with any actually existing, except, perhaps, the great river the Suchakshu, the Amu or Oxus. According to the Bhagavata, * Vishnu is worshipped as Kámadeva, in Ketumála. The Váyu says the object of adoration there is Íśwara, the son of Brahmá. Similar circumstances are asserted of the other Varshas. See, also, As. Res., Vol. VIII., p. 354.† † “It is said, in the Brahma-puráňa, that, in the Bhadráśwa, or China, Vishnu resides with the countenance and head of a horse. In Bharata, he has the countenance of a tortoise. In Kutumála, or Europe, he resides in the shape of a varáha, or boar; and he is described as the chief of a numerous offspring, or followers in that shape. He is, then, in Ketumála, varáhapa, or the chief of the varáhas, or boars; a word to be pronounced, according to the idiom of the spoken dialects, wárápá. In Kuru, he has the countenance of a matsya, or fish; and, of course, he is, there, siro-matsya, or with the head or countenance of a fish." CHAPTER III. Description of Bhárata - varsha: extent: chief mountains: nine divisions: principal rivers and mountains of Bhárata proper: principal nations: superiority over other Varshas, especially as the seat of religious acts. (Topographical lists.) PARÁSARA.-The country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains,* is called Bhárata: for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata. It is nine thousand leagues in extent,' and is the land of works, in consequence of which men go to heaven, or obtain emancipation. The seven main chains of mountains in Bharata are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Suktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and Páripátra.2+ As Bhárata-varsha means India, a nearer approach to the truth, with regard to its extent, might have been expected; and the Vayu has another measurement, which is not much above twice the actual extent, or 1000 Yojanas from Kumárí (Comorin) to the source of the Ganges. or 2 These are called the Kulaparvatas, family mountains, mountain ranges or systems. They are similarly enumerated in all the authorities; and their situation may be determined, with some confidence, by the rivers which flow from them. Mahendra+ is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Circars to Gondwana, part of which, near Ganjam, is still called Mahindra Malei, or hills of Mahindra. Malaya is the southern * Himadri, i. e., the Himalaya. This mountain-range is not to be confounded with that named in connexion with the Nishadha, at p. 123, supra. The Maiardoos of Ptolemy, unless he has altogether misplaced it, cannot represent the Mahendra of the text. See Professor Wilson's Essays on Sanskrit Literature, Vol. I., pp. 240 and 241. From this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases, liberation from existence; or men pass, from hence, into the condition of brutes, or fall into hell. Heaven, emancipation, a state in mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here: and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the universe.* portion of the Western Ghats. Śuktimat is doubtful; for none of its streams can be identified with any certainty. Sahya is the northern portion of the Western Ghats, the mountains of the Konkan. Riksha is the mountains of Gondwana. Vindhya is the general name of the chain that stretches across Central India; but it is here restricted to the eastern division. According to the Váyu, it is the part south of the Narmada, or the Sátpudá range. Páripátra (as frequently written Páriyátra) is the northern and western portion of the Vindhya. The name, indeed, is still given to a range of mountains in Guzerat (see Colonel Tod's map of Rajasthan); but the Chambal and other rivers of Málwá, which are said to flow from the Páriyátra mountains, do not rise in that province. All these mountains, therefore, belong to one system, and are connected together. The classification seems to have been known to Ptolemy; as he specifies seven ranges of mountains, although his names do not correspond, with exception of the Vindius Mons. Of the others, the Adisathrus and Uxentus agree, nearly, in position with the Páriyátra and Riksha. The Apocope, Sardonyx, Bittigo, † and Orudii must be left for consideration. The Bhagavata, Váyu, Padma, and Márkańdeya add a list of inferior mountains to these seven. * अतः संप्राप्यते स्वर्गो मुक्तिमस्मात्प्रयान्ति वै । † For Professor Lassen's speculations as to the situation of these mountains, see Indische Alterthumskunde, Vol. III., pp. 121, 123, and 163. The Varsha of Bhárata is divided into nine portions, which I will name to you. They are Indra-dwípa, Kaśerumat,* Támravarna, † Gabhastimat, Nága-dwípa, Saumya, Gandharva, and Váruńa. The last or ninth Dwipa is surrounded by the ocean, and is a thousand Yojanas from north to south.1 On the east of Bhárata dwell the Kirátas (the barbarians); on the west, the Yavanas; in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Śúdras, occupied This last is similarly left without a name, in all the works. + It is the most southerly, that on the borders of the sea, and, no doubt, intends India proper. Wilford places here a division called Kumáriká. § No description is anywhere attempted of the other divisions. To these the Vayu adds six minor Dwípas, which are situated beyond sea, and are islands: Anga-dwípa, Yama-dwípa, Matsya-dwípa, Kumuda or Kuśa-dwípa, Varáha-dwípa, and Śankha-dwipa; peopled, for the most part, by Mlechchhas, but who worship Hindu divinities. The Bhagavata and Padma name eight such islands: Swarnaprastha, Chandraśukla, Ávatrana, Ramanaka, Mandahára, Pánchajanya, Simhala, and Lanká. Colonel Wilford has endeavoured to verify the first series of Upadwipas, making Varáha, Europe; Kuśa, Asia Minor, &c.; Śankha, Africa; Malaya, Malacca: Yama is undetermined; and, by Anga, he says, they understand China. How all this may be is more than doubtful; for, in the three Puráňas in which mention is made of them, very little more is said upon the subject. * Variants are Kaśeru and Kasetu. Two MSS. have Támraparúa. In the Matsya-purána it is called Mánava. Dr. Aufrecht, Catalog. Cod. Manuscript., &c., p. 41. § And it occurs in Bhaskara Áchárya's enumeration. See note in p. 112, supra. || V., 19, 30. In place of "Mandahára", it gives Mandaraharina. in their respective duties of sacrifice, arms, trade, and service.1 The Satadrú, Chandrabhágá, and other rivers flow from the foot of Himálaya;* the Vedasmriti and others, from the Páripátra mountains; the Narmadá and Surasá, from the Vindhya hills; the Tápí, Payoshńí, and Nirvindhya, from the Riksha mountains; the Godávarí, Bhímarathí, Krishnaveńí, § and others, from the Sahya mountains; the Kritamálá, Támraparní, and others, from the Malaya hills; the Trisámá, Rishikulyá, || 1 By Kirátas, foresters and mountaineers are intended,- - the inhabitants, to the present day, of the mountains east of Hindusthán. T The Yavanas, on the west, may be either the Greeks of Bactria and the Punjab-to whom there can be little doubt the term was applied by the Hindus-or the Mohammedans, who succeeded them in a later period, and to whom it is now applied. The Vayu calls them both Mlechchhas, and also notices the admixture of barbarians with Hindus, in India proper: तैर्विमिश्रा जनपदा आर्या म्लेच्छाश्च नित्यशः । ** The same passage, slightly varied, occurs in the Mahábhárata. It is said especially of the mountainous districts, and may allude, therefore, to the Gonds and Bhils of Central India, as well as to the Mohammedans of the north-west. The specification implies that infidels and outcasts had not yet descended on the plains of Hindusthán. Himavat, in the original. Some MSS. here add "&c."; others, Káveri. One MS. has Bhimaratha. And see the Márkańdeya-puráňa, LVII., 26. § Krishnavená seems to be almost as common a reading. In two MSS. I find Áryakulyá, which as we immediately afterwards read of a Rishikulyá river-may be preferable. It is the lection of the smaller commentary. For the Kirántís, a tribe of the Central Himalaya, see Hodgson, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1858, pp. 446, et seq. ** Compare the Márkańdeya-puráňa, LVII., 15. |