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GEOGRAPHY
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Simhala dvipas among them, were all internal even as they were explained to Alberuni and Abul Fazl. But reading between the lines, one may find that the Mārkundeya description hardly leaves room for doubt that only the ninth of nine dvspas constituting the Bhāratavarşa, elsewhere called Kumāra, Kumāri or Kumārika, was the India proper. The Mārkundeya Purāņa gives it a length of one thousand yojanas from south to north.
Like Bhāratavarşa in the Jambudiva-pannalti,2 Jambudvipa in Pali texts is described as the kingdom of a king overlord (cakkavatti).3 Accordingly Jambudvípa finds mention in Puli as tho contiuent over the whole of which the sovorcignty (okarajjābhisekam) of Dhammāsóka prevailed. 4 In Asoka's own description Jambudvipa, which was somewhat wider than his own kingdom (vijita), was certainly the whole of India where he succeeded in creating a sphere of righteousness. He gives it a length of six hundred leagues,
As for countries and peoples (janapadā), the Mārkandeya. Purāna introduces them, adopting
1 Law, Geographical Essays, p. 120.
2 Jambridiva-pannatti, iii, 41: Bharahe vāce ....Bharahe namam raya căuramta cakkavatti samuppajjitthà. | 3 Auguttata, iv, p.190: Cakkovatti Bhum rõj& Jumbusandassa issaro.
4 Samantapäsädikā, i, p. 41. 6 M.R.E. and R.E. XIII.
