Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c5.s2.7

c5.s2.7

remains of the 3rd millennium B.C. The form of the Indian oblong sarcophagi is said to be similar to that of similar objects at Gahrarch near Bagdad. The custom of urn-burial of the whole body (not merely of the cremated ashes) in large jars has been traced at places from Sind to Tiruelveli and similar jars occur in Babylonia. Hall thinks of the possibility of the Sumerian civilization being developed in India. See Taylor, *Alphabet*, Vol. ii, pp. 313, 315 ; Hall, *Hist. N. East*, 7th ed., pp. 171, 173-74 ; *Ind. Ant.*, Vol. v, p. 255 ; *JBORS*, Vol. vi, p. 194 ; etc. But we are concerned here with geographical knowledge as revealed by Indian literature and not with India’s contact with the outside world as suggested by archaeological evidence. See also below.