In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sanjaya’s in-depth explanation on how the “Jambu-Dveepam”, “Bhaarata-Varsham” and “Bharata-Kandam” were formed, along with the inverted “Meru Parvatham”, which is fully made of gold! Bhagawan Vishnu commences the activity of creation, followed by Bhagawan Brahma who officially takes it over from Bhagawan Vishnu as he comes out of Bhagawan Vishnu’s “Naabi-Kamalam”. Moreover, we’ve witnessed how Bhagawan Surya’s chariot revolves and because of this, we have a few months during the year wherein the daytime is longer than the nights, and vice-versa. This is primarily because Surya Bhagawan’s chariot cannot move in a perfectly circular path. Rather, it moves in an elliptical path because the fulcrum of the chariot is designed in such a way. In today’s geological sciences, we call this “Equinox” wherein, during two times in a year, the day and night times are almost the same in terms of duration, however, on all other occasions, there are differences between the durations of the day and night.
Continuing thus, Sanjaya says that the chariot of Surya Bhagawan keeps revolving around the holy “Meru Parvatham”, wherein an enormous number of “Siddhas” and “Chaaranas” are residing and performing their “Tapas”. Beyond this is the “Svarga Lokha” which is of Indra’s. All the Devas (Celestial Beings) reside in the “Svarga Lokha and beyond this are the seven other Lokhas of “Bhuvar Lokha”, “Survar Lokha”, “Mahar Lokha”, Jana Lokha”, “Tapo Lokha” and the “Satya Lokha”. These are the “Lokhas” that are above the ground and similarly there are seven other “Lokhas” beneath, such as “Athala”, “Vithala”, “Suthala”, “Paathaala”, etc. Thus, combined together, there are totally fourteen “Lokhas” that comprise of this world. Amidst this vast and expansive world, our Bhaarata Desha is situated, south of the great “Himalaya Parvatha”. Apart from the Himalaya Parvatha, there are other important places as well, such as “Uttharaguru”, “Bhadraashvam”, “Maalyavaan”, etc. Apart from these, there are other places such as “Ramanakam”, “Hiranyakam”, “Shringavaan”, etc. as well, which are extremely spiritual and important. Thus, Sanjaya explains to King Dhritarashtra that this “Bhaarata Desha” is extremely spiritual in nature and has all the ingredients to be considered as one of the holiest places in this world.
Moving on further, Sanjaya is now going to explain in detail, the various mountains, rivers, etc. that adorn this great Bhaarata Desha. When we talk of the various rivers that adorn our great holy land, we talk of the rivers Chandrabhaaga, Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Drishtadyuthi, Vibhaasha, Vegavathi, Krishnaveni, etc. which are in the northern side. Similarly when we come towards the central part of our Bhaarata Desha, we have the rivers Gomathi, Kaushiki, Mahanadhi, Narmada, Tapti, etc. As we now come south towards the “Draavida Desha”, we have the famous rivers of Godhavari, Krishna, Cauvery and Tamraparni. Similarly, now Sanjaya talks about the different territories that encompassed various areas of our Bhaarata Desha. Readers can do this as a beautiful homework to check which erstwhile kingdom ruled which states of our current political map. For example, we talk of the Anga Desha, Kalinga Desha, etc., which are today the East-Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha respectively. Similarly, when we talk of “Indraprastha”, it is today’s national capital region of Delhi and its surroundings. Similarly, when we talk of “Vaaranavatham”, we refer to as the modern-day city of Varanasi and its surroundings in the North-Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. In similar lines, the famous “Gaandhaara Desha” is now referred to as the country of Afghanistan, from where Gaandhaari came to marry King Dhritarashtra. Thus, from the contours of Afghanistan and further west to Cambodia and Indonesia in the east, this land is the land of “Sanaatana Dharma” and was together erstwhile referred to as “Bhaarata Desha”.
Thus, we must understand that the reference of “Bhaarata Desha” that we give today, is only about 60% of the area that we’re talking about here. In the Mahabharata times, the Bhaarata Desha encompassed today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. Of course there are several books that are published in this regard and this information is very much available in the public domain for our ready reference, and readers can always refer to those materials for more in-depth analysis. So for today, let us understand up to this point and we shall continue this discussion further in the next episode! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 