Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahabharata: Upayana Parva c6.202

c6.202

Haimavatas: M. B., II, 47, 19. They are called the bronzed Haimavatas (*kṛṣṇānhaimavatān*). Himavanta is quite a famous place in the Buddhist literature. Majjhima propagated Buddhism in the Himavantapadesa (*Mahāvaṃsa*, Chap. XII). It has been identified with some as Tibet; Fergusson identified it with Nepal. In the *Sāsanasavaṃsa* (p. 13) it is stated to be Cīnaraṭṭha. Prof. Rhys Davids places it in the Central Himālayas. Its extent (*Papañcasūdanī*, II, p. 6) is given as 3000 yojanas.¹⁸⁵ In the relic caskets from Sonāri and Sāñchī the inscriptions of the 2nd century B. C. mention the Saint Kāsapagota who is described as *sava-Hemavatācariya*—the epithet which has been taken by scholars as a reference to the Buddhist saint being sent to the Himālayas (*Mahāvaṃsa*, p. XIX). But according to Majumdar quotating Kern¹⁸⁶ Haimavata was also a religious order of the Buddhists.¹⁸⁷ In the classical literature one of the spurs of Emodos, Imaus, meaning in the native language snowy¹⁸⁸ is mentioned. In a footnote McCrindle gives the variants of Emodos, as Emoda, Emodon and Hemodes. Lassen derived the name from Haimavata. If this be so Hemodos would be the correct form. Imaus represents the Sanskrit Himavata. The name was applied at first by the Greeks to the Hindukush, and the Himālayas, but in the course of time transferred to Bolor Range. This chain, which runs north and south was regarded by the ancients as dividing northern Asia into Skythīa extra Imaus and it has formed for ages the boundary between China and Turkestan.