Cosmography and Geography in Early Indian Literature c8.s5.12

c8.s5.12

There was a modified conception of the Cakravarti-kṣetra, which regarded South India as the sphere of influence of the South Indian rulers and North India as that of the North Indian kings. The earliest reference to South India as a Cakravarti-kṣetra is found in the Nasik praśasti²⁶ of Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi (c. 106-30 A.D.) of the Śātavāhana dynasty. The conventional nature of this king's claim to have been the lord of the Vindhya, Pāriyātra, Ṛkṣavat, Sahya, Malaya and Mahendra mountains²⁷ and to have led his horses to the three seas (Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean) is demonstrated by the fact that the list of the territories in his kingdom noticed in the same record indicates only a tract in the western region of India between Ṛṣika on the Kṛṣṇā river in the south and Ākara and Avanti (East and West Malwa) in the north. The same conclusion regarding the nature of the claims is supported by the Pāla inscriptions, which king Devapāla (c. 810-50 A.D.) is once represented as the undisputed lord of the whole earth bounded by the source of the Gaṅgā (Himālaya), Rāma’s Bridge (Setubandha Rāmeśvara), the Eastern Ocean and the Western Ocean, while elsewhere the same king is said to have ruled over the earth bounded in the north by the Father of Gaurī (Himālaya) and in the south by Revā’s Father (Vindhya).²⁸