Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c3.12

c3.12

The geographical material from the Mahābhārata is of more than ordinary importance for providing a critical and archaic standard of reference, in respect of place-names in the successive stages of Indian history. This material consists mainly of (1) the Bhuvanakosha chapters (Bhīshma-parva, ch. 9), Digvijaya parvans (Sabhā-parva chs. 25 32), the so-called Upāyanaparva (Sabhā-parva, chs. 47-48 of the critical edition) and the Tirthayatra parva (Āranyaka-parva, chs. 80—153 of the critical edition). It is important that this material should be critically examined in the light of comparative sources. Important results must follow such research. For example, Prof. Shejwalkar while subjecting the material of the Tīrthayātrā-parva to critical analysis has shown not only that the material of the Dhaumya set of narration of holy places (chs. 85—88, containing only 92 verses) is considerably earlier than the Pulastya-Tīrthayātrā material (chs. 80—83, containing 598 verses), but also arrived at certain broad deductions, viz. that the Aryans had before going to the east, crossed over into the Deccan, that the southern land route lay along the east coast and through the centre of the Peninsula, that the sand tracts of Rajputana were early colonised and that a great Trans- Himalayan route was in constant use from these early times.*