Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s1.9

c6.s1.9

The Jambukhaṇḍavirmāṇa-parvan and Bhūmi-parvan incorporated in the Bhīṣma-parvan of the *Mahābhārata* and the Bhuvanavinyāsa and Kūrmavibhāga (Kūrmaniyeśa) sections in some of the Purāṇas offer lists of the mountains, rivers and countries of all the regions of the Indian subcontinent including parts of Central Asia, although they do not exhibit any considerable knowledge of the territories outside the said area. The compilation of the earlier drafts of such sections may be assigned to the early centuries of the Christian era while the cosmographical speculations contained therein appear to have developed a few centuries earlier.