India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

Author(s): Bimla Charn Law
Publisher: Bimlacharan Law

Page 16

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INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS
lakes, etc., in Jambudvipa, while more numerous were the steep, precipitous places, unfordable rivers, inaccessible mountains, and the rest.1
In accordance with the description in the Jambudīva-paņņatti, the Bhāratavarşa which is situated to the south of the Himalayas and between the eastern and western seas, abounds in prickly stumps and thorns, uneven and inaccessible roads, hills and dales, fountains and springs, khattās, crevices, rivers and lakes, trees, creepers and shrubs, forests and grasses, thieves, dimbas and damaras, famines and bad times, religious sects, the poor and destituto, emorgencies and epidemios, wicked persons, drought, diseases, iniquities and constant commotions. It appears from the north like a bedstead, and from the south, like a bow (uttarão paliamkasamthāna-samthie, dāhiņão dhanupittha-samthie). By the two large rivers, Gangā and Sindhu, and the Vaitādhya mountain range it is divided into six portions (chabbhāga-pavibhatte). It is 52644 leagues in extent.?
As for the number and location of the dyipas, the Pali account may be shown to have followed the same tradition as that in the Mahābhārata which, too, speaks of just four great continents and locates them on four sides of the golden mountain of Meru or Sumeru. The continent
1 Anguttara, i, p. 86; Malalasekera, op. cit., i, p. 941. 2 Jambudiva-panpatti, i, 9.