Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c5.s1.12

c5.s1.12

¹ Cf. *Mahābhārata*, I, ch. 73, 131 ; *Vāyu*, ch. 45, 76 ; *Viṣṇu*, II, 3, 1. There are diverse traditions regarding the origin of the name Bhāratavarṣa. According to many of the Purāṇas, it was derived from Bharata, son of Ṛṣabha and grandson of Nābhi who was a descendant of Vaivasvata Manu (*Bhāgavata*, XI, 2, 15 ff. ; *Brahmāṇḍa*, 34, 44 ; etc.). In certain Purāṇic passages (*Matsya*, 114, 5 ; *Brahmāṇḍa*, 49, 10), however, the name Bhāratavarṣa is said to have been derived from Bharata which was just a second name of Manu himself. But the *Bhārati-prajā*, *Bhārati-santati*, etc., of the Purāṇic passages appear to refer to the Bhārata people (probably the Bhāratas of the Vedic literature ; cf. Raychaudhuri, *Studies in Indian Antiquities*, p. 79) represented clearly as the descendants of Bharata Dauṣyanti in the *Mahābhārata*. Traditions, moreover, represent Bharata Dauṣyanti as a *cakravartin* or *sārvabhauma*, i.e. a universal monarch or emperor (*Mahābhārata*, I, 73, 129 ; cf. *Bhāgavata*, IX, 20, 33).