Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s1.16

c5.s1.16

Although the *Ṛgveda* knows the sea and refers to the treasures of the ocean (probably pearls or the gains of trade) and to marine navigation in the story of Bhujyu,³³ the important cosmogonic myth relating to the raising of the earth from the primeval waters by a boar, which later developed into the story of the Varāha avatāra of the god Viṣṇu, was conceived at a later period.³⁴ The idea appears to be connected with the conception of the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*³⁵ describing the earth as girdled by the ocean. The notion of the earth being encircled by waters has not been traced in the Saṃhitās, even though it was the dominant cosmographical conception of the later ages as we shall presently see.³⁶