Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c16.1

c16.1

Elsewhere we have tried to show that very often in inscriptions and literary works we get, in connection with the description of a powerful king's *dig-vijaya* (conquest of the four quarters, or of 'the whole earth'), the traditional boundaries of the conventional *cakravarti-kṣetra*.¹ These boundaries are generally: (1) The Himālaya, Badarikāśrama on the Gandhamādana, the country near the Vaṃkṣu (Oxus), or the like, in the north; (2) the Udaya mountain (mythical), the Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal), the Lauhitya, Vaṅga, or the like, in the east; (3) the Malaya mountain, the Mahendra mountain, the Southern Sea (Indian Ocean), Ceylon, or the like, in the south; and (4) the Asta mountain (mythical), the Mandara mountain (mythical), the Western Sea (Arabian Sea), the Pārasika country, or the like, in the west. In that connection we have also tried to prove that the Meharauli pillar inscription describing the *dig-vijaya* of a king named Candra (i.e. Candragupta II) in the verses: