Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c7.26

c7.26

UTTARAKURU is mentioned as such once in the Sonananda Jātaka wherefrom we learn that it was to the north of the Himālayas. This is in perfect agreement with the statement of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa⁴ that Uttarakuru lay beyond the Himālayas (parena Himavantaṃ). It is placed immediately to the south of Uttaraḥ payasaṃ nidhiḥ—the Northern Deep or the Arctic Ocean—by the Rāmāyaṇa.⁵ Both the Greek and Indian writers describe Uttarakuru as a semi-mythic region where there was perpetual happiness and bliss.⁶ It is, nevertheless, identified with Siberia.⁷