Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s5.35

c6.s5.35

That the Indians had somewhat better contact with and more knowledge about South-East Asia is also indicated by some of the Puranic sections as well as by early Buddhist literature. Thus, while describing the islands in the ocean to the south of the Bhārata-varṣa, the Vāyu Purāṇa (Ch. 49) mentions—(1) Aṅga-dvīpa (Angodiya of the Arab writers who locate it near the Siamese coast in the Bay of Bengal) ; (2) Yama-dvīpa (identified with Yamakoṭi, 90° to the east of Laṅkā or Ceylon) ; (3) Malaya-dvīpa (the Malay Peninsula) ; (4) Śaṅkha-dvīpa (Sankhay of the Arabs who locate it at 3 days’ voyage from Malay and within the Śailendra empire of Kaṭāha and Śrīvijaya) ; (5) Kuśa-dvīpa ; and (6) Varāha-dvīpa (the Barawa islands of the Arabs who place them about 100 farsangs from Fansur, i.e. Boros on the Sumatra coast).¹¹³ The identifications of some of the dvīpas,