Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 226

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ Doroban, 130
therefore, this stupendous mountain system lay on the northern boundary of many countries besides India proper, such as Burma and Annam in the east, on whose southern and eastern sides also, generally speaking, the sea lies (cf. The China Sea on the east of Burma, Siam and Cochin China). Regarded in that light, the second set of the Puranio passages (footnote 35) evidently, therefore, refer to the fact that by Bharatavarga at the time represented by the Paranas was meant the whole country which was bounded on the north by the Himalaya and surrounded on the south by the ocean, and which extended in the east as far as the China Seat Bharatavarsa thus bore a wider sense, within which were also included the islands of the Far East. This does not militate against what has been said above that in some of the islands of the Far East, and also in some of those that lie to the west of India. we are to trace the positions of the other eight dufpas. The faot that the Vamana and Garda mentions KatAha and Simhala in place of Saumya and Gandharva also lends much weight to the above view, for Kataha is probably identical with the present seaport .of Kedah in the Malay Peninsula.So Simhala is, of course, Ceylon. We may, refuse to inoorporate Katha and Simhala in the list of the nine defpas by eliminating Saumya and Gandharva, but th, general trend is quite oloar that the eight dut pas refer to the outlying islands of India. Moreover, the almost unanimous statement of all the Puranas that the nine dvipas of Bharatavana were mutually inaccessible, 80 being separated from each other by the ocean also gives strong reason to believe that the dufpas were not so many divisions of India proper, but refer to the islands of Greater India. But as the ninth defpa has been found to be identical with Indis proper, we are now concerned with the remaining eight dvipus. 81
(Po be continued.)
37 Thus Rashidu'd-din, the Arab geographer, saye :" Hind is furrounded on the east by Chin and Machin, on the west by Sind and Kabul, and on the south by the sea" (Elliot, History of India, vol. I, p. 46). Chith is probably Cochin China. Regarding Machin, Rashidu'd-din thus states ite position : "Beyond that is Haitam..... Beyond that is MAHA Chin, then the harbour of Waitan, on the shore of the China 806. ..." (Ibid., p. 71.) Haitam in all probability is the island of Hainan jurt opposite to the gulf of Tanquin. Then we come to Maha Chin. Regarding it, Idrill gives the following notice : "No city is equal to it whether we consider its greatnes, the number of the diffoe, the importance of its commerce, the variety of its merchandise, or the number of merchants which viat it from different parts of India." (Ibid., n. 3.) Ion a Wendt further says: “It is the extreme castern part which is inhabited, and beyond which there is nothing but the ocean." (Ibid.) All thee give very strong con for supporing What the MAA Chin of Rashidu'd-din refers to the great Chinese port of Hong-Kong, beyond which lay the harbour of Zaitun, which hine been identified with a port in the province of Fo-kien (bild., n. 6). It thus apports that the Indian boundary on the East was formed by Hong-kong and its neighbouring sea.
38 We know that Indian culture at one time was propagated and was deep rooted in the islands of the Far East, in Burma, Siam and Annam, etc., places and countries in which still bear traces of Sengkrit names in a plainly recognizable form, names which were carried there at an early date, and which thus brought about the idea of a Further or Greater India. Greater India in this sense may be regarded se second India, and certainly it was looked upon in that light by the Hindu colonists, who carried thither their civilization and culture and made it as much as possible their second fatherland.
29 As the French scholar Coedes supposes (Sir Ashutosh Mulherjee Silver Jubilee Volumes, vol. III, Orientalia, part 1, p. 4.
30 Samudrdntarita jAeydate tvagamydh parasparam (Mark. 67,5). This statement is also to be found in the V4. (45,78); Bd. (49, 12); Br. (27, 14) and Vdm. (13, 9) and in the other Purdnas too. c. Kdoyaenlandmed (Desavibhaga), p. 92, Yavat parasparam agamydsie. The word agamydł, i.e, inaccesible, is of course used here in a conventional senge. 31 Cl. Ayun tu naparte del pal K ....
Agou dotpdik samudrana piduitates cathd pare grdmddi-dais sanulla sidhadgromadkyoguk. (Slanda Pwana, vii, 1, 172, 8-8)