Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s4.1

c6.s4.1

The Jambu-dvīpa is also called Sudarśana-dvīpa and both the names are derived from a Jambu tree, bearing the name Sudarśana in some accounts, the branches of which are often said to have extended over a space of 100 yojanas.⁵⁰ The dvīpa is described as ‘low on the south and north and highly elevated in the middle’.⁵¹ As we have seen above, sometimes it is supposed to be shaped like a lotus with Mount Meru as its pericarp (karṇikā) and the mahādvīpas or varṣas entitled Bhadrāśva, Bhārata (also called Jambu-dvīpa), Ketumāla and Uttara-Kuru as its four petals.⁵² The elevated central region of the Jambu-dvīpa is styled Ilāvṛta-varṣa or Meru-varṣa,⁵³ which is one of the nine divisions into which the dvīpa is divided. There are 3 varṣas (Ramyaka, Hiraṇmaya and Uttara-Kuru) to the north and another 3 (Bhārata, Kimpuruṣa and Hari) to the south of the division called Meru or Ilāvṛta. To these seven, two other varṣas of a longitudinal character (Bhadrāśva to the east and Ketumāla to the west of the Ilāvṛta division around the Meru mountain) appear to have been added later to make the number nine.⁵⁴ The Jambu-dvīpa is circular in shape so that the northernmost and southernmost varṣas (Uttara-Kuru and Bhārata) are each shaped like a bow.⁵⁵