Geography
According to Puranic geography (Bhuvanakosa list of ancient countries), the Kamboja and Gandhara Mahajanapadas of the Buddhist traditions fell in the Udichya (northern), the Assaka in Dakshinapatha, Avanti in Aparanta (western), the Vajji, Malla, Anga and Magadha in Prachya ( eastern) and the remaining eight of the Mahajanapadas in the Madhyadesa division.
A medieval era Hindu text Kavyamimamsa by Pandit Rajshekhara attests that Uttarapatha lay to the west of Prithudaka (modern Pehoa near Thaneswar in Haryana. The Kavyamimamsa further lists the Sakas, Vokkanas, Hunas, Kambojas, Keikayas, Bahlikas (Bactrians), Pahlavas, Lampakas, Kulutas, Tanganas, Tusharas, Turushakas (Turks), Barbaras among the tribes of Uttarapatha (Kavyamimamsa Chapter 17).
The Mahabharata, at several places, also says that the Kambojas, Sakas, Gandharas, Yavanas, Darunas, Barbaras and Khashas were the tribes of Uttarapatha.
The Uttarapatha division probably included the territories of greater Panjab, Sindhu, Sovira, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bactria and parts of Central Asia (significant parts of modern Pakistan, Afghanistan and possibly other nations).
The ancient Trans-Oxian nations of Central Asia including the Uttarakuru, Uttaramadra, Param-Kamboja and parts of Saka-dvipa were also located in the Uttarapatha.
According to Dr S. M. Ali, Uttarapatha or northern division of Jambudvipa covers a vast area from the Urals and the Caspain to the Yenisei River and from the Turkistan, Tien Shan ranges to the Arctic. The Ramayana, and Puranas portray the topography of the whole land accurately and in some cases picturesquely.
Read more about this topic: Uttarapatha
Famous quotes containing the word geography:
“The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)