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THE PĀRIYĀTRAS
379 western portion of the Vindhyas, and may be said to include the range of hills now known as the Aravalli.
"The Vişnupurāna, for example, mentions Pāriyātra or Pāripātra as situated on the west, associated with the semi-mythical mount Meru. "Nişadha and Pāriyātra are the limitative mountains on the west (of Meru), stretching, like those on the east, between the Nīla and Nişadha ranges.' 1
The list of the seven Kulācalas seems to have been known in some form or other to Ptolemy as early as the first half of the second century A.D.; for he also specifies seven ranges of hills, although his list does not correspond with the Puranic list, with the exception of the Ouindion, identical with the Vindhyas, and the Ouxenton, identical with the Rksa (Vant).2 Wilson thought that Adeisathron might be identified with the Pāriyātra3; but this has been found to be untenable, and modern research tends to connect the range with the Western Ghāts, or, more properly, 'that section of the Western Ghāts which is immediately to the north of the Coimbatore gap, as it is there the Kāverī rises'.4
According to Rājasekhara, all seven Kulaparvatas were comprised within the Kumārī-dvīpa whose southernmost limit, according to the Skandapurāna was the Pāriyātra.5 In the period of the Brahmanical and Buddhist Sūtras too, Pāriyātra was the southernmost limit of contemporary Aryāvarta, while the eastern and western boundaries were formed by Kālakavana (probably near Allahabad) and Adarśana and Thūna (on the Sarasvati) respectively.
The Purāṇas refer to a number of rivers issuing from the Pāriyātra, e.g. the Mahī, the Varņāśā or Parņāśā, the Siprā, the Carmaņvati, the Sindhu and the Vetravati. The Mahi is well known; Varņāśā or Parņāśā has been identified by Pargiter with the modern Banās, a tributary of the Carmanvati (Chambal). Sindhu is Kāli Sindhu, a tributary of the Carmanvatī, and Vetravati is modern Betwa. Siprā is the famous river immortalised in Sanskrit classical poetry. The Visnupurāņa mentions yet another river issuing from the Pāripātra mountains, namely, the Vedasmrti? (or Vedasmrta according to the Mahābhārata).
1 Vişnupurāna, 2, II, Wilson's Ed., p. 123. 2 Ptolemy's Ancient India, by McCrindle, S. N. Majumdar's Ed., pp. 75-81. 3 Visnu Purāna, Wilson's Ed., 2, III, p. 128. 4 McCrindle, Ptolemy's Ancient India, p. 8o.
5 Skandapurāna, Kumārika-khanda, Chap. 39, 113: 'Pāriyātrasya caivārvāk khandam Kaumārikam smytam'.
& Dharma-sūtra of Bodhāyana, I, I, 25. *Prāgadarśanāt pratyak Kālakavanād daksinena Himavantam udak Pāriyātram etad Aryāvartam'. 7 Wilson's Ed., p. 130 (2, III).
8 Bhīşmaparvan.
