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No Mr. Saif, ‘Concept of India’ is not a Gift from British

No Mr. Saif, ‘Concept of India’ is not a Gift from British

A few years ago, the self-professed history buff Saif Ali Khan named his son from his second wife Kareena Kapoor Khan as Taimur. In the Indian context, Taimur reminds one promptly of the cruel Central Asian ruler who killed lakhs of North Indians (practically all of them Hindus) in a most cruel manner during his invasion in 1398 AD. Who in Israel would name their son after Hitler? In the last 10 days, we have seen the grand success of the Bollywood movie Tanhaji in which the self-proclaimed history buff Saif Ali Khan plays the memorable role of Udaybhan Rathore, the villain who fights for the fanatical Islamist ruler Aurangzeb against his own Hindu countrymen. Ironically in the movie, Udaybhan murders his own mother, and Taimur is likewise said to have killed his own mother in the 14th century.

In an interview after the release of this movie, he stated that the concept of India is a gift of the British imperialists. This article is a brief compilation that will expose Khan’s lack of even elementary knowledge of Indian history and demonstrate that the roots of India as a civilizational unity go back at least two millennia before the British colonized the land. This civilization unity and existence of India (and also the cognate terms ‘Hindu’, ‘Shintu’ and so on) is attested from Indic and non-Indic literatures spanning over two millennia as the following sections will demonstrate. In conclusion, only someone whose knowledge of history does not extend beyond the ideologically motivated tracts of Marxist historians and mentally colonized writers like Romila Thapar can make this fact free claim.

I. Ancient Persian Sources:

a. Haptahindu occurs as the name of a region in the Avesta of Parsis. This is cognate with saptasindhavah (all rivers or seven rivers – the region of NW India and Northern Pakistan today) in the Rigveda. The Vendidad, in which this designation occurs, is dated to before 600 BCE.

b. Inscriptions of the Achaemenid Emperors like Darius the Great (522 – 486 BCE) mention the people of the Indus Valley (then included in the Persian Empire) as ‘Hindus’. Ironically, these are the very areas that subsequently split from India to form Pakistan in 1947.

II. Ancient Greek, Roman and other European Sources:[i]

a. In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus in his ‘The Histories’ mentions India and Indians clearly.

b. From the 6th to the 4th cent. BCE, Several other pre-Alexander writers mention India: Skylax of Karyanda in Karia (c.500 BC) – mentions Indoi, Indus, indika; Ktesias (405-397 B.C.)- mentions India/Indika; Callisthenes, Onesikritos, Aristobulos, Nearchos, Ptolemaios(c.330 BC) – mention India/Indika.

c. During the 3rd cent. BCE, Megasthenes wrote another book of the same title Indica, describing some parts of India during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya.[ii]

d. Sometime between 97-175 CE, Arrian (97-175 CE) wrote a book named ‘Indica’ stating that India begins from the Pamir region. His book purported to describe the history of Alexander’s invasion of India. The name of his book clearly indicates that he regarded the region as India.[iii]

e. Around 100 CE, Pliny the Elder has a separate chapter in his book on India that describes all the lands east and south of the Hindukush.[iv] 

III. Ancient Chinese Sources:

a. In the 4th-5th cent. CE, Chinese traveler Fa-hien describes the country that they visited as Shintu (= Hindu/India) and their description leaves no one in doubt that they are referring to various parts of the Indian subcontinent as belonging to one civilization.[v]

b. Chinese traveler Xuanzang (7th cent.) describes the country that they visited as Shintu (= Hindu/India) and his detailed description of the various regions and peoples of the Indian subcontinent leaves no one in doubt that he is referring to a single civilizational unit.[vi]

IV. Early Arab and other Muslim Sources:

a. From the 8th to 11th cent. CE, Arab invaders adopted several Indian sciences like Mathematics after the conquest of Sindh in 712 CE. Their translations of the Indian scientific texts clarified that these sciences were from ‘Hind’. For instance, the Indian numerals were called ‘Al-Hindsa’.[vii]

b. In the 11th. Cent CE, Al Beruni wrote his Tarikh Al-Hind (History of India) largely while in Katas (northern Pakistan). He describes many peoples, texts and customs of the land that he designates as ‘Hind’.[viii]

V. Ancient Indian Sources before Common Era or during early Centuries of the Common Era:

a. The oldest occurrence of the word ‘Bharat’ is in the phrase ‘vishvamitrasya rakshati brahmedam bhaaratam janam’ (Rigveda 3.53.12) – “This prayer of Vishvamitra protects the people of the Bharata tribe.’ The Bharatas were a branch of the Purus, who were responsible for the major part of this most ancient Hindu scripture. Western scholars date the Rigveda from 1500-1100 BCE although Indian tradition places it much earlier.

b. Vedic texts like the Aitareya Brahmana and Shatapatha Brahmana continue to mention the Bharata rulers who expanded their domain progressively from ‘ocean to ocean’. The eastern and western ocean (The Bay of Bengal, and The Arabian Sea today) are explicitly mentioned.[ix] Western scholars typically date these texts from 800 – 600 BCE. The Hindu tradition places these texts to a much earlier time.

c. The Mahabharata is the book of the ‘Bharatas’, and specifically of the Kuru descendants of the Bharatas. The 9th chapter of the sixth book (Bheeshma Parva) of this text gives a detailed description of the extent of the Indian subcontinent and calls it ‘Bhaarata’. Many other sections (e.g. Rājasūya section in Book 2 of the text) give similar information and terms for India and its various regions. Western scholars date the work from 400 BCE to 400 CE but Indian tradition places it much earlier.[x]

d. Numerous Buddhist texts from before Common Era, and Buddhist and Jain texts from before Common Era and early centuries of the Common Era mention Bhaarata, Jambudweepa etc., as distinct geographical regions, along with their subdivisions. The description corresponds to ancient India, or the modern Indian Subcontinent.[xi]

e. The Arthashastra of Kautilya: Gives an overview of all regions of the Indian Subcontinent from an economic perspective. Western scholars date the extant text typically between 200 BCE-200 CE. Tradition places the text to ~ late 4th cent BCE.

f. The Natya Shastra of Bharat Muni too refers to the languages and characteristics of different regions including Dravid – indicating once again that they were a part of the same cultural/civilizational continuum. It also gives the various preferences of the regional people for different aspects of drama and provides the audience tastes in India. It treats the whole of India as one touring place for performers and talks of a theatre (unique in the history of the world) in which several languages were used at the same time. The word used for the land where performances were held was ‘karmabhuumi’ which was the place of sukha and duhkha. pleasure and pain that make drama possible. It is also called ‘bharatavarsha’ in chapter 17 of the text. Western scholars date the extant text typically between 200 BCE-200 CE. Tradition places the text to 5th cent BCE.[xii]

g. The Yuga Purana (a chapter of the larger Vriddha Garga Samhita), mentions regions of the entire Indian subcontinent and the invasion of the NW by Greeks. This work is dated to around 25 BCE.[xiii]

VI. Ancient and Early Medieval Indian Sources Before 1000 BCE:

a. The Kamasutra (~ 300 CE) refers to sexual practices of various regions, all of which fall with the Indian subcontinent. He ignores the practices of regions falling outside of this region. Clearly, he saw these regions comprising a single civilizational entity.[xiv]

b. Works of Mimamsa like Shabara Bhashya (~500 CE), Tantra Varttika of Kumarila (~650CE) likewise refer to languages of different parts of India in relation to Sanskrit, local customs etc.[xv]

c. Atharvaveda Parishishta 56 (=Kuurmavibhaaga) likens the Indian subcontinent to a tortoise shape, and lists each and every part of India, Nepal, Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc. The collection of Parishishtas is dated to around 600 CE.[xvi]

d. Buddhaswamin’s Brihatkathashlokasamgraha (c. 500 CE) refers to habits and customs of peoples of the Indus valley, southern India etc., in its compendium of stories, indicating their inclusion in a single civilizational entity.[xvii]

e. The Sutras 3.72 onwards of Brihaspati’s Arthashastra (6th-7th cent CE) also list all the regions of the Indian subcontinent from Kamboj to Sri Lanka.[xviii]

f. The Puranas like the Vishnu Purana 2.3.1 explicitly define Bhaarat as the land that lies to the north of the ocean and to the south of the snowy mountains. The detailed descriptions of various Puranas, dating from 400 CE (or even earlier) and onwards are too detailed to quote here. In a nutshell, the Puranas use Bhaarata-Varsha, and Jambudveepa to denote the land of India and describe its mountains, rivers, lakes, holy places and peoples very extensively. The early Puranas like the Vishnu date from 500 CE or even earlier according to modern scholarship.[xix]

g. Rajatarangini of Kalhana, while focusing on Kashmir, nevertheless takes pains to explain why the Kashmiri king did not participate in the Mahabharata war (because the king was a minor) whereas all other kings of India did. Quite clearly, Kalhana was concerned why the region of Kashmir was excluded in what was seen as a pan-Indian civil war by his times.

h. The Guru Granth, the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, too uses the word ‘Hindustan’ four times to denote India. Notably, the region of Punjab is not mentioned even once in the Granth in its entire 1440+ pages

VII. Late Medieval and early Modern European Sources:

From the 15th. Cent CE and later, Contemporary histories around writings on Marco Polo, Columbus, Magellan, Vasco Da Gama; and subsequent European traders and colonialists (French, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, British) routinely refer to the country as India, and the peoples as Hindus and Muslims. The British founded the East India Company to trade with and eventually capture much of India.

For these reasons, the Native Americans were referred to as ‘Indians’, S E Asian archipelago was named as ‘East Indies’, and S E Asia (mainland) was called ‘Indochina’. The largest country in S E Asia is called ‘Indonesia’. Conversely, the islands in the Caribbean were called ‘West Indies.’ There is no need to cite these references which are commonly known and available.

We present this information in a tabular format below

References for Ancient use of Words ‘Hindu’, ‘India’ and their Cognate Terms

S. No. Source Details from the Source Date of the Sources Published/ Online References
1 Ancient Persian Sources Haptahindu occurs as the name of a region in the Avesta of Parsis. This is cognate with saptasindhavah (all rivers or seven rivers – the region of NW India and Northern Pakistan today) in the Rigveda.   Before 600 BCE  
  Inscriptions of the Achaemenid Emperors like Darius the Great (522 – 486 BCE) mention the people of the Indus Valley (then included in the Persian Empire) as ‘Hindus’. Ironically, these are the very areas that the edits of the South Asia Studies Faculty seek to detach from India, and name differently as ‘Indus Valley’. 6th to 5th cent. BCE  
2 Ancient Greek, Roman and other European Sources[1] Herodotus in his ‘The Histories’ mentions India and Indians clearly.   5th cent. BCE The following works may be consulted: Klaus Karttunen (1989), India in Early Greek Literature, Finnish Oriental Society: Helsinki ___. 1997. India and the Hellenistic World. Finnish Oriental Society: Helsinki Wilhelm Halbfass (1988). India and Europe – An Essay in Understanding. SUNY: Albany
  Several other pre-Alexander writers mention India: Skylax of Karyanda in Karia (c.500 BC) – Indoi, Indus, indika Ktesias (405-397 B.C.)-India/Indika Callisthenes, Onesikritos, Aristobulos, Nearchos, Ptolemaios(c.330 BC) – India/Indika   6th to 4th cent. BCE
  Megasthenes (3rd cent BCE) wrote another book of the same title Indica, describing some parts of India during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya.   ~ 300 BCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megasthenes Also, the references above.
  Arrian (97-175 CE) wrote a book named ‘Indica’ stating that India begins from the Pamir region. His book purported to describe the history of Alexander’s invasion of India. The name of his book clearly indicates that he regarded the region as India.    97 – 175 CE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Arrian) Also, the references above.
  Pliny the Elder has a separate chapter in his book on India that describes all the lands east and south of the Hindukush. ~100 CE See the references above. Also: A A Vigasin, The Ancient Map of South Asia, pp. 123-134 in Eugenia Vanina (ed), Indian History – A Russian Viewpoint, ICHR: New Delhi For a related work, see also: J W McCrindle (1885), Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, Trubner: London
3 Ancient Chinese Sources Chinese traveler Fa-hien describes the country that they visited as Shintu (= Hindu/India) and their description leaves no one in doubt that they are referring to various parts of the Indian subcontinent as belonging to one civilization.   4th – 5th cent. CE James Legge (1886), Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien, Clarendon Press: Oxford
  Chinese traveler Xuanzang (7th cent.) describes the country that they visited as Shintu (= Hindu/India) and his detailed description of the various regions and peoples of the Indian subcontinent leaves no one in doubt that he is referring to a single civilizational unit.   7th cent. CE Xuanzang (translated by Samuel Beal, edited by Susil Gupta), 1957, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist records of the Western World: Calcutta
4 Early Arab and other Muslim Sources The Arab invaders adopted several Indian sciences like Mathematics after the conquest of Sindh in 712 CE. Their translations of the Indian scientific texts clarified that these sciences were from ‘Hind’. For instance, the Indian numerals were called ‘Al-Hindsa’.   8th to 11th cent. CE See for instance: ‘Kitab Fi Usul Hisab Al-HInd’ by Kushyar Ibn Labban (1965), translated and edited by Martin Level and Marvin Petruck, University of Wisconsin Press: Madison  
  Al Beruni wrote his Tarikh Al-Hind (History of India) largely while in Katas (northern Pakistan). He describes many peoples, texts and customs of the land that he designates as ‘Hind’. 11th cent. CE Manfred Sachau (2000), Al Beruni’s India, Routledge: London B C Law, Al-Biruni’s Knowledge of Indian Geography, in Indo-Iranica, vol. 7. No. 4 (Dec 1954), pp. 1-26
5 Ancient Indian Sources before Common Era, or during early centuries of Common Era The oldest occurrence of the word ‘Bharat’ is in the phrase ‘vishvamitrasya rakshati brahmedam bhaaratam janam’ (Rigveda 3.53.12) – “This prayer of Vishvamitra protects the people of the Bharata tribe.’ The Bharatas were a branch of the Purus, who were responsible for the major part of this most ancient Hindu scripture.   1500 BCE or earlier Any printed translation of the Rigveda may be consulted.
  Vedic texts like the Aitareya Brahmana and Shatapatha Brahmana continue to mention the Bharata rulers who expanded their domain progressively from ‘ocean to ocean’. The eastern and western ocean (The Bay of Bengal, and The Arabian Sea today) are explicitly mentioned. 800 – 600 BCE. The Hindu tradition places these texts to a much earlier time. The following may be consulted: Hari Pada Chakraborti (1981), Vedic India – Political and Legal Institutions in Vedic Literature, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar (Calcutta) Jogiraj Basu (1969), India in the Age of Brahmanas, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar (Calcutta)  
  The Mahabharata is the book of the ‘Bharatas’, and specifically of the Kuru descendants of the Bharatas. The 9th chapter of the sixth book (Bheeshma Parva) of this text gives a detailed description of the extent of the Indian subcontinent, and calls it ‘Bhaarata’. Many other sections (e.g. Rājasūya section in Book 2 of the text) give similar information and terms for India and its various regions.   400 BCE to 400 CE http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-06:section-9 See also: Pande Shyam Narayan (1980), Geographical Horizon of Mahabharata, Bharat-Bharati: Varanasi
  Numerous Buddhist texts from before Common Era, and Buddhist and Jain texts from before Common Era and early centuries of the Common Era mention Bhaarata, Jambudweepa etc., as distinct geographical regions, along with their subdivisions. The description corresponds to ancient India, or the modern Indian Subcontinent.   3rd cent. BCE to See: Debarchana Sarkar (2003), Geography of Ancient Buddhist Literature, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar: Calcutta
  The Arthashastra of Kautilya: Gives an overview of all regions of the Indian Subcontinent from an economic perspective. 200 BCE – 200 CE. Core of the text dates from ~300 BCE  
  The Natya Shastra of Bharat Muni too refers to the languages and characteristics of different regions including Dravid – indicating once again that they were a part of the same cultural/civilizational continuum. It also gives the various preferences of the regional people for different aspects of drama and provides the audience tastes in India. It treats the whole of India as one touring place for performers and talks of a theatre (unique in the history of the world) in which several languages were used at the same time. The word used for the land where performances were held was ‘karmabhuumi’ which was the place of sukha and duhkha. pleasure and pain that make drama possible. It is also called ‘bharatavarsha’ in chapter 17 of the text.   200 BCE to 200 CE. Tradition places the text to 5th cent BCE Refer: Manmohan Ghosh (1967), The Natyasastra ascribed to Bharata-Muni (2 vols). Granthalaya Private Limited: Calcutta
  The Yuga Purana (a chapter of the larger Vriddha Garga Samhita), mentions regions of the entire Indian subcontinent and the invasion of the NW by Greeks.   ~25 BCE Page 16 of John E Mitchiner, 1986, The Yuga Purana, The Asiatic Society: Calcutta
  Ancient and early Medieval Indian Sources before 1000 CE The Kamasutra refers to sexual practices of various regions, all of which fall with the Indian subcontinent. He ignores the practices of regions falling outside of this region. Clearly, he saw these regions comprising a single civilizational entity.   ~ 200 CE Kamasutram with commentary of Yasodhara (2nd ed.), 1900, Nirnayasagarayantralaya: Bombay
  Works of Mimamsa like Shabara Bhashya (~500 CE), Tantra Varttika of Kumarila (~650CE) likewise refer to languages of different parts of India in relation to Sanskrit, local customs etc.   500 – 650 CE Refer to any standard editions of these texts e.g. those by the Anand Ashram (Pune)
  Atharvaveda Parishishta 56 (=Kuurmavibhaaga) likens the Indian subcontinent to a tortoise shape, and lists each and every part of India, Nepal, Pakistan, eastern Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc.   ~ 600 CE The Parisistas of the Atharvaveda, ed. By George Melville Bolling and Julius von Negelein. Devanagari edition by Ram Kumar Rai (1976), Chaukhamba Orientalia: Varanasi. For the dating, refer: B R Modak (1993), Ancillary Literature of the Atharvaveda, Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan: New Delhi
  Buddhaswamin’s Brihatkathashlokasamgraha refers to habits and customs of peoples of the Indus valley, southern India etc., in its compendium of stories, indicating their inclusion in a single civilizational entity. ~ 500 CE Refer to: Ram Prakash Poddar and Neelima Sinha (1986), Buddhasvamin’s Brhatkatha Slokasangraha, Tara Print Works: Varanasi  
  The Sutras 3.72 onwards of Brihaspati Arthashastra (6th-7th cent CE) also list all the regions of the Indian subcontinent from Kamboj to Sri Lanka.   6th – 7th cent. CE F W Thomas (1921), Brihaspati Sutra, Moti Lal Banarsi Dass: Lahore
  The Puranas like the Vishnu Purana 2.3.1 explicitly define Bhaarat as the land that lies to the north of the ocean and to the south of the snowy mountains. The detailed descriptions of various Puranas, dating from 400 CE (or even earlier) and onwards are too detailed to quote here. In a nutshell, the Puranas use Bhaarata-Varsha, and Jambudveepa to denote the land of India and describe its mountains, rivers, lakes, holy places and peoples very extensively. 400 CE and later S M Ali, Geography in Ancient India, 258-280 in Bulletin of the National Institute of Sciences of India, No, 21 (1963): Calcutta C A Lewis, Geographical Text of the Puranas, pp. 112-276 in Puranam, Vol 4, No. 2 (July 1962) G.P. Singh, Early Indian Historical Tradition and Archaeology, DK Printworld New Delhi, 1994 Radha Kumud Mookerji (1954), The Fundamental Unity of India, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan: Bombay
  Rajatarangini of Kalhana, while focusing on Kashmir, nevertheless takes pains to explain why the Kashmiri king did not participate in the Mahabharata war (because the king was a minor) whereas all other kings of India did. Quite clearly, Kalhana was concerned why the region of Kashmir was excluded in what was seen as a pan-Indian civil war by his times.      
  The Guru Granth, the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, too uses the word ‘Hindustan’ four times to denote India. Notably, the region of Punjab is not mentioned even once in the Granth in its entire 1440+ pages      
6 Late Medieval and early Modern European Sources Contemporary histories around writings on Marco Polo, Columbus, Magellan, Vasco Da Gama; and subsequent European traders and colonialists (French, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, British) routinely refer to the country as India, and the peoples as Hindus and Muslims. For this reason, the Native Americans were referred to as ‘Indians’, S E Asian archipelago was named as ‘East Indies’, and S E Asia (mainland) was called ‘Indochina’. The largest country in S E Asia is called ‘Indonesia’. Conversely, the islands in the Caribbean were called ‘West Indies.’ All these facts point to the acceptability of the name ‘India’ in historical contexts. 15th cent. CE and later There is no need to cite these references which are commonly known and available.

CONCLUSION: Indic as well as non Indic sources dating to well before the Common Era designate India as a civilization entity distinct and apart from neighboring regions. The references given above prove the prevalence of the name, concept and reality ‘India’ in historical contexts in pre-British times. Saif Ali Khan might therefore well educate himself better on Bharat that is India.

Editor’s Note: This is an updated and expanded version of the article.


[1] In this brief compilation, we are leaving out Christian references to India from before 1000 CE as in ‘The Gospel According to Thomas’ and in the writings of the Catholic Church expressing the hope of help from King Prestor John of India during the Crusades against the Arab invaders of the Holy Land. In any case, these writings clearly indicate the foreign consciousness of the existence of a distinct country and civilization named India even in early Christian literature. The location of India in these sources is mythical, but nevertheless, at least some of them point to regions in what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan, the very areas that the South Asia Studies Faculty wants to detach from India.


[i] In this brief compilation, we are leaving out Christian references to India from before 1000 CE as in ‘The Gospel According to Thomas’ and in the writings of the Catholic Church expressing the hope of help from King Prestor John of India during the Crusades against the Arab invaders of the Holy Land. In any case, these writings clearly indicate the foreign consciousness of the existence of a distinct country and civilization named India even in early Christian literature. The location of India in these sources is mythical, but nevertheless, at least some of them point to regions in what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan, the very areas that the South Asia Studies Faculty wants to detach from India. The following works can be referenced for this section-

Klaus Karttunen (1989), India in Early Greek Literature, Finnish Oriental Society: Helsinki

___. 1997. India and the Hellenistic World. Finnish Oriental Society: Helsinki

Wilhelm Halbfass (1988). India and Europe – An Essay in Understanding. SUNY: Albany

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megasthenes See also the references above.

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indica_(Arrian) See Also the references above.

[iv] See the references above. Also: A A Vigasin, The Ancient Map of South Asia, pp. 123-134 in Eugenia Vanina (ed), Indian History – A Russian Viewpoint, ICHR: New Delhi

For a related work, see also:

J W McCrindle (1885), Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, Trubner: London

[v] James Legge (1886), Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms by the Chinese Monk Fa-Hien, Clarendon Press: Oxford

[vi] Xuanzang (translated by Samuel Beal, edited by Susil Gupta), 1957, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist records of the Western World: Calcutta

[vii] See for instance: ‘Kitab Fi Usul Hisab Al-HInd’ by Kushyar Ibn Labban (1965), translated and edited by Martin Level and Marvin Petruck, University of Wisconsin Press: Madison

[viii] Manfred Sachau (2000), Al Beruni’s India, Routledge: London

B C Law, Al-Biruni’s Knowledge of Indian Geography, in Indo-Iranica, vol. 7. No. 4 (Dec 1954), pp. 1-26

[ix] The following may be consulted: Hari Pada Chakraborti (1981), Vedic India – Political and Legal Institutions in Vedic Literature, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar (Calcutta)

Jogiraj Basu (1969), India in the Age of Brahmanas, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar (Calcutta)

[x] Pande Shyam Narayan (1980), Geographical Horizon of Mahabharata, Bharat-Bharati: Varanasi.

See also the online resource http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-06:section-9

[xi] Debarchana Sarkar (2003), Geography of Ancient Buddhist Literature, Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar: Calcutta

[xii] Refer: Manmohan Ghosh (1967), The Natyasastra ascribed to Bharata-Muni (2 vols). Granthalaya Private Limited: Calcutta

[xiii] Page 16 of John E Mitchiner, 1986, The Yuga Purana, The Asiatic Society: Calcutta

[xiv] Kamasutram with commentary of Yasodhara (2nd ed.), 1900, Nirnayasagarayantralaya: Bombay

[xv] Refer to any standard editions of these texts e.g. those by the Anand Ashram (Pune)

[xvi] The Parisistas of the Atharvaveda, ed. By George Melville Bolling and Julius von Negelein. Devanagari edition by Ram Kumar Rai (1976), Chaukhamba Orientalia: Varanasi.

For the dating, refer: B R Modak (1993), Ancillary Literature of the Atharvaveda, Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan: New Delhi

[xvii] Refer to: Ram Prakash Poddar and Neelima Sinha (1986), Buddhasvamin’s Brhatkatha Slokasangraha, Tara Print Works: Varanasi

[xviii] F W Thomas (1921), Brihaspati Sutra, Moti Lal Banarsi Dass: Lahore

[xix] S M Ali, Geography in Ancient India, 258-280 in Bulletin of the National Institute of Sciences of India, No, 21 (1963): Calcutta

C A Lewis, Geographical Text of the Puranas, pp. 112-276 in Puranam, Vol 4, No. 2 (July 1962)

G.P. Singh, Early Indian Historical Tradition and Archaeology, DK Printworld New Delhi, 1994

Radha Kumud Mookerji (1954), The Fundamental Unity of India, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan: Bombay

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Vishal Agarwal

Vishal Agarwal is an independent scholar residing in Minneapolis (USA) with his wife, two children and a dog. He has authored one book and over fifteen book chapters and papers, some in peer reviewed journals, about ancient India and Hinduism.