geography of puranas
DESCRIPTION
Dr. S. Muzaffar Ali, Prof. of Geography and M.Sc. in math also made most exhaustive study of geography described in 18 Puranas, Mahabharata and Ramayana and some other ancient texts of India and abroad. But he omitted consideration of two Americas, Australia and Antarctica which are also indicated in astronomy texts and Ramayana.TRANSCRIPT
Locations of 4 cardinal points from Surya Siddhanta inserted in hand by Arun
Kumar Upadhyay
FIG 6 JAMBU DWIPA
associated with the Mudgagiri hills of Monghyr. Antargiri and bahirgiri janapadas
appear to have been located on the plateau proper. The former occupied the hilly
country between the Rajmahal and Hazaribagh ranges and the later the region be-
yond the Hazaribagh range, i.e. the basin of the Damodar. Both the janapadas es-
sentially belonged to the Hills.
V. THE SOUTHERN JANAPADAS The list of the Puranic janapadas of the south shows that the Dakshinapatha or
Southern India was normally conceived as that part of the Indian Peninsula which
lies south of the crests of Satpura-Mahadeo-Maikal Ranges and the western and
southern limits of the Mhanadi basin. North of this line were the Vindhyan lands
while to its north-west lay the western lands of the Puranas. By virtue of their
position, the janapadas located on the border lands of these major regions could
be assigned to either side. Some Puranas, for instance, the Matsya and the Vayu,
rightly consider the Narmada and Mahanadi axis as the dividing line between
Northern and Southern India and include the Tapti basin within the southern re-
gion.