Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s5.27

c6.s5.27

In chapters 26ff. of the Sabhā-parvan of the Mahābhārata, there is a similar description of territories in the different irections in connection with the digvijaya of the four Pāṇḍava brothers, viz. Arjuna conquering the countries and peoples in the north, Bhīma subduing those of the east, Nakula those of the west and Sahadeva those of the south. Although the different versions of the Mahābhārata do not offer exactly the same text of the said section and there is confusion and some names appear in more than one of the lists and more than once in the same list, the description is important since it gives us an idea about the location of various countries in the four regions of the Indian sub-continent :