Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c7.s6.2

c7.s6.2

Rājaśekhara refers to the Puranic conception of the world consisting of seven *dvīpas* surrounded respectively by the oceans of salt-water, alcohol, etc. But he also quotes other views such as the following : 1. there are eighteen *dvīpas* and only one ocean which is the salt-sea, 2. there are only three oceans, and 3. there are only four oceans. He then enumerates the *Varṣa-parvatas* beginning with Meru and also the *varṣas* (excluding Bhadrāśva and Ketumāla which, as we have said, appear to have been later additions) after the Purāṇas. The nine divisions of the Bhārata-varṣa are next mentioned in accordance with the earlier Purāṇas though the ninth division is called Kumārī-dvīpa instead of Sāgarasaṃvṛta. These divisions are said to have been situated between the ocean in the south and Himavat in the north and to have been each unapproachable from another. The king who succeeds in conquering them is called *Samrāṭ* while one becomes a *Cakravartin* after conquering the 10,000 *yojanas* of land lying between Kumāripura (Cape Comorin) and Bindu-saras (in the Himalayas), which is the *Cakravarti-kṣetra*.