Historical Geography of Ancient India c5.s3.10

c5.s3.10

As with the Brahmanical Aryans, so with the Buddhists, Āryāvarta to which Patañjali refers in his *Mahābhāṣya* (12. 4. 1, p. 244) is described in the Dharmasūtras and the Dharmaśāstras to have extended from the region where the river Sarasvatī disappears in the west, to the Black Forest in the east and from the Himalayas in the north to the Pāripātra in the south. Almost all the Brahmanical sources give a description of Madhyadeśa or Āryāvarta, the most important division of India. The Middle country was the cradle on which the Brahmanical Aryans or the Buddhists staged the entire drama of their career. The five divisions, as indicated in the Bhuvanakoṣa section of the Purāṇas, are identical with those given in the *Kāvyamīmāṃsā*. They are as follows:—
(a) Madhyadeśa (Middle Country),
(b) Udicya or Uttarāpatha (Northern India),
(c) Prācya (Eastern India),
(d) Dakṣiṇāpatha (Deccan), and
(e) Aparānta (Western India).