Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 182

170
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1933
This, along with the account of the Oxus and Sita rivers which follows, is almost a verbal corroboration of the Puranic description of the Påmirs. The four large divisions of Jambudvipa are :
N. Uttara Kuru, situated to the south of the Northern Sea (Uttara samudra). S. Bhårata. E. Bhadrâsva (up to the sea, i.e., China).
W. Ketumala (up to the sea, i.e., Asia Minor). Ketumála is identified by the later Hindu astronomer Bhaskara Acarya, who calls its Westernmost town Romaka, i.e., Constantinople. The Purâņic description fully bears out this identification.
According to the second division of Jambudvipa referred to above, in which seven varsas are enumerated, it becomes clear that the whole of Asia minus Arabia is included in Jambud. vipa. By or below the Nişadha there was Hari-varsa. This country, Hari, is thus identical with the name and country called Haraiva or Hartva by Darius, i.e., the country from Meshed to Herat, the Ariana of the Greeks. The old name survives in the modern Heri. The next varga or country in the Puranas is a large area called Ilåvpita, which must go back to the Elamite empire. Ilabrat was the chief messenger of the gods, or the god of the winga' (cf. Mythology of AU Races, vol. V, Semitic, by S. Langdon, p. 177). To the Tibetan region and adjacent parts the Puranas give the name Kinnara- or Kimpuruşa-varsa, probably owing to the inhabitants being nearly devoid of moustaches and whiskers. To the north of the Påmirs there are two parallel divisions, Ramanaka (or Ramyaka), i.e., the country of the * nomads,' and Hiranya, which evidently stand for Central Asia and Mongolia, as the country to their north, Uttara Kuru was known as reaching the Northern Soa. Uttara Kuru thus represents Siberia.
Thus the four larger divisions are really the four most distant countries-India, Asia Minor, China and Siberia, and the seven consist of
1. India (with its frontiers on the Pâmîrs). 2. The Herat country. 3. Tibet. 4. Ilavrita, from the Pamirs and Herat (probably) to the Persian Gulf. 5. Central Asia. 6. Mongolia
7. Siberia. Arabia is counted as a different dvipa. It is bounded on three sides by the sea. A dvipa, according to the Puranic description, should have seas on (at least) two sides. Arabia is called Puskara, which according to the Puranas, is the only dvipa which has no river and only one mountain. Its name, Puşkara dvipa, the 'lako dvipa,' is probably due to its being regarded as having inhabited land on all sides, surrounding an area of sand which represented a dried-up sheet of water.
The Puranic division of the then known world is thus ancient. It stands to reason that the ancient Hindus must have known their neighbours. Tho Puranas show a minute knowledge of Mid-Asia. Their name, Nila, for a large range of mountains is a translation of the Chinese name, 'Blue Mountains'; and their 'Golden Mountains' represent the Altai Mountains, the Mongolian name for which (Altain-ula) means the mountains of gold.' The Puranas assert that in the Central (Pâmîr) Region there was a very large lake, called by them Bindusara, which was the source of the Oxus and several other, named, rivers. Modern
13 C.H.I., i, 338. 11 Enc. Brit. (11th ed.), XIII, 332.