India from east to west is 28,000 stadia, and from north to south 32,000 stadia," or 60,000 stadia altogether.
At a somewhat later date the shape of India is described in the 'Mahâbhârata' as an equilateral triangle, which was divided into four smaller equal triangles.[1] The apex of the triangle is Cape Comorin, and the base is formed by the line of the Himalaya mountains. No dimensions are given, and no places are mentioned; but, in fig. 2 of the small maps of India in the accompanying plate, I have drawn a small equilateral triangle on the line between Dwâraka, in Gujarat, and Ganjam on the eastern coast. By repeating this small triangle on each of its three sides, to the north-west, to the north-east, and to the south, we obtain the four divisions of India in one large equilateral triangle. The shape corresponds very well with the general form of the country, if we extend the limits of India to Ghazni on the north-west, and fix the other two points of the triangle at Cape Comorin, and Sadiya in Assam. At the presumed date of the composition of the 'Mahâbhârata,' in the first century A.D., the countries immediately to the west of the Indus belonged to the Indo-Scythians, and therefore may be included very properly within the actual boundaries of India.
Another description of India is that of the Nava-Khanda, or Nine-Divisions, which is first described by the astronomers Parâsara and Varâha-Mihira, although it was probably older than their time,[2] and was after-
- ↑ Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xx. Wilford, quoting the Bhishma Parva of the 'Mahâbhârata," as communicated to him by Colebrooke.
- ↑ Dr. Kern, in preface to the 'Brihat-Sanhitâ' of Varâha-Mihira, p. 32, states that Varâha's chapter on Geography is taken almost intact, but changed in form, from the 'Parâsaratantra,' and must, therefore, be
