The Threefold Division by the Guṇas, the Deities’ Attainment of Worship, and the Opening of the Durjaya Episode
ततः परतरं चान्यद्धरिवर्षं जिगाय सः । रम्यं हिरण्मयं चापि कुरुभद्राश्वमेव च । इलावृतं मेरुमध्यमेतत्सर्वं जिगाय सः ॥ १०.३६ ॥
tataḥ parataraṃ cānyad dharivarṣaṃ jigāya saḥ | ramyaṃ hiraṇmayaṃ cāpi kurubhadrāśvam eva ca | ilāvṛtaṃ meru-madhyam etat sarvaṃ jigāya saḥ || 10.36 ||
उसके बाद उसने हरिवर्श जीता। फिर रम्यक, हिरण्यमय और कुरुभद्राश्व भी उसके हाथ आया। इलावृत भी जीता जहाँ मेरु पर्वत बीच में है। इतना सारा देश उसने जीत लिया।
Varāha
It exemplifies Purāṇic cosmography by cataloging named varṣas (macro-regions) and positioning Ilāvṛta with Meru at the center, a standard organizing principle in early Indian geographic imagination and textual world-mapping.
Ilāvṛta with Mount Meru at its center is identified; in scholarship this is typically treated as a mytho-cosmological central zone rather than a single mappable terrestrial location, while the named varṣas function as cosmographic regions within Jambūdvīpa frameworks.
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical instruction is the presentation of an ordered cosmos—structured regions around a central axis (Meru)—supporting cultural memory of sacred geography and cosmological order.
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