Thread by @shrikanth_krish

It is often said that the "idea of India" is a British invention - a legacy of the Raj so to speak

While it is true that India was not politically unified for protracted periods prior to the Raj, it is worth examining if the "sacred geography" was conceived as a single unit

The answer is very much a resounding Yes.

One of the notable conceptions of "bhAratavarSha" as a distinct cultural entity is in the famous viShNu PurANa - Book II, Chapter III

The viShNu PurANa is one of the MahapurANas that dates back to the first half of the first millennium CE as per most scholars

It is a text of considerable antiquity - and one of the 3 primary sources of KrSNa lore with the other two being harivamSha and bhAgavata purANa

It's interesting that amidst all its discussion of legend, creation lore, among other things, it contains this interesting chapter (Book II, Chapter III) that discusses the "Geography" of India.

Here's how the chapter starts -

Translation:

"The country that lies north of the ocean and south of the snowy mountains, is called "bhArata", for there dwelt the descendants of Bharata

It is 9000 yojanas in extent. It is a karmabhUmi wherein men go to heaven (swarga) or obtain liberation (apavarga)"

I am not sure if this is the first explicit definition of bhAratavarSha in Indian literature.

I am aware of a more restrictive "AryAvarta" definition in Manu Smrti (restricted to Northern India)

Now Manu Smrti is likely an older text than ViShNu PurANa - so the more expansive definition in VS is perhaps not a surprise

The next verse in the same chapter reads -

Translation:

The seven main chains of mountains in BhArata are -

Mahendra
Malaya
Sahya
Shuktimat
RkSa
Vindhya
pAripAtra

Here's the general understanding of what the mountains might refer to -

Mahendra refers to the eastern ranges in modern ODiSha
Malaya - Southern portion of Western Ghats (Kerala?)
Sahya - Northern portion of Western Ghats (Sahyadri?)
Vindhya - well known
RkSa - Central India?

That leaves us with Suktimat, pAripAtra

There is some speculation on both.

Here's a book extract that discusses possible ranges referred to by Suktimat

books.google.com/books?id=njYps…

It's interesting that Himalayas are not mentioned in this verse.

Maybe it is taken as a given. And does not need explicit mention!

Especially as BhAratavarSha was already defined in the previous verse as being "south of snow covered mountains"

What's revealing in this second verse though is a fairly conscious association of the term bhArata with a wide geographic expanse covering much of modern Indian subcontinent

Here's the next verse -

Translation -

"From this region, heaven is obtained, and in some cases Mukti itself, or sometimes hell! (Naraka).
Heaven, moksha, state in mid-air, subterraneous realms can all be attained from here.

And no other part of the world can be regarded as karmaBhUmi"

I find this above verse a tad curious -

What is the composer suggesting? That this is the land where karma has consequences and the Karmic order works to perfection? As opposed to elsewhere?

Appears to be the import. Though others may chip in

Here's the next verse -

Translation -

"The VarSha of bhArata is divided into 9 portions -

IndraDvipa
Kaseru
tAmravarNa
Gabhastiman
nAgaDvipa
Saumya
Gandharva
vAruNa
And a ninth dvIpa surrounded by ocean

This is rather cryptic verse for me.

One struggles to identify these DvIpas with geographical entities that we are familiar with

Maybe the intended import here is something else

Next few verses -

Here's HH Wilson's translation -

Besides the familiarity with much of Indian geography, what's interesting is the characterization of the "core" Indian geography as the area where the BrAhmaNas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, Shudras prevail!

Indicating the centrality of the social order to the idea of India

This is followed by a discussion of the principal nations of BhArata in the following verses -

Here's Wilson's translation again -

The above verses are interesting, because they appear a tad anachronistically harking back to the Vedic age when the Kurus and Panchalas prevailed in BhArata

The ViSNu PurANa itself is a much later text, but the kingdoms it talks about are from the middle-to-late Vedic period

There are a few more verses in the chapter, but I will stop here.

I found this little chapter in ViSNu PurANa interesting. Perhaps it is the earliest conscious effort to delineate a geography that roughly corresponds to modern India!

It is also possible that it is a latter-day interpolation in a more ancient text.

But even if it is, such an interpolation most likely precedes the second millennium CE

So the idea of India as a karmabhUmi (as articulated above) is very old (close to 2K years if not more)

Post-script :

The Devanagari text for the Chapter was sourced from this fine Hindi translation of the original Vishnu Purana with the Sanskrit text by the side -

archive.org/details/HindiB…

Post-script 2 : The HH Wilson translation can be found here

sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/vp060.h…

HH Wilson's translation of the VishNu PurANa sadly appears to be the easiest English translation to get hold of! There seems to be a dearth of translations of this text

Some notes on Horace Hayman Wilson - (1786 - 1860)

A man with many firsts to his credit -

First Sanskrit-English dictionary (1819)
Possibly the first translator of Rig Veda
Translator of Kalidasa's Meghaduta

Also the author of a history of Kashmir!

archive.org/details/HinduH…