Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c17.4

c17.4

It is well known that the *Mārkaṇḍeya*, *Vāyu*, *Kūrma*, *Matsya*, *Vāmana* and *Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas* contain a long list and the *Viṣṇu*, *Brahma* and *Śiva Purāṇas* a short list of the Indian rivers. According to both these lists, the rivers Kṛtamālā and Tāmraparṇī issue from the Malaya mountain.² Even the shortest list of rivers found in the *Agni Purāṇa* speaks of the Kṛtamālā as rising from the Malaya. Of the two rivers mentioned above, Tāmraparṇī, still known by practically that name, flows from the southern part of the Western Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. The celebrated ports of Korkai and Kayal stood on its banks. The identification of the Kṛtamālā with the modern Vaigai running by Madurai or Dakṣiṇa-Mathurā is corroborated by the *Caitanyacaritāmṛta*, an old biography of the Bengali Vaiṣṇava saint Caitanya (1485-1534 A.D.). It is clearly stated in this work that Caitanya took his bath in the waters of the holy Kṛtamālā at Dakṣiṇa-Mathurā in the course of his tours of pilgrimage in South India.³