Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s2.24

c6.s2.24

It is not easy to explain this peculiar name applied by the Buddhists, who may have borrowed the four-continent theory from the Puranic writers, to the eastern continent of the earth. One thing that occurs to us is that Lord Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born at a place near Bhagwanpur in the Tarai to the north of the Champaran District of North Bihar, so that the name Videha in Eastern India had a special significance to the followers of the Buddha. The enigmatic name Apara-Godāna (Goyāna) has even no such basis. It seems to be an arbitrary concoction which the Buddhists invariably exhibited while borrowing something from the Brahmanical literature.²⁵