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MISCELLANEOUS.

Notes on Puranic Nine Divisions of Ancient India.

BY SURENDRANATH MAJUMDAR, SASTRI, M.A., F.R.S.

Sir Alexander Cunningham has pointed out, in his Ancient Geography of India (p. 7), that the Mahabharata, the Puranas and Bhaskaracharya, the astronomer, have given names of a Nine-Division of India and that the names are Indra, Koserumat, Tâmraparna, Gabhastimat, Kumârika, Nâga, Saumya, Vâruna and Gândharva. No clue has been given, remarks he, to their identification. But he has suggested that Indra was the eastern division, Vâruņa the western and Kumrâika the middle, while Kaseru must have been the northern one.

Alberuni also has quoted this Purânic account and has added the following description:-(1) Indradvipa-the middle, (2) Kaserumat-eastern, (3) Tâmraparṇa-south-eastern, (4) Gabhastimatsouthern, (5) Naga-south-western, (6) Saumya-western, (7) Gândharva north-western, (8). (9) Nagırasamvritta-north

eastern.

Thus the two authorities differ not only as to the location of the divisions, but as to one name also-the Kumârika of Cunningham appearing as Nagarasamvritta in the list of Alberuni who has not mentioned the 8th name.

Let us now refer to the original sources. Purâņas agree in reading, in the Bhuvanakosha LVII; Matsya CXIV; Vâyu XLV, etc.], the Alberuni but without giving any direction. Varuna. As for the ninth, they read

The majority of the section [Mârkandeya first seven names of Their eighth name is

“अयं तु नवमस्तेषां दौपः सागरसंवृतः।” “And
" "And this sea-girt

isle is the ninth of them." Alberuni's Nagarasamvritta is thus a corruption of Sagarasamvrita meaning 'See-girt'. The Puranas do not give any name to it and refer to it as a drtpa too well-known to require the mention of its name. Rajasekhara, however, in his

Kâvyamîmâṁsâ (Gaekwad oriental Series No. 1.) named it Kumârt and has supplied a clear clue to locate it by stating :

" तत्र दं भारतवर्षम् । अस्य च नव भेदाः । इन्द्रद्दौपः [etc.]

giardielqenzi zaz: 1 ......va a gandda कुमारौ नवमः । अत्र च

विन्ध्यच पारिपातच शक्तिमानृचपर्व्वतः ।

महेन्द्रसयमलयाः सप्त ते कुलपर्व्वताः ॥

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(Page 92).

And the "Sea-girt ninth dripa" has also been thus described in the Purāņas: "This dripa is a thousand yojanas from S. to N. At it. east end are the Kiratas and at the west end are the Yavanas.' [Mārkaṇḍeya, LVII, vv. 5-11.]

By combining these two accounts we find that the "Sea-girt ninth dripa" called Kumārt was the tract peopled by the Yavanas (Greeks) at its west end and by the Kirātas (Mongoloid tribes) at its east end and having the mountain-chains now known as the Vindhyas, Western and Eastern Ghauts and the Nilgiris in it. It is thus the whole of India, or almost the whole of it. And it has been described as one of the nine divisions of Bharatavarsha. But it is absurd to take the whole as equal to its part. Hence either Kumārt-dvipa cannot be the whole of India or the term 'Bhāratavarsha' has been used here in a wider sense. But as the description

of Kumāri is very clear, we cannot but take it as equal to almost the whole of India. So 'Bharatavarsha' is used here in a wider sense, in the sense of Greater India, i. e. India proper and her colonies, eight dvipas not far from it. That the detpas were separated from the main land of India by water is clear from the following Purāņic account: "Hear from me the nine divisions of this country of Bharata; they must be known as extending to the ocean, but as being mutually inaccessible". [Märkandeya, LVII, 5.]. It is also to be added in this connection that the word dvipa has been derived by Panini as dvi+ap. It thus means land having water on two of its sides. Thus dvtpa is not identical with 'island'. It includes peninsulas and sometimes doabs also.

As for the identification of the other dvipas, it requires no comment to take Tāmraparṇa as Ceylon, It is to the south of India Indradvipa is to be located to the east of India. For Indra is the

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