India As Described In Early Texts Of Buddhism and Jainism

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

Page 17

GEOGRAPHY
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on the west side is, however, called Ketumāla instead of Aparagodāna, and that on the east side, Bhadrāśva instead of Pubbavideha. The continent on the north side is called Uttarakuru, precisely as in Pali. To the north of Harivarsa and in between the two mountain rangos of Nila (on the north) and Nişadha (on the south) lie two other ranges, the eastern, called Mālyavat, and the western, called Gandhamādana. Encircling the space botween them stands the Meru. mountain. As in Pali texts, the Jambudivapannatti and the Purānas, so in the Great Epio the name of Jambudvipa is derived from a mighty Jambu tree, called Sudarsana, which, too, is located in a spot between the two ranges of Nila and Nişadha. The origin of the Jambu river is accounted for, exactly as in Pali texts, by an accumulated flow of the juice of rose-apples that grow on that Jambu tree.
The Mahābhārata agrees with the Jambudīvapannatti and the Purāņas when it speaks of six varsaparvatas in Jambudvīpa. These are: Himavān, Hemakūta, Nişadha, Nila, Sveta and Śrngavān, enumerated from south to north, each forming a long range from sea to sea or ocean to ocean. Bhāratavarşa is, of course, placed to
1 Mahabharata, Bhigmaparva, 6.12, 13; 7.13; 6.31; 7.13, 14, 2 Ibrd., 6.9, 10. 8 Ibid., 7.19, 20. 4 Ibid., 7.22-26.
6 Ibid., 6.3-0.