Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c5.s1.23

c5.s1.23

According to the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra ‘the land which extends north to south from the Himālaya to the sea and measures east to west a thousand yojanas is the kṣetra (i.e. the sphere of influence) of a cakravartin (i.e. an imperial ruler of India)’.² Rājaśekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṃsā says that a samrāṭ (practically the same as a cakravartin) is one who conquers the whole land from the southern sea (the Indian Ocean ) to the Himavat (Himālaya).³ In the same breath, Rājaśekhara also says that the sphere of influence of a cakravartin is the land measuring one thousand yojanas and lying between Kumārīpura (Cape Comorin) and Bindusaras (in the Himālayas according to the Purāṇas) and that the conqueror of the above kṣetra is a cakravartin.⁴ Thus the sphere of influence of an Indian imperial ruler was the Purāṇic Bhāratavarṣa which is described as lying ‘between the Himālaya and the sea (Himālayādā samudram)’ or as ‘bounded in the south, west and east by the sea and in the north by the Himavat resembling the string of a bow’.⁵ is sometimes referred to as the country extending ‘from the Himālaya to Rāma’s bridge’¹ or ‘from the Himālaya to the seashore’.² In some Purāṇic passages, e.g., in Kūrma, I, 35, 41, as well as records like some versions of Minor Rock Edict I of Aśoka, the same land seems to be called Jambudvīpa, although according to other popular conceptions Bhāratavarṣa was merely a part of Jambudvīpa.