Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c6.s5.7

c6.s5.7

We have mentioned above the Suppāraka Jātaka referring to the voyage of West Indian merchants in the Western Seas. Although we are diffident to read in the Jātaka story more than a vague knowledge of the seas in the west on the part of the ancient Indians, it will be unfair to K. P. Jayaswal if we do not summarise his views on the subject. "The identification of Kuśa-dvīpa with Nubia led to Capt. Speke's discovery of the sources of the Nile from its description in the Purāṇas.¹⁰¹ The Kushites were masters of Nubia between the 22nd and the 18th century B.C. as their name appears in the inscriptions of that period. The canal which took the Kuśa-Nila country (sic) into the Volcano (Vaḍavāmukha) Sea existed in the time of Seti I, 1380 B.C. This Canal joined the Red Sea near the Bitter Lake with the Nile and made navigation from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean possible.¹⁰² The Canal ceased to exist in the next millennium since, in 609 B.C., Necho started building another canal without success. The Dadhi Sea by the Kuśa country (sic) is evidently what we call the Red Sea, both names having their origin in the appearance of the water of the sea thickened by the peculiar matter that floats in it.¹⁰³ The Babylonian national legend of the Man-fish (Oannes) who lived in the sea and civilized them is well known. Khur was also a Babylonian god mentioned in the inscriptions of the time of Khammurabi, 2200 B.C.¹⁰⁴ Agnimāla refers either to the Arabian coast near Aden or some portion of the Somali coast. Voyages of North Indians in the Persian Gulf are known from the Ṛgvedic story of Bhujyu.¹⁰⁵ Acquaintance with a Babylonian deity is indicated by the Atharvaveda as suggested by Tilak while acquaintance with the Assyrian language is suggested by the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (III. 2. 1. 23-24) reference to the shibboleth halavo halavaḥ of the Asura language and to the Mleccha people. Helava is from Semitic he+ellu=Assyrian Elowah, ‘God’, while Mleccha is Semitic Malekh, ‘a king’.¹⁰⁶ It is significant that the same Brāhmaṇa knows the story of the Deluge which is of Babylonian origin.¹⁰⁷