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CHAPTER  XXIX.

DEFINITION  OF  THE  INHABITABLE EARTH  ACCOEDING
TO   THE   HINDUS.
 

The Rishi
Bhuv'ana-
kosa on the
inhabitable
world.
 

In the book of the Rishi Bhuvanakosa we read that the
inhabitable world stretches from Himavant towards the
south, and is called Bharata-varsha, so called from a
man, Bharata, who ruled over them and provided for
them. The inhabitants of this olKovp-ev-q are those to
whom alone reward and punishment in another life
are destined. It is divided into nine parts, called Nava-
khanda-prathama, i.e. the primary nine parts. Between
each two parts there is a sea, which they traverse from
one khanda to the other. The breadth of the inhabit¬
able world from north to south is loOO yojana.

By Himavant the author means the northern moun¬
tains, where the world, in consequence of the cold,
ceases to be inhabitable. So all civilisation must of
necessity be south of these mountains.

His words, that the inhabitants are subject to reward
and punishment, indicate that there are other people
not subject to it. These beings he must either raise
from the degree of man to that of angels, who, in con¬
sequence of the simplicity of the elements they are
composed of and of the purity of their nature, never
disobey a divine order, being always willing to worship ;
or he must degrade them to the degree of irrational
animals. According to him, therefore, there are no
human beings outside the ohiovjihrj (i.e. Bharata¬
varsha).