Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c6.5.2

c6.5.2

It may be pointed out that the geographical sections, especially the list of janapadas, found in the Bmd, Mk, Mts, Vmn and Vy practically follow the same draft. The original draft seems to have been compiled for Mts. The Vy text appears to be the earliest copy from that of the Mts. The Mk probably copied the text from the Vy at a slightly later date; but a little independence of the copyist in the arrangement of names in a few cases is noticed in this text. The Bmd furnishes us with a still later copy of the Vy text. The date of this copy is possibly not far removed from the time of Al-Bīrūnī (c. 1030 A.D.) who is known to have consulted a Ms of the Vy in giving a list of peoples after the Purāṇas. The Krm, which like some other Purāṇas, copies the smaller draft of the janapada list from the Vsn, has a fuller list of rivers probably after the Vy. The smaller drafts both of the list of peoples and of rivers appear to have been compiled from the bigger drafts in the Mts and Vy for the first time for the Vsn. Like that of the Bmd, the Krm text does not seem to be far removed in point of time from the date of Al-Būrūnī. The *Vmn* appears, however, to be the latest copy of the modified draft as found in the other texts. But in several cases the compiler of the *Vmn* shows a tendency to arrange the names rather independently, although in many cases he does not go much beyond the originals before him.