Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s1.20

c5.s1.20

³⁶ The conception of the earth having oceans on all its four sides later developed into that of India (often mentioned as ‘the earth’) being bounded by oceans on the east, west, south and north, even though there is no sea in the north of the country. In the *Ṛgveda* (vi. 58. 3 ; x. 98. 12 ; cf. *Nirukta*, ii. 10), the word *samudra* (sea) is used in the sense of *antarikṣa* or *dyauḥ*, so that the *catuḥ-samudra* idea may have originated from the four quarters of the sky. But the ocean to the north of India may have also been suggested by the deserts of Central Asia (e.g. the Gobi), called the *vāluk-ārṇava* or sea of sands in the *Mahābhārata* (xvii. 2. 1-2 ; cf. *Rājatarangiṇī*, iv. 172, 279, 294 ; viii. 2763). See Raychaudhuri, *Studies in Indian Antiquities*, 1958, p. 57, notes ; Stein, *Kalhaṇa’s Rājatarangiṇī*, vol. i, p. 138, note.