and Kali, takes place;* that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men: offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed:-all for the sake of another world. In Jambu-dwípa, Vishnu, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, § with sacrificial ceremonies. He is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bhárata is, therefore, the best of the divisions of Jambu-dwípa, because it is the land of works. The others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born latter are amongst the western, or, more properly, north-western, nations subjugated by Nakula, in his Dig-vijaya: Mahábhárata, Sabhá Parvan. Ambas and Ambashthas are included in the list extracted, by Colonel Wilford, from the Varáha Samhitá: and the latter are supposed, by him, to be the Ambastæ of Arrian. The Párasikas carry us into Persia, or that part of it adjoining to the Indus. As far as the enumeration of the text extends, it seems applicable to the political and geographical divisions of India about the era of Christianity. base, . The necessary inference, however, to be deduced from this analysis of आम्बष्ठ (into अम्ब and स्थ) is, then, that the plural of the word could not have been अम्बष्ठा: - like पञ्चाला: of पाञ्चालः, : of, &c.-but, at the time of Páńini, was 8. Since, on the other hand, however, no military people of the name of 1481: occurs in the literature- so far as it is known to me-subsequent to Páńini, it seems to follow, that the older name of the people was 8T, and that, by a wrong grammatical analogy, it became, at a later period, T:." * The original adds अन्यत्र न क्वचित्, “ and nowhere else". + Muni. Yajwin. § Yajnapurusha. See Vol. I., pp. 61 and 163, notes. See Asiatic Researches, Vol. VIII., pp. 344 and 346. in Bhárata, as men. The gods themselves exclaim: “Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men, in Bhárata-varsha; as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or (the greater blessing) of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vishnu, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed,' where we shall renew corporeal confinement: but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties in Bhárata-varsha."* 1 Enjoyment in Swarga, like punishment in Naraka, is only for a certain period, according to the merit, or demerit, of the individual. When the account is balanced, the man is born again amongst mankind. 2 A crippled or mutilated person, or one whose organs are defective, cannot at once obtain liberation. His merits must first secure his being born again perfect and entire. * जानीम नैतत्क्क वयं विलीने स्वर्गप्रदे कर्मणि देहबन्धम् । मनुष्याः The larger commentary says: युष्माकमपि स्वर्गभोगान्तरं भारते जन्म भविष्यतीति चेत्तत्र ज्ञायत इत्याह । जानीमेति । स्वर्गप्रदे कर्मणि भोगेन विलीने सति कुत्र देहसंबन्धं जन्म प्राप्स्याम इति न जानीम । ये त्वद्य भारते मनुष्याः सन्ति ते खलु निश्चितं धन्याः । अनायासेन स्वर्गस्य मोक्षस्य वा प्राप्तेः । इन्द्रियविप्रहीणा अन्धपङ्कादयस्ते ऽत्र न भवन्ति । इन्द्रियवत्त्वमात्रेण तदुभयसिद्धेः । The reader will notice the would be archaic forms of the text, जानीम and प्राप्स्याम. And see Original Sanskrit Texts, Part I., pp. 188 and 189. I have thus briefly described to you, Maitreya, the nine divisions of Jambu-dwípa, which is a hundred thousand Yojanas in extent, and which is encircled, as if by a bracelet, by the ocean of salt water, of similar dimensions. TOPOGRAPHICAL LISTS, From the Mahábhárata, Bhishma Parvan, sl. 317-378. MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS.1* SANJAYA speaks to Dhritarashtra.-Hear me, monarch, in reply to your inquiries, detail to you the particulars of the country of Bhárata. In attempting to verify the places or people specified in the text, various difficulties are to be encountered, which must serve to apologize for but partial success. Some are inherent in the subject, such as the changes which have taken place in the topography of India since the lists were compiled, and the imperfectness of the specification itself. States, and tribes, and cities have disappeared, even from recollection; and some of the natural features of the country, especially the rivers, have undergone a total alteration. Buchanan (Description of Eastern Hindustan), following Rennell over the same ground, at an interval of some thirty or forty years, remarks that many of the streams laid down in the Bengal Atlas (the only series of maps of India, yet published, that can be regarded as of authority) are no longer to be traced. Then the lists which are given are such mere catalogues, that they afford no clue to verification, beyond names; and names have been either changed, or so corrupted as to be no longer recognizable. On the other hand, much of the difficulty arises from our own want of knowledge. Scattered through the Puránas and other works, the names given in the topographical lists recur with circumstances which fix their locality: but these means of verification have not yet been sufficiently investigated. There are, also, geographical treatises in Sanskrit, which, there is reason to * See, for a general note, the conclusion of this extract from the Mahábhárata. 1 Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, Šuktimat, Gandhamá believe, afford much accurate and interesting information: they are not common. Colonel Wilford speaks of having received a number from Jaypur: but, upon his death, they disappeared. After a considerable interval, some of his MSS. were purchased for the Calcutta Sanskrit College: but by far the larger portion of his collection had been dispersed. A few leaves only on geographical subjects were found, from which I translated and published a chapter on the geography of some of the districts of Bengal (Calcutta Quarterly Magazine, December, 1824). The details were accurate and valuable, though the compilation was modern. Notwithstanding these impediments, however, we should be able to identify at least mountains and rivers, to a much greater extent than is now practicable, if our maps were not so miserably defective in their nomenclature. None of our surveyors or geographers have been oriental scholars. It may be doubted if any of them have been conversant with the spoken language of the country. They have, consequently, put down names at random, according to their own inaccurate appreciation of sounds carelessly, vulgarly, and corruptly uttered; and their maps of India are crowded with appellations which bear no similitude whatever either to past or present denominations. We need not wonder that we cannot discover Sanskrit names in English maps, when, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta, Barnagore represents Baráhanagar, Dakshineswar is metamorphosed into Duckinsore, and Ulubaría is Anglicized into Willoughbury. Going a little further off, we have Dalkisore for Darik eś warí, Midnapore for Medinipur, and a most unnecessary accumulation of consonants in Caughmahry for Kákamárí. There is scarcely a name in our Indian maps that does not afford proof of extreme indifference to accuracy in nomenclature, and of an incorrectness in estimating sounds, which is, in some degree, perhaps, a national defect. 'The printed edition reads Śaktimat, which is also found in some MSS.: but the more usual reading is that of the text. I |