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Jan, 1967] SHORTER KURMA-VIBHAGA TEXTS OF PUR膧峁咥S 85
5. The right hind foot = South-West.
6. The tail - West.
7.
The left hind foot = North-West.
8.
The left side=North.
9. The left forefoot = North-East.
The Kurma-vibh膩ga texts occur in two types of list, the
longer and the shorter; the former are to be found in the
B峁沨atsamhita of Var膩hamihira, the M膩rka峁囜笉eya-pur膩峁嘺 and the
Par膩艣aratantra, while the latter occur in the Parisista to the
Atharvaveda, the Garuda-pura峁嘺, and the Vis峁噓dharmottara-
pur膩峁嘺. In the present article it is proposed only to deal with
the shorter Kurma-vibb膩ga texts. Though the Parisista texts
follows the same framework as the shorter pur膩峁噄c lists, there is
clearly no connection between the two. Moreover its Madhyade艣a
is placed somewhat further to the south than is the case of the
pur膩峁噄c texts and hence corresponds much more closely to the true
geographical centre of India. Again while the Parisista extends
its Madhyade艣a considerably eastwards to include K膩艣墨, Kosala,
Mithila etc., the pur膩峁噄c texts specifically exclude them from
Madhyade艣a by making them parts of its eastern division.
The most interesting aspect of the shorter pur膩峁噄c texts,
with which this article will now exclusively deal, is the fact that
they mention as "southern" tribes, peoples who actually lived in
the Vindhyas. Hence the inference would be that the conception
of tortoise geography originated at a time when the Aryans had
little or no acquaintance with the far south of India. To them
the Vindhyas represented the southernmost region of which they
had any detailed knowledge and so their southern list is really a
Vindhya list. If one accepts this theory, then the tortoise shape
does not seem as absurd as it is generally thought. If the
Vindhyas represented the southernmost point of knowledge the
Aryans had of Bharatavarsa, then the whole area north of them
may be perhaps roughly compared to the shape of a tortoise.
Let us now proceed to a detailed analysis of these texts.
That of the Garuda-pur膩峁嘺 will be employed, while the variants
of the Vi峁ａ箛udharmottara will be added. Any textual difficulty