Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c20.24

c20.24

Thus, to Amara, the South is expressly connected with the East, and the North with the West. The glossologist Vandyaghaṭīya [ Sarvānanda ] writes on the passage that ‘the Śarāvatī is a river of India that runs from the north-east towards the Western Ocean.’ ( एतस्मिंश्च भारते वर्षे शरावती नाम नदी ऐशान्या दिशः सकाशात् पश्चिमसमुद्रगामिनी वहति ). The indication seems plain and clear. Unfortunately real geography does not confirm it. Vandyaghaṭīya, a veritable glossologist, has deduced from the text itself the indication which he appears to have added here. He has borrowed it neither from the modern geography, nor from the ancient, nor from the consecrated nomenclatures of the rivers in the epics and the Purāṇas. The pretended Śarāvatī of Vandyaghaṭīya will be searched in vain. In fact, the tradition has perpetuated, this time also, an appellation that had no more any relation, for a long time, with reality.