Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 1)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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(     251      )
 

CHAPTER XXIV,

TRADITIONS  OF   THE   PURANAS   REGARDING  EACH   OF  THE
SEVEN  DVIPAS.

We must ask the reader not to take anv offence if he Description

n-iiii                    -I               -I                    •                   1  •   t"                      •!        of the Dvipas

fands all the words and meanings which occur m the according to

,                          T                 Ti        -fn>                 c                        1  •          the Matsya

present chapter to be totally different from anything and visknu
corresponding in Arabic. As for the difference of words,
it is easily accounted for by the difference of languages
in general; and as regards the difference of the meanings,
we mention them only either in order to draw attention
to an idea which might seem acceptable even to a
Muslim, or to point out the irrational nature of a thing
which has no foundation in itself.

We have already spoken of the central Dvipa when
describing the environs of the mountain in its centre.
It is called Jambli-Dvipa, from a tree growing in it, the ^^Jambu-
brauches of which extend over a space of lOO yojana.
In a later chapter, devoted to the description of the
inhabitable world and its division, we shall finish the
description of Jambu-Dvipa. Next, however, we shall
describe the other Dvipas which surround it, following,
as regards the order of the names, the authority of
Matsya-Pitrdna, for the above-mentioned reason (v. p.
236). But before entering into this subject we shall
here insert a tradition of the Vdyu-Purdna regarding
the central Dvipa (Jambii-Dvipa).

According to this source, "there are two kinds of Theinhabi-

o_                                      '            _                                                          tants of

inhabitants in  Madhyadesa.    First the Kiriimtrusha. Madhya-

•^                                                             -"-                       desa, ac-

Their men are known as the ffold-colcured ones, their cording to

'-'                                 _                               Vayu-Pv.r-

women as surenu.    They live a long life without ever «?"•
  Page 251