Āryāvarta

The approximate extent of the Vedic period Āryāvarta is highlighted in pale yellow

Āryāvarta (Sanskrit: आर्यावर्त, lit. "abode of the Aryans",[1] Sanskrit pronunciation: [aːɾjaːˈʋəɾtə]) is the term mentioned as denoting the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in some classical Hindu texts in Sanskrit such as by Patanjali and the authors of Dharmashastras. These texts also name other parts of the Indian subcontinent as Brahmavarta, Madhyadesha, Panchala and others, with neither clear boundaries nor details about who lived in them.

Classical sources

The Manusmṛti (2.22) gives the name to "the tract between the Himalaya and the Vindhya ranges, from the Eastern Sea (Bay of Bengal) to the Western Sea (Arabian Sea)".[2][3]

The Vasistha Dharma Sutra I.8-9 and 12-13 locates the Āryāvarta to the west of the disappearance of the Sarasvati River in the desert and Arabian sea, to the east of the Kālakavana, to the south of the Pariyatra Mountains and the Vindhya Range and to the north of the Himalayas.[4]

The Baudhayana Dharmasutra (BDS) 1.1.2.10 gives similar definitions and declares that Āryāvarta is the land that lies west of Kālakavana, east of Adarsana, south of the Himalayas and north of the Vindhyas, but in BDS 1.1.2.11 Āryāvarta is confined to the doab of the Ganges-Yamuna, and BDS 1.1.2.13-15. Patanjali's Mahābhāṣya defines Āryāvarta like the Vasistha Dharmasutra.

The Gurjara-Pratihara king in the tenth century was titled the Maharajadhiraja of Aryavarta.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Aryavarta, Monier Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary (1899)
  2. ↑ Gopal, Madan (1990). K.S. Gautam, ed. India through the ages. Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. p. 70.
  3. ↑ Michael Cook (2014), Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective, Princeton University Press, p.68: "Aryavarta [...] is defined by Manu as extending from the Himalayas in the north to the Vindhyas of Central India in the south and from the sea in the west to the sea in the east."
  4. ↑ Neelis 2010, p. 194.
  5. ↑ André Wink (2002). Al-Hind: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam, 7th-11th centuries. BRILL. p. 284. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8.

Bibliography

  • Kane, Pandurang Vaman (1962). History of Dharmaśāstra: (ancient and mediaeval religious and civil law in India). Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
  • Neelis, Jason (19 November 2010). Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-18159-8.
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