsa (Pūrvamegha, śls. 24, 25, 26), the Daśakumāracarita by Daṇḍin (6th ucchvāsa), the Harṣacarita by Bāṇabhaṭṭa (6th and 7th ucchvāsas), Dhoyi’s Pavanadūta (27) may be utilized for our geographical knowledge. A fairly good idea of Kālidāsa’s knowledge of geography may be gathered from his works.

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To present a complete geographical picture of India in the Buddha’s time and later, Pali literature is undoubtedly the most important. From about the time of the Buddha to about the time of Aśoka the great literature of the early Buddhists is certainly the main source of the historical and geographical information of ancient India, supplemented by Jaina and Brahmanical sources here and there. Texts or narratives of purely historical or geographical nature are altogether absent in the literature of the early Buddhists, and whatever historical or geographical information can be gathered is incidental and very much reliable. Thus for the history of the rise and vicissitudes as well as for the geographical situation and other details of the sixteen Mahājanapadas, the most important chapter of the Indian history and geography before and after the time of the Buddha, the Pali Aṅguttara Nikāya is the main source of information which is supplemented by the Jaina Bhagavatīsūtra and the Karṇaparva of the Mahābhārata. For later periods when we have abundant epigraphical and archaeological sources and literary sources, too, which are mainly Brahmanical, as well as the accounts of the classical geographers and the itineraries of the Chinese pilgrims, the geographical information contained in Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist literature is considerably important.² Some geographical information may also be available from Tibetan texts.

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² Vide Law, Geography of Early Buddhism and Geographical Essays, Ch. I.

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The Pāli Piṭaka, specially the Vinaya and the Sutta, contains incidental references to cities and places connected with the gradual spread of Buddhism. They supply us with an abundant information concerning the Madhyadeśa or the Middle country and the localities bordering it. The Milindapañha which is an important non-canonical Pali text, and the Mahāvastu, a Buddhist Sanskrit work of great importance, contain many important geographical notices. The Pali commentaries, specially those of Buddhaghosa, and the chronicles of Ceylon, specially the *Dīpavaṃsa* and the *Mahāvaṃsa*, furnish us with chips of information as to the geographical knowledge of the Buddhists.

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The Sanskrit Buddhist texts which are later in date than the Pali texts, have some geographical information. Cities of fiction which are not part of the real world, are found in them. Countries like Ratnadvīpa and Khaṇḍadvīpa, cities like Vandhumatī and Puṇyavatī, and mountains like Triśaṅku and Dhūmanetra, mentioned in them, admit hardly of any identification and help only to add to the legendary element pervading most of the accounts of the Sanskrit Buddhist texts. The Sanskrit Buddhist texts which are very important from religious and philosophical points of view, do not elicit much information of a historical or geographical character. The *Mahāvastu* speaks mostly of the life of the Buddha; the *Lalitavistara* and the *Buddhacaritakāvya* also refer to the Master's life. The *Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā* gives a number of stories relating to the former existences of the Buddha, while the *Aśokāvadāna* speaks of Aśoka and his times. Very few Sanskrit Buddhist texts have a great corroborative value. Really speaking, they are not important from geographical standpoint. They were mostly written from the 6th century onwards to the 12th and 13th centuries of the Christian era. They no doubt contain the most important contemporary evidence as to the religious history, but geographically they speak of very remote times. For already by the 6th and 7th centuries of the Christian era the whole of the Indian continent with its major divisions and sub-divisions, cities, countries, provinces, rivers, mountains, etc., had become too widely known to its people. Contemporary epigraphic, literary and monumental evidences abound with information regarding many geographical details. Moreover, the Indians of those centuries had also planted their political, cultural and commercial outposts and colonies not only in Suvarṇabhūmi (Lower Burma) but also in Java and Sumatra, Campā and Kamboj. Their priests and missionaries had already travelled to China and Central Asia carrying with them Sanskrit Buddhist texts. But it is difficult to find in them any idea of far wider geographical knowledge and outlook of the times. Even the Indian continent is not fully represented in its contemporary geographical information.

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The earlier texts of the Jainas have many geographical and topographical references. The *Acārāṅgasūtra*, *Bhagavatīvivāhapaṇṇatti*, *Nāyādhammakahāo*, *Uvāsagadasāo*, *Amṭagaḍadasāo*, *Aṇuttarovavāiyadasāo*, *Paṇhāvāgaraṇāiṃ*, *Vivāga-sūya*, *Ovavāiya-sūya*, *Rāyapasenaiya-sūya*, *Paṇṇavaṇā*, *Jambuddīvapaṇṇatti*, *Nirayāvaliya-sūya*, *Nisīha-mahānisīha-sūyas*, *Kalpasūtra*, *Uttarādhyayanasūtra*, and the *Āvaśyakasūtra* contain geographical data. The *Jambuddīvapaṇṇatti* which is the sixth *upāṅga* of the Jainas, contains a description of Jambudvipa as well as that of Bhāratavarṣa. It speaks of seven *varṣas* or countries constituting seven main divisions of Jambudvipa. Although it gives us the mythical geography of the Jainas, there is much that is of great value to geographers of ancient India. It is no doubt an interesting Jaina treatise on geography and it should be studied along with the *Vividhatīrthakalpa* which is not included in the Jaina canon. The *Vividhatīrthakalpa* of Jinaprabha Sūri contains legends mixed up with facts. Great care should be taken to separate fact from fiction in order to present a true geographical picture.¹

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¹ Law, Some Jaina Canonical Sūtras, Appendix II.

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The inscriptions of Aśoka and those at the Khaṇḍagiri and Udayagiri hills of Orissa also help us greatly. Coins too sometimes enable us to locate a particular nation or tribe. As for example, the discovery of some copper coins at Nāgri, a small town 11 miles north of Chitor, enables us to locate the kingdom of king Sivi of the Sivi Jātaka.

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Among the early classical geographers Hecataeus of Miletus (B.C. 549–486) was the first Greek geographer whose knowledge stopped on the frontier of the Persian empire, the river Indus. He knew the people called Gandhāri on the upper Indus. He was acquainted with the names of other Indian peoples of the frontier hills (Cambridge History of India, I, 394). Herodotus (B.C. 484–431) wrote about India, much of which was drawn from Hacataeus. He knew that the population of India was great.¹ In fact, most of his allusions to India refer to the times of Darius and Xerxes (Ibid., I, 329). From a passage in Herodotus (IV. 44) it appears that the valley of the Indus from its upper course to the sea including the Punjab and Sind, was annexed by the Persians or was brought under their control (Ibid., I, 336). Regarding minor states in India in the period from 325 B.C. to 300 A.D. some information has been supplied by him (B. C. Law, Indological Studies, Pt. I, 11). Ktesias (B.C. 398) collected materials during his stay for a treatise on India. His account was unfortunately vitiated by a large number of fables and it was left to the followers of Alexander to give to the Western world for the first time fairly accurate accounts of India and its inhabitants.

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¹ Cambridge History of India, I, 395.

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The great conqueror carried scientific men with him to chronicle his achievements, and described the countries invaded by him. Some of his officers were men of literary culture. Of his companions three men enriched the Greek conception of India by their writings. Nearchus was one of them. His book contained a good deal of incidental information about India (C.H.I., I, 398). Alexander's Indian expedition produced quite a large number of narratives and memoirs relating to India. All these works are lost, and their substance is found in brief in Strabo, Pliny and Arrian. Some subsequent writers made considerable additions to the stock of information concerning India, among whom may be mentioned Diodorus, Strabo, Curtius, Arrian, who was the best of Alexander's historians, and Justinus.² The Greek and Roman historians of Alexander carry on geographical knowledge eastwards beyond the Jhelum (Hydaspes), the eastern limit of Gandhāra to the Beas (Hyphasis) (Cambridge History of India, I, 58-59).

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² McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian, pp. 5ff.

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Strabo's geography furnishes us with some information about the well-known Assaka or Aśmaka tribe. Though Strabo speaks of the country of the Gandarai, the name of the Gandhāra country is not mentioned by any of Alexander's historians. According to Strabo Taxila lay between the Indus and Hydaspes (the Jhelum). It was a large city which was governed by good laws. According to him the country of the elder Poros, the Kekaya country, was extensive and fertile, having in it some 300 cities. The principality of the younger Poros was called Gandaris. But this name is not to be taken as conclusive. He says that the region where Sophytes ruled was marked by the presence of a mountain composed of rock salt of sedimentary origin, yielding enough salt to meet the demands of the people of India as a whole. He further says that in the realm of Sophytes dogs were characterized by remarkable courage. He gives an interesting account of the inhabitants of the territory of Mousikanos. The king of the territory of Oxykanos was called by him and Diodoros as Portikanos. He tells us that the Parthians deprived Eukratides of a part of Bactriana. The conquests by the Bactrian Greeks were, according to him, partly achieved by Menander (middle of the 2nd century B.C.) and partly by Demetrios, son of Euthydemos (cir. 190 B.C.). Such historico-geographical information, among other details, is found in his geography.

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Megasthenes who lived long in India gives us topographical matters of great value. He came to the court of Candragupta Maurya on an embassy. He himself said that he had often visited Sandrokottos, the greatest king of the Indians. According to Arrian he also visited king Poros. The fragments of his *Indika* furnish us with invaluable materials concerning India, her inhabitants, rivers, countries, cities, size, fertility of the soils, wild animals, horses and elephants, Indian trees, peoples, castes, tribes, races, occupations, Indian philosophers, Śramaṇas and Brāhmaṇas, etc.

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Arrian who distinguished himself as a historian, was the famous author of the account of the Asiatic expedition of Alexander the great. He also gave us a fine description of India. His *Indika* consists of three parts: the first part deals with the general description of India chiefly based on the accounts of the country given by Megasthenes and Eratosthenes; the second part gives an account of the voyage made by Nearchos the Cretan from the Indus to the Pasitigris, chiefly based on the narrative of the voyage written by Nearchos himself; and the third part gives ample evidence to prove that the southern parts of the world are uninhabitable on account of excessive insolation. In his *Indika* he refers to the regions beyond the river Indus on the west inhabited by the two Indian tribes, Astakenoi and Assakenoi. He mentions the countries lying to the east of the Indus as denoting India proper. He states the dimensions of India, and deals with her rivers, tribes, etc. He divides the Indian people into about seven castes and describes the hunting of wild animals by the Indians, etc.

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Eratosthenes wrote a scientific geography. He described India on the authority of Alexander's historians.

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Pliny treats of the geography of India in his *Natural History*, which was dedicated to Titus, son of Vespasian and his successor as emperor. The first ten books of this history were probably published in A.D. 77. Books III-VI are devoted to geography and ethnography. His treatment is uncritical but extremely valuable judging from the incidental facts presented by him.

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The *Periplus of the Erythræan Sea* by an anonymous writer is a guide-book containing an account of trade and commerce carried on from the Red Sea and the coast of Africa to the East Indies (modern Indonesia). It is really a guide-book to the Indian ocean including its bordering seas, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The articles of trade, which were handled by the ports, are mentioned in the *Periplus* (Translated by W. H. Schoff, 1912, pp. 284-288). According to the *Periplus* tin was shipped from Egypt to Somaliland and India. Ebony came to Rome from both India and Egypt. Minnagara was the name given temporarily to some cities in India during the period of the Scythian occupation. After the collapse of the Indo-Scythian power these cities resumed their former names with their autonomy. This guide-book contains some information about the Indus, Syrastrene (Surāṣṭra), Barygaza (modern Broach), the river Mahī (Mais), the river Narmadā (Nammadus), Arachosii (the country around the modern Kandahar), Gandaraei (Gandhāra), Ozene (Ujjain), Tagara (modern Ter), Suppāra (modern Sopara), Calliene (modern Kalyāna), Pandian Kingdom (Pāṇḍya), etc.

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Ptolemy's *Geography* is a work of great importance. Ptolemy was indebted to Marinus of Tyre for his materials. His treatise is divided into eight books. His description of India within the Ganges Valley, and his account of the countries, cities, towns, rivers, mountains, hills, etc., deserve to be studied with great care. The position of India beyond the Ganges, inland towns and villages of the trans-Gangetic India, seven mountain ranges, rivers of the Indus system, and the territories and peoples of India classified according to the river-basins, are some of the topics ably treated by him. His *Geography* is undoubtedly very helpful to the geographers of ancient India.

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The itineraries of Chinese pilgrims are of inestimable value as sources of the ancient Indian geography. The accounts of Fa-Hien and Yuan Chwang who toured all over Northern India are very important. The account of Yuan Chwang who visited India in the 7th century A.D., is fuller and more exhaustive. For an accurate and exhaustive geography of Northern India during the 5th and 7th centuries of the Christian era, the accounts of these two pilgrims are the most important sources of information. There was another Chinese pilgrim who visited India in the 8th century A.D. He was U-Kong (*Calcutta Review*, August, 1922). The accounts of other Chinese pilgrims, Song Yun and Hwiseng, are short and describe only a few places in north-west India. I-tsing who visited many important places in ancient India in 673 A.D. gives us a detailed account. Another Chinese pilgrim named Wang-hiuen-t'se who came to India in 643 A.D., wandered over and visited the countries of the Lord Buddha, as he himself said in his account.¹ He visited Magadha and ascended the Gṛdhrakūṭa hill (Ki-tche-Kiu) and left there an inscription. He also went to Mahābodhi at Gayā. As related in his account he visited five Indies. At the head of the Tibetan and Nepalese cavalry he marched on Magadha, defeated the Indian troops, captured the capital, seized the king and took him triumphantly to China. He himself visited Nepal and Tibet. His description of Tibet (Tou-fan) is interesting. This Chinese pilgrim in his leisure time wrote a book entitled *Account of the Voyage*. He narrates an interesting account of the law of Magadha which was then prevalent. If someone was guilty, he was not beaten by a rod, but recourse was taken to a wonderful weighing. His inscriptions engraved on the Gṛdhrakūṭa and at Mahābodhi have been translated by Chavannes. His account of the places in India visited by him is very useful from geographical standpoint.

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¹ It is related in Sylvain Levi's article *Les Missions de Wang-Hiuen-T'se dans l'Inde*, published in the *Journal Asiatique*, 1900. This paper has been recently translated into English by Dr. S. P. Chatterjee.

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The geographical accounts of Muslim writers are equally helpful. Alberuni, who was in the territory of modern Khiva in A.D. 973, distinguished himself in science and literature. In his book on *India* he deals with its geography which is sure to render some help to geographers. India as far as known to him was Brahmanic and not Buddhistic. In the first half of the 11th century A.D. all traces of Buddhism in Central Asia, Khurashan, Afghanistan and North-Western India seem to have disappeared. There his notes on Buddhism were very scanty. Benares and Kashmir were then two centres of Indian learning. He had not the same opportunity for travelling in India as Hiuen Tsang had. Hence his geographical notes are not so very exhaustive. In his book on *India* (English edition by Dr. E. C. Sachau, Ch. XVIII) he deals with the Madhyadeśa, Prayāga, Sthāneśvara, Kānyakubja, Pāṭaliputra, Nepal, Kashmir and other countries and towns, rivers, animals, the western and southern frontiers of India, the western frontier mountains of India, islands, rainfall, etc. He also refers to the Hindu method of determining distances between the various parts of India.

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Kalhaṇa’s *Rājatarangiṇī*, the well-known Kashmir Chronicle of the 12th century A.D., should be used with caution as it contains a large number of confused ancient traditions. It is valuable, says Vincent Smith, as it gives a trustworthy account of local events (*Early History of India*, 4th Ed., p. 10).

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Marco Polo, the famous Venetian traveller, visited South India and Central Asia in the 13th century A.D. The account of his travels may be found useful. (Vide *Travels of Marco Polo* by L. R. Fawcus published in *Introducing India*, Pt. I, R.A.S.B. publication.)

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There are other means of approach to the historical geography of India, such as, the early surveys contained in the Imperial and Provincial Gazetteers, which are really mines of information. The *Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India*, and the geographical references in the *Epigraphia Indica*, *Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum*, *South Indian Inscriptions* and *Epigraphia Carnatica*, contain detailed geographical knowledge of the most definite character. The *Census Reports of India* are equally important.

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In the *Imperial Gazetteer of India* (New Edition, Vol. II, Historical, The Indian Empire, pp. 76-87), Dr. J. F. Fleet’s attractive note on Geography will no doubt be helpful to researchers. He has shown the importance of the study of early Indian Geography and has traced the principal sources of this interesting branch of study.

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The *Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India* contain detailed accounts of the excavations carried out by the Archaeological Department at different sites of historical importance, and they dwell at length upon the topography of places of geographical interest, e.g., Besnagar, Bhiṭā, Kāsīā, Pāṭaliputra, Rājagṛha, Sārnāth, Vaiśālī, Takṣaśilā. The Annual Report for 1907-08 contains an account of the ancient temples of Aihole with the topography of the site. In the Report for 1915-16, M. B. Garde writes a paper on the site of Padmāvatī, which is mentioned in the *Viṣṇupurāṇa* as one of the three capitals of the Nāgas and described in Bhavabhūti’s *Mālatī-mādhava* as the place where the hero of the poem, Mādhava, was sent by his father from Kuṇḍinapura in Vidarbha. Padmāvatī is identified with modern Pawaya on the confluence of the Sind and the Pārvatī. The Report for 1927-28 contains a note by K. N. Dikshit on the identification of Puṣkaraṇa in the Susunia inscription of Candravarman. Puṣkaraṇa of the inscription (ed. H. P. Śāstrī, *Ep. Ind.*, XIII, p. 133) is identified with the village of Pokharan, 25 miles to the north-west of Susunia. The Reports for 1925-26, 1927-28 and 1928-29, contain accounts of the excavations at Paharpur in the Rajshahi district, while the Report for 1928-29 contains an account of the excavations at Mahāsthān in the Bogra district of north Bengal,¹ identified with the ancient site of Puṇḍravardhana.

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¹ Now in East Pakistan.

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‘The Buddhist Antiquities of Nāgārjunakoṇḍa, Madras Presidency’, by A. H. Longhurst, published by the Archaeological Survey of India as their Memoir No. 64, gives an interesting account of the Buddhist antiquities discovered at the Nagarjuna’s hill on the right bank of the Kṛṣṇā river in the Palnāḍ taluk of the Guṇṭur district. Most of the scenes in the beautiful bas-reliefs recovered from the ruined stūpas at the site illustrate well-known stories connected with the life of the Buddha. The author has taken much pains to identify the different scenes portrayed in the sculptures. He has given us a very readable account of the locality and an interesting history of the site. The chief buildings and antiquities discovered during the explorations have not escaped the careful attention of the author, and he has furnished us with a very good account of them. The fruitful result of his careful investigation embodied in this monograph will surely be appreciated by every student of early Indian geography.

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Explorations in Sind by N. G. Mazumdar published as a Memoir No. 48 by the Archaeological Survey of India is a valuable contribution to ancient Indian geography. It contains prominent topographical features of Sind and its climate. It also gives an account of the excavations carried out at the site during the years 1927-28, 1929-30 and 1930-31.

Cites (58)