Historical Elements in the Matsya Purana
by Chaitali Kadia | 2021 | 91,183 words
This page relates ‘Saptadvipa (5): Shalmaladvipa’ of the study on the historical elements of the Matsya-purana: one of the eighteen Mahapuranas which are Sanskrit texts that have preserved the cultural heritage, philosophy, religion, geography, etc of ancient India. This Matsyapurana was originally written in 20,000 verses and deals with topics such as architecture, ancient history, polity, religion and philosophy.
Saptadvīpa (5): Śālmaladvīpa
The Matsya Purāṇa also describes about the another huge dvīpa , the Sālmaladvipa ’ among the seven dvīpas in its chapter 122. According to this Purāṇa the ‘Sālmaladvīpa ’ is twice the size of the ‘Krauñcadvīpa ’. It is surrounded by the ‘Ghṛtamaṇḍodasāgar ’. There are many virtuous countries in it.
The name of the first Mountain there is ‘Sumanā ’ which is yellow due to its shining like the Sun. After that there is another Mountain called ‘Kumbhamaya ’. Its other name is ‘Sarvasukha ’. It is endowed with divine medicines. The third is a huge Mountain called ‘Rohita ’, full of gold and colored like feather of bees. This Mountain is divine.
The country of ‘Sumanā ’ Mountain is ‘Kuśala ’ and second country of ‘Sarvasukha ’ Mountain is ‘Sukhodaya ’, which produces all the pleasures. The third region of the ‘Rohita ’ Mountain is ‘Rohina ’. There are many types of gems and all these are taken cared by the Prajāpati Brahmā with Indra. There are neither clouds make rain nor there are excess of cold or heat. There is tradition of ‘Varṇāśrama ’ in these countries. That is to say, the ‘Varṇāśrama ’ is fully propagated here. There are neither any planets, nor moons, nor there is jealousy, discontent and fear among its inhabitants.
The circle (enclosure) of this Śālmaladvīpa is surrounded by the ‘Surodasāgara ’ like quern.[1]