{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/vp/vp060.htm","path":"hin/vp/vp060.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.htm","text":"The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840]\nDescription of Bh\u00e1rata-varsha: extent: chief mountains: nine divisions: principal rivers and mountains of Bh\u00e1rata proper: principal nations: superiority over other Varshas, especially as the seat of religious acts. (Topographical lists.)\nTHE country that lies north of the ocean, and south of the snowy mountains, is called Bh\u00e1rata, for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata. It is nine thousand leagues in extent 1, and is the land of works, in consequence of which men go to heaven, or obtain emancipation.\nThe seven main chains of mountains in Bh\u00e1rata are Mahendra, Malaya, Sahya, \u015auktimat, Riksha, Vindhya, and P\u00e1rip\u00e1tra 2.\nFrom this region heaven is obtained, or even, in some cases, liberation\nfrom existence; or men pass from hence into the condition of brutes, or fall into hell. Heaven, emancipation, a state in mid-air, or in the subterraneous realms, succeeds to existence here, and the world of acts is not the title of any other portion of the universe.\nThe Varsha of Bh\u00e1rata is divided into nine portions, which I will name to you; they are Indra-dw\u00edpa, Kaserumat, T\u00e1mravar\u0144a, Gabhastimat, N\u00e1ga-dw\u00edpa, Saumya, Gandharba, and V\u00e1ru\u0144a; the last or ninth Dw\u00edpa is surrounded by the ocean, and is a thousand Yojanas from north to south 3.\nOn the east of Bh\u00e1rata dwell the Kir\u00e1tas (the barbarians); on the west, the Yavanas; in the centre reside Brahmans, Kshetriyas, Vai\u015byas, and \u015a\u00fadras, occupied in their respective duties of sacrifice, arms, trade, and service 4.\nThe \u015aatadru, Chandrabh\u00e1g\u00e1, and other rivers, flow from the foot of\n[paragraph continues] Him\u00e1laya: the Vedasmriti and others from the Par\u00edp\u00e1tra mountains: the Narmad\u00e1 and Suras\u00e1 from the Vindhya hills: the T\u00e1p\u00ed, Payosh\u0144\u00ed, and Nirvindhy\u00e1 from the Riksha mountains; the God\u00e1ver\u00ed, Bhimarath\u00ed, Krish\u0144aven\u00ed, and others, from the Sahya mountains: the Kritam\u00e1l\u00e1, T\u00e1mrapar\u0144\u00ed, and others, from the Malaya hills: the Tris\u00e1m\u00e1, Rishikuly\u00e1, &c. from the Mahendra: and the Rishikuly\u00e1, Kum\u00e1r\u00ed, and others, from the \u015auktimat mountains. Of such as these, and of minor rivers, there is an infinite number; and many nations inhabit the countries on their borders 5.\nThe principal nations of Bh\u00e1rata are the Kurus and P\u00e1nch\u00e1las, in the middle districts: the people of K\u00e1marupa, in the east: the Pu\u0144d\u0301ras,\n[paragraph continues] Kalingas, Magadhas, and southern nations, are in the south: in the extreme west are the Saur\u00e1sht\u0301ras, \u015a\u00faras, Bh\u00edras, Arbudas: the K\u00e1rushas and M\u00e1lavas, dwelling along the P\u00e1rip\u00e1tra mountains: the Sauv\u00edras, the Saindhavas, the H\u00fanas, the S\u00e1lwas, the people of \u015a\u00e1kala, the Madras, the R\u00e1mas, the Ambasht\u0301has, and the P\u00e1ras\u00edkas, and others. These nations drink of the water of the rivers above enumerated, and inhabit their borders, happy and prosperous 6.\nIn the Bh\u00e1rata-varsha it is that the succession of four Yugas, or ages, the Krita, the Treta, the Dw\u00e1para, and Kali, takes place; that pious ascetics engage in rigorous penance; that devout men offer sacrifices; and that gifts are distributed; all for the sake of another world. In Jambu-dw\u00edpa, Vish\u0144u, consisting of sacrifice, is worshipped, as the male of sacrificial rites, with sacrificial ceremonies: he is adored under other forms elsewhere. Bh\u00e1rata is therefore the best of the divisions of Jambu-dw\u00edpa, because it is the land of works: the others are places of enjoyment alone. It is only after many thousand births, and the aggregation of much merit, that living beings are sometimes born in Bh\u00e1rata as men. The gods themselves exclaim, \"Happy are those who are born, even from the condition of gods, as men in Bh\u00e1rata-varsha, as that is the way to the pleasures of Paradise, or the greater blessing of final liberation. Happy are they who, consigning all the unheeded rewards of their acts to the supreme and eternal Vish\u0144u, obtain existence in that land of works, as their path to him. We know not, when the acts that have obtained us heaven shall have been fully recompensed 7, where we shall renew corporeal confinement; but we know that those men are fortunate who are born with perfect faculties 8 in Bh\u00e1rata-varsha.\"\nI have thus briefly described to you, Maitreya, the nine divisions of Jambu-dw\u00edpa, which is a hundred thousand Yojanas in extent, and which is encircled, as if by a bracelet, by the ocean of salt water, of similar dimensions.\n174:1 As Bh\u00e1rata-varsha means India, a nearer approach to the truth, with regard to its extent, might have been expected; and the V\u00e1yu has another measurement, which is not much above twice the actual extent, or 1000 Yojanas from Kum\u00e1ri (Comorin) to the source of the Ganges.\n174:2 These are called the Kula parvatas, family mountains, or mountain ranges or systems. They are similarly enumerated in all the authorities, and their situation may be determined with some confidence by the rivers which flow from them. Mahendra is the chain of hills that extends from Orissa and the northern Circars to Gondwana, part of which, near Ganjam, is still called Mahindra Malei, or hills of Mahindra: Malaya is the southern portion of the western Ghats: \u015auktimat is doubtful, for none of its streams can be identified with any certainty: Sahya is the northern portion of the western Ghauts, the mountains of the Konkan: Riksha is the mountains of Gondwana: Vindhya is the general name of the chain that stretches across central India, but it is here restricted to the eastern division; according to the V\u00e1yu it is the part south of the Narmada, or the Sathpura range: P\u00e1rip\u00e1tra, as frequently written P\u00e1riy\u00e1tra, is the northern and western portion of the Vindhya: the name, indeed, is still given to a range of mountains in Guzerat (see Col. Tod's map of Rajasth\u00e1n), but the Chambal and other rivers of M\u00e1lwa, which are said to flow from the P\u00e1riy\u00e1tra mountains, do not rise in that province. All these mountains therefore belong to one system, and are connected together. The classification seems to have been known to Ptolemy, as he specifies seven ranges of mountains, although his names do not correspond, with exception of the Vindus mons: of the others, the Adisathrus and Uxentus agree nearly in position with the P\u00e1riy\u00e1tra and Riksha: the Apocopi, Sardonix, Bettigo, and Orudii must be left for consideration. The Bh\u00e1gavata, V\u00e1yu, Padma, and M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya add a list of inferior mountains to these seven.\n175:3 This last is similarly left without a name in all the works: it is the most southerly, that on the borders of the sea, and no doubt intends India proper. Wilford places Isere a division called Kum\u00e1rik\u00e1. No description is anywhere attempted of the other divisions. To these the V\u00e1yu adds six minor Dw\u00edpas, which are situated beyond sea, and are islands, Anga-dw\u00edpa, Yama-d., Matsya-d., Kumuda or Ku\u015ba-d., Var\u00e1ha-d., and Sankha-d.; peopled for the most part by Mlechchhas, but who worship Hindu divinities. The Bh\u00e1gavata and Padma name eight such islands, Swar\u0144aprastha, Chandra\u015bukla, Avarttana, R\u00e1ma\u0144aka, Mandah\u00e1ra, P\u00e1nchajanya, Sinhal\u00e1, and Lank\u00e1. Col. Wilford has endeavoured to verify the first series of Upadw\u00edpas, making Var\u00e1ha Europe; Ku\u015ba, Asia Minor, &c.; \u015aankha, Africa; Malaya, Malacca: Yama is undetermined; and by Anga, he says, they understand China. How all this may be is more than doubtful, for in the three Pur\u00e1\u0144as in which mention is made of them, very little more is said upon the subject.\n175:4 By Kir\u00e1tas, foresters and mountaineers are intended, the inhabitants to the present day of the mountains east of Hindustan. The Yavanas, on the west, may be either the Greeks of Bactria and the Punjab--to whom there can be little doubt the term was applied by the Hindus--or the Mohammedans, who succeeded them in a later period, and to whom it is now applied. The V\u00e1yu calls them both Mlechchhas, and also notices the admixture of barbarians with Hindus in India proper. The same passage, slightly varied, occurs in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata: it is said especially of the mountainous districts, and may allude therefore to the Gonds and Bhils of central India, as well as to the Mohammedans of the north-west. The specification implies that infidels and outcastes had not yet descended on the plains of Hindustan.\n176:5 This is a very meagre list, compared with those given in other Pur\u00e1\u0144as. That of the V\u00e1yu is translated by Col. Wilford, As. Res. vol. VIII; and much curious illustration of many of the places by the same writer occurs, As. Res. vol. XIV. The lists of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, Bh\u00e1gavata, and Padma are given without any arrangement: those of the V\u00e1yu, Matsya, M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya, and K\u00farma are classed as in the text. Their lists are too long for insertion in this place. Of the rivers named in the text, most are capable of verification. The \u015aatadru, 'the hundred channelled'--the Zaradrus of Ptolemy, Hesidrus of Pliny--is the Setlej. The Chandrabh\u00e1g\u00e1, Sandabalis, or Acesines, is the Chinab. The Vedasmriti in the V\u00e1yu and K\u00farma is classed with the Vetravat\u00ed or Betwa, the Charmanwati or Chambal, and Sipr\u00e1 and P\u00e1r\u00e1, rivers of Malwa, and may be the same with the Beos of the maps. The Narmad\u00e1 or Narbadda, the Namadus of Ptolemy, is well known; according to the V\u00e1yu it rises, not in the Vindhya, but in the Riksha mountains, taking its origin in fact in Gondwana. The Suras\u00e1 is uncertain. The T\u00e1p\u00ed is the T\u00e1pti, rising also in Gondwana: the other two are not identified. The Godaveri preserves its name: in the other two we have the Beemah and the Krish\u0144a. For Kritam\u00e1l\u00e1 the K\u00farma reads Ritum\u00e1l\u00e1, but neither is verified. The T\u00e1mraparn\u00ed is in Tinivelly, and rises at the southern extremity of the western Ghats. The Rishikuly\u00e1, that rises in the Mahendra mountain, is the Rasikulia or Ras\u00edkoila, which flows into the sea near Ganjam. The Tris\u00e1m\u00e1 is undetermined. The text assigns another Rishikuly\u00e1 to the \u015auktimat mountains, but in all the other authorities the word is Rish\u00edka. The Kum\u00e1r\u00ed might suggest some connexion with Cape Comorin, but that the Malaya mountains seem to extend to the extreme south. A Rishikuly\u00e1 river is mentioned (Vana P. v. 3026) as a T\u00edrtha in the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, in connexion apparently with the hermitage of Va\u015bisht\u0301ha, which in another passage (v. 4096) is said to be on mount Arbuda or Abu. In that case, and if the reading of the text be admitted for the name of the river, the \u015auktimat range would be the mountains of Guzerat; but this is doubtful.\n177:6 The list of nations is as scanty as that of the rivers: it is, however, omitted altogether in the Bh\u00e1gavata. The Padma has a long catalogue, but without arrangement; so has the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata. The lists of the V\u00e1yu, Matsya, and M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya class the nations as central, northern, eastern, southern, and western. The names are much the same in all, and are given in the 8th vol. of the As. Res. from the Brahm\u00e1\u0144d\u0301a, or, for it is the same account, the V\u00e1yu. The M\u00e1rka\u0144d\u0301eya has a second classification, and, comparing Bh\u00e1rata-varsha to a tortoise, with its head to the east, enumerates the countries in the head, tail, flanks, and feet of the animal. It will be sufficient here to attempt an identification of the names in the text, but some further illustration is offered at the end of the chapter. The Kurus are the people of Kurukshetra, or the upper part of the Doab, about Delhi. The P\u00e1nch\u00e1las, it appears from the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata, occupied the lower part of the Doab, extending across the Jumna to the Chambal. Kull\u00faka Bhat\u0301t\u0301a, in his commentary on Manu, II. 59, places them at Kanoj. K\u00e1marupa is the north-eastern part of Bengal, and western portion of Asam. Pu\u0144d\u0301ra is Bengal proper, with part of south Behar and the Jungle Mahals. Kalinga is the sea-coast west of the mouths of the Ganges, with the upper part of the Coromandel coast. Magadh\u00e1 is Behar. The Saur\u00e1sht\u0301ras are the people of Surat, the Surastrene of Ptolemy. The \u015a\u00faras and Bh\u00edras, in the same direction, may be the Suri and Phauni or Phryni of Strabo. The Arbudas must be the people about mount Abu, or the natives of Mewar. The K\u00e1rushas and M\u00e1lavas are of course the people of Malwa. The Sauv\u00edras and Saindhavas are usually conjoined as the Sindhu-Sauv\u00edras, and must be the nations of Sindh and western Rajput\u00e1na. By the Minas we are to understand the white Huns or Indo-Scythians, who were established in the Punjab and along the Indus at the commencement of our era, as we know from Arrian, Strabo, and Ptolemy, confirmed by recent discoveries of their coins, The \u015a\u00e1lwas or, as also read, \u015a\u00e1lyas are placed by the V\u00e1yu and Matsya amongst the central nations, and seem to have occupied part of R\u00e1jasthan, a \u015a\u00e1lwa R\u00e1ja being elsewhere described as engaging in hostilities with the people of Dwarak\u00e1 in Guzerat. \u015a\u00e1kala, as I have elsewhere noticed, is a city in the Punjab (As. Res. XV. 108), the Sagala of Ptolemy (ibid. 107); the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata makes it the capital of the Madras, the Mardi of the ancients; but they are separately named in the text, and were situated something more to the south-east. p. 178 The R\u00e1mas and Ambasht\u0301has are not named in the other Pur\u00e1\u0144as, but the latter are amongst the western, or more properly north-western nations subjugated by Nakula, in his Dig-vijaya. Mah\u00e1bh. Sabh\u00e1 P. Ambas and Ambasht\u0301has are included in the list extracted by Col. Wilford from the Var\u00e1ha Sanhit\u00e1, and the latter are supposed by him to be the Ambast\u00e6 of Arrian. The P\u00e1ras\u00edkas carry us into Persia, or that part of it adjoining to the Indus. As far as the enumeration of the text extends, it seems applicable to the political and geographical divisions of India about the era of Christianity.\n178:7 Enjoyment in Swarga, like punishment in Naraka, is only for a certain period, according to the merit or demerit of the individual. When the account is balanced, the man is born again amongst mankind.\n178:8 A crippled or mutilated person, or one whose organs are defective, cannot at once obtain liberation; his merits must first secure his being born again perfect and entire.","title":"The Vishnu Purana: Book II: Chapter III","type":"page"}