Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c9.1282

c9.1282

Two famous sons named Priyavrata and Uttānapāda were born to Svāyambhuva Manu. Priyavrata and his children ruled the country for a period of eleven arbudas, that is a hundred million years. Though he was aged so much the power of his mind and body did not show any sign of weakness. At this time he saw once the sun travelling on the first side of the earth, and began to think. "When the sun is walking on one side of the earth, the other side must naturally be dark. Will it happen so in our time? In all places at all times it should be bright and there should be no darkness." Thinking thus he got into a chariot as bright as the sun and travelled round the earth seven times. During these travels the wheels of the chariot made seven furrows on the earth. These furrows became the seven seas and the beds between the furrows became seven islands.