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APRIL, 1921)
THE ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA
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The Puranas reserve () a section on Geography-Bhuvana kosa-giving lists of rivers, mountains, countries and tribes. They also deal with (ii) Topographia sacra and contain (40) many incidental references. [Bhuvanakośa of Mārkaendya Purana with notes in Pargiter's translation of the Purāna published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal Geographical names in the Bhāgavata Purāpa in 1. A. XXVIII. p. 1.)
The Mahatmyas (of various Arthas) also deal with Topographia pacra. These works (claiming to be sections or portions extracted from Puranas or Samhitās) set forth the legendary origin of Arthas, the rites to be performed there, etc. Their importance may be illustrated thus - A long and laborious but fruitless search was made for the site of Vätäpi, the capital of the early Chāluky&s. Now the Mahätmya of Mahäkäţa, a tirtha close to Badami (15° 55' N: Let. and 75° 41' E. Long.) in Bija pore district localised there the story of the brothers Vätāpi and Ilvala vanquished by the sage Agastya. This localisation of the story of Vätāpi showed that Bädāmi, close to the tirtha, is the oity of Vātäpi. (1. A., VIII, p. 238.) Dr Bühler, in his Kaimir Report, pointed out the great geographical importance of the Māhātmyas and Dr. Stein has discovered many long forgotten sites with their aid. [Stein's Topography of Kashmir in his Chronicles of Kasmir, Vol. II.] The Māhātmya literature is very vast.
There are also a few works professing to deal with geography. Mr. Wilford has long ago pointed out (Asiatick Researches, XIV, pp. 374-380), the existence of the following (1) Muñjapratideśa-vyavastha, (2) Bhoja-pratideśa-vyavastha (a revised edition of 1), (3) Bhuvana-Sāgara, (4) A Geography written at the command of Bukkarāya, (5) A commen. tary on the Geography of the Mahābhārata written by order of the Raja of Paulastya (? Paurastya ?) by Pandit in the time of Hussein Shah (1489)-a voluminous work. A MS. acquired by Mr. Wilford once formed a part of the Library of Fort William College ; it is now in the Government Sanskrit College Library, Calcutta. A detailed description,34 of this MS. has been given by M. M. H. P. Sastri in the Journal of the Bihar' and Orissa Research Society (1919). Prof. Pulle has mentioned (in pp. 13-15 of his Studi Italiani di Filología IndoIranica, vol. IV) the existence of the following geographical works in the Library of the Nazionale centrale di Firenze (Italy) (5) Lokaprakdía of Kshemendra (the celebrated Kasmirian writer); the MS. consists of 782 pages and it is profusely illustrated. Prof. Pullé has reproduced two of its figures in his Studi. (6) Three MSS. of Kshetra Samdaa, a Jaina work-with two different commentaries. (7) A MS. of Kshetra Samasa Pralcarana. (8) Four MSS. of Sanghayans of Chandrasûri with two commentaries ; one of the MSS. is illustrated. (9) A Laghu-Samghayanf. He has also pointed out the mention of Kshetra Samdea of Jina Bhadra (1457-517) in Kielhorn's Report (1880-1), of (10) Laghu Kshetra Samdea of RatnaRekhara in Weber's Cat. (No. 1942), of (11) Trailokya dipikd and (12) Trailokya Darpana quoted by Wilford. Besides the above, (13) a Jaina Tittha Kappu, and (14) T,isthal selv dealing with the topography of Prayaga are also known.
St. Martin34 characterized the works mentioned by Wilford to be imposture literature” without sufficiently examining them. Be they "imposture" or not, they have not yet been sufficiently examined.
Certain works on Poetios, e.g, Rajasekhara's Kavyami marisd (Gaekwad Oriental Series) V&gbhata's and Hemchandra's works (printed in the Kávyamåla Series), contain a section on geography, in order to acquaint a poet with the flora and fauna etc., of the various 33 Gazetteer literature in Sansluit.
* Klat actuel des études our l'Indke ancienne, p. xiii,
