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JULY, 1893.]
TOPOGRAPHICAL LIST OF THE BRIHAT-SAMHITA.
169
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL LIST OF THE BRIHAT-SAMHITA.
BY J. F. FLEET, I.C.S., Ph.D., C.I.E. THE topographical information contained in the Brihat-Samhita of Varahamihira
1 is to be tound chiefly in chapter xiv., entitled kúrma-vibhaga or “the Division of the Globe;" the special object of wbich, in conformity with the astrological nature of the whole work, is to provide an arrangement from which it may be determined what countries and peoples suffer calamity when particular nakshatras or lunar mansions are vexed by the planets. For this purpose, the twenty-seven nakshatras, commencing with Ksittikâh (the Pleiades), are divided into nine groups, of three each ; and the globe, into a corresponding numbers of nine divisions, starting with the Madhyadeśa or middle country, as the central part of Bhäratavarsha or the inhabitable world, and then running round the compass from east to north-east. And an application of the distribution, - though not a very careful one, unless it can be improved or corrected by any emendation of the present text,- is given in verses 32, 33, of the same chapter; where we learn that, as the groups of nakshatras are vexed, commencing with that of which the first nakshatra is Āgnêya or Krittikâh, so, in due order, destruction and death come upon the kings of the Pañchâlas (middle-country), of Magadha (eastern division), of Kalinga (south-east division), of Avanti (southern division), of Anarta (south-west division), of the Sindhu-Sanviras (again the south-west division), of the Harahauras or Hårahauras (not mentioned elsewhere), of the Madras (north-west division), and of the Kauņindas (north-east division).
The first part of my catalogue, the divisional list, gives all the names thus mentioned in chapter xiv., as it runs in Dr. Kern's edition, arranged alphabetically under the divisions of the country adopted by Varkhamihira. As has been indicated, the primary division is the Madhyadosa or middle country. I do not find any definition of this term in the Brihat-Sanhita. And there seem to be differences in respect of its limits. Thus, Prof. H. H. Wilson has spoken of it as being "the country along the Narmadá;" and Albêrûni, from the information given to him, has explained it as being "the country all around Kanauj, which is also called Aryavarta." Sir Monier Monier-Williams, however, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, gives it a considerably more ample extent; defining it as "the country lying between the Himalayas on the north, the Vindhya mountains on the south, Vinasana on the west," i.e. apparently the place where the river Sarasvati was supposed to lose itself in the sand, “Prayaga on the east, and comprising the modern provinces of Allahâbâd, Ågrâ, Dehli, Oude, &c." And this seems to be more in consonance with Varahamihira's view : since we find him including in it, on the east, Såketa (Oude), 8 and on the west, the Maru country (Marwad), and the Sarasvatas or people living on the banks of the Sarasvatî which rises in Mount Abu, and, running almost due south, flows into the Ran of Cutch; while, on the other hand, the Yamunas or people living on the banks of the Jamnâ, which rises in the Himalayas, are placed by him partly in the middle country and partly in the northern division, and the Vindhya mountains, which run across the peninsula and constitute the northern boundary of the valley of the Narmada, are excluded by him from the middle country altogether, though, in connecting them only with the south-east division, he fails to represent fully their extent.
In presenting this divisional list, I do not mean to suggest that it furnishes materials for preparing an accurate map of ancient India; or that the cities, rivers, mountains, tribes, &c.,and especially the tribes,- belong actually and only to the divisions to which they are allotted by Varahamihira. Mistakes in his details can easily be shewn: for instance, though he places Kachchha and Girinagara both in the southern division, he locates Raivataka in the southwest; whereas this mountain is quite close to Girinagara (Junagadh) and the Girnår mountain,
1 Vishnu-Purana, Translation, Vol. IV. p. 64, note 3. · Albirani's India, Translation, Vol. I. p. 173 ; also see p. 198.
• So also the Matsya Purana places Ayodha (Oude) in the Madhyadéks; see Vishnu-Purana, Translation, Vol. IV. p. 168, note ul.
