Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s18.369

v1.c3.s18.369

The three earths are equally artificial, the origin of the triad being probably the use of pṛthivī in the plural¹³ to denote the three divisions of the universe (just as pitarau, ‘two fathers,’ denotes ‘father and mother’).¹⁴ The earth is called kṣam, kṣā, gmā, or designated by the epithets mahī, ‘the great,’ pṛthivī or urvī, ‘the broad,’ uttānā, ‘the extended,’ and is regularly contrasted as idam, ‘this world here,’ with the upper sphere.¹⁵