Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.603

c6.603

Pārivāta.—It is the same as the Pāripātra mountain. It occurs in Luders' List No. 1123. The earliest mention of the Pāriyātra or Pāripātra is found in the *Baudhāyana-Dharmasūtra* (1, 1, 25) as the southern limit of Āryāvarta. The *Skanda Purāṇa* also refers to it as the farthest limit of the Kumārikhaṇḍa the centre of Bhāratavarṣa. The mountain seems to have lent its name to the country with which it was associated. It is known as Po-li-ye-ta-lo to the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang with a Vaiśya king as its ruler. Pargiter identifies it with that portion of the modern Vindhya range, which is situated to the west of Bhopal together with the Aravalli mountains (Vide Pargiter, *Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa*, p. 286). Some of the rivers had their sources in this mountain namely, the Vedasṃriti, Vedavatī, Sindhu, Veṇvā, Sadānīrā, Mahī, Carmanvatī, Vetravatī, Vediśā, Siprā and Avaṛṇī (cf. *Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa*, 57, 19-20). The Pāriyātra is the western part of the Vindhya range extending from the sources of the Chambal to the Gulf of Cambay. It is that portion of the Vindhya range from which the rivers Chambal and Betwa take their rise (Bhandarkar, *History of the Dekkan*, Sec. 3).