Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s4.50

c6.s4.50

Very few of the names can be satisfactorily identified. Thus the Nāga-dvīpa is the Jaffna Peninsula of Ceylon, while Tāmraparṇa (Greek Taprobane, Aśokan Tāmraparṇī) is a well-known name of Ceylon. When the implication of some of the names was forgotten, the names Siṃhala (Ceylon) and Kaṭāha (Kedah region of the Malay Peninsula) were introduced in the list. The only other name about which some information is available is the Indra-dvīpa which is mentioned in another geographical section of the Purāṇas. Of the seven streams of the Gaṅgā rising from Lake Bindu in the Himalayas, Nalinī, Hlādinī and Pāvanī are said to be flowing towards the east, and one out these three is described as crossing the lands of the Kupatha, Kharapatha, Vetrapatha, Śaṅkupatha, Kuthaprāvaraṇa, etc., and entering the sea in or near the Indra-dvīpa. Kharapatha, Śaṅkupatha and Vetrapatha (passes to be crossed with the help of mules, pegs and canes) are mentioned in Indian literature in connection with the Suvarṇa-bhūmi or land beyond the Bay of Bengal.⁹⁰ The Indra-dvīpa may therefore be identified with some tract in Indochina, or Indonesia. The other names can scarcely be identified with any amount of plausibility.