Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c7.s1.3

c7.s1.3

Besides the Varṣa-parvata entitled Himavat, the said tract had seven other great mountain ranges known as Kul-ācala or Kula-parvata. The seven Kula mountains are—(1) Mahendra (Eastern Ghāṭs), (2) Malaya (Travancore hills and the southern fringes of the Western Ghāṭs), (3) Sahya (the Western Ghāṭs to the north of the Malaya), (4) Śuktimat (parts of the Vindhyan range including the Sakti hills in Eastern M. P.), (5) Ṛkṣavat (parts of the Vindhyan range to the south of Malwa), (6) Vindhya (the Vindhyan range, extending from Gujarat to Bihar, but sometimes used in a restricted sense with the exclusion of the portions covered by the Śuktimat, Ṛkṣavat and Pāriyātra), and (7) Pāriyātra or Pāripātra (Western Vindhyas including the Aravali range). They were inhabited by kulas (tribes).