Shloka 16
भारतवर्षमहात्म्यम् — कर्मभूमित्वम्, नवभेदाः, कुलपर्वताः-नद्यः-जनपदाः, युगचक्रविशेषः, यज्ञपुरुषविष्णुपूजा
पुण्ड्राः कलिङ्गा मगधा दाक्षिणाद्याश् च कृत्स्नशः तथापरान्ताः सौराष्ट्राः शूराभीरास् तथार्बुदाः
puṇḍrāḥ kaliṅgā magadhā dākṣiṇādyāś ca kṛtsnaśaḥ tathāparāntāḥ saurāṣṭrāḥ śūrābhīrās tathārbudāḥ
Están los Puṇḍras, los Kaliṅgas y los Magadhas; y asimismo todos los pueblos del sur en su conjunto; también los Aparāntas, los Saurāṣṭras, los Śūras y Ābhīras, y la gente de Arbuda—así se enumeran, en orden, los reinos de Bhārata-varṣa.
Sage Parāśara (speaking to Maitreya)
Speaker: Parasara
Topic: Further listing of Bhārata-varṣa peoples (east/south/west)
Teaching: Cosmological
Quality: authoritative
Cosmic Hierarchy: Varshas (regions)
Vishnu Form: Hari (name)
Lakshmi Presence: Bhumi (earth)
FAQs
This verse is part of the Purāṇa’s sacred geography, presenting Bhārata-varṣa as an ordered human realm with named peoples and territories—an expression of cosmic order as understood within Vishnu’s sustaining sovereignty.
Parāśara systematically catalogues lands and peoples as components of Bhārata-varṣa, embedding historical-cultural geography within a Purāṇic worldview where the world is intelligible, classified, and upheld by the divine order.
Even when the text appears purely descriptive, the underlying frame is that the world’s divisions—lands, peoples, and directions—are sustained within the Lord’s governance; geography becomes a map of a cosmos grounded in the Supreme Reality.