Historical Geography of Ancient India

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This book is a comprehensive study of the geographical landscape, settlements, and cultural regions of ancient India as they are referenced in historical texts. The book delves into ancient Indian literature, inscriptions, and accounts of travelers to identify the locations of significant cities, rivers, mountains, and regions from ancient times.

Based on epigraphic evidence, this book provides a comprehensive and systematic historical geography of ancient India. The author has helpfully arranged the geographical names under the appropriate divisions to which they belong and arranged them alphabetically for the reader's convenience. The book is the outcome of an in-depth study of the original work in Chinese, Pali, Prakrit, Sinhalese, Burmese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit (Vedic and Classical).

Bimala Churn Law was an Indologist and a benefactor of the Royal Asiatic Society. He published many books in the fields of Buddhism, Jainism, and the history and geography of India. Dr. Law was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and Calcutta University, where he received the M.A., B.L., and Ph.D. degrees, being awarded the Sir Asutosh Mookerjee Gold Medal in 1924 for his research achievements.

To reconstruct a systematic geography of ancient India Vedic Literature, Bramaņas, Upanisads, Dharmasutras and Dharmašastras render us some help. Of the geographical names in the Reveda those of the rivers alone permit of easy and certain identifications. The epic and the Puranas are recognized as a rich mine of geographical information about ancient India. They contain some chapters giving a fairly accurate account of not only the different territorial divisions of India but also of her rivers, mountains, lakes, forests, deserts, towns, countries and peoples. The Tirthayatra-Digvijaya sections of the Mahabharta, the Jambu-khandavinirmanaparva of the same epic, and the Kişkindhya-kända of the Ramayana are rich in geographical information. The Bhuvanakoşa, the Jambudvipavarnand, the Kurmavibhaga sections of the Puranas, the Brhatsamhita, the Purasaratantra and the Atharvaparisista are equally important in eliciting valuable geographical information. No less important are Pănini's Aştādhyāyi (4.1.173, 178; 4.2.76; 4.2.133: 5.3. 116-117, etc.), Patanjali's Mahabhaşya, Kautillya Arthaśāstra and the Yoginitantra for a study of early Indian geography.

The geographical accounts in the different Puranas are more or less identical, and the account is one is often repeated in another, in some cases, a larger account is summarized into a shorter one. The list in the Vayu, Matsya and Markandeya Puranas is a long one, while that in the Visnu is very short. The Pauranic lists of countries and peoples occur also in the Mahabharata, sometimes in a more detailed form. The particulars of the country of Bharata as given in the Bhismaparva of the Mahabharata (Slokas 317-78) are almost the same as in the Puranas, but in some cases additional information can be gathered. It is obvious that these lists are framed in pursuance of a traditional account handed down from earlier times. But it must be admitted that the accounts are substantially correct. The fabulous element as pointed out by Cunningham is confined, as a rule, to outside lands, and their allusions to purely Indian topography are generally sober.

The Visnu Puranas list of countries is very meagre, the Mahabharata has a much longer catalogue without any arrangement; so also, in the Padmapuran. The longest list of countries and peoples of India is, however, contained in the Makandeya, the Skanda, the Brahmanda and the Vayu Puranas. The Makandeya Purana contains a description of Jambudvipa and mentions the forests, lakes and mountains around Meru. It mentions the nine divisions of Bharata, the seven mountain ranges in India and twenty-two separate hills. It describes the course of the Ganges and refers to the famous rivers in India, grouping them according to the mountain ranges out of which they arise. The principal peoples in India and on its borders are also mentioned in it, arrange according to the natural regions of the country. The majority of the names of countries and peoples found in the Puranas is very much the same as we find in the Nadyddivarnand section of the Markandeya Purana, but there is also quite a good lot of names that are entirely new and original. The Markandeya Purana (Ch. 57) which really contains the strictly geographical information of other major Puranas, has a section called the Karmavibhaga containing a list of countries and peoples of India arranged according to the position of the country conceived as a tortoise, as it lies on water resting open Visnu and looking eastwards. This arrangement is based on earlier astronomical works, like those of Paraśara and Varahamihira. This chapter is invaluable from the topographical standpoint. The Bhagavatapurana also contains some geographical information. So, we find that the Puranas are really very important for a geographical study of ancient India.

The innumerable Mahatmya require to be carefully studied from the geographical standpoint. The extensive Mahatmya literature which contains portions from the Puranas or Samhitas, deals with the topography of the various tirthas or holy places. Their geographical importance is very great in the sense that evidences may be adduced from them to enable us to locate important sites. One finds it tedious to read the legendary history of firthas or holy places, but to a geographer it will never be a fruitless study.

The later Sanskrit literature abounds with geographical information. As for example, Rajasekhara's Kavya-mimämsä (p. 93) clearly states the five traditional divisions of India. It contains some useful geographical information about Utkala, Sumba, Nisadha, and Käśmira (Ch. 17), Anga, Vanga, Pundra, Vélhika, Paficäla, Sürasena, etc. (Ch. 3). The Raghuvamša (4th sarga, sls. 35, 38), the Naisadhtyacarita by Sriharsa (5th sarga, sls. 50, 98), the Meghaduta by Kalidasa (Pürvamegha, ls. 24, 25, 26) the Dasakumaracarita by Dandin (6th ucchvasa), the Harscarita by Banabhatta (6th and 7th ucchvasas). Dhoyl's Puvanandata (27) may be utilized for our geographical knowledge. A fairly good idea of Kalidasa's knowledge of geography may be gathered from his works.

To present a complete geographical picture of India in the Buddha's time and later. Pali literature is undoubtedly the most important. From about the time of the Buddha to about the time of Asoka the great literature of the early Buddhists is certainly the main source of the historical and geographical information of ancient India, supplemented by Jaina and Brahmanical sources here and there. Texts or narratives of purely historical or geographical nature are altogether absent in the literature of the early Buddhists, and whatever historical or geographical information can be gathered is incidental and very much reliable. Thus, for the history of the rise and vicissitudes as well as for the geographical situation and other details of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, the most important chapter of the Indian history and geography before and after the time of the Buddha, the Pali Anguttara Nikaya is the main source of information which is supplemented by the Jaina Bhagavatisûtra and the Karnaparva of the Mahabharata. For later periods when we have abundant epigraphical and archaeological sources and literary sources, too, which are mainly Brahmanical, as well as the accounts of the classical geographers and the itineraries of the Chinese pilgrims, the geographical information contained in Pali and Sanskrit Buddhist literature is considerably important. Some geographical information may also be available from Tibetan texts.

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