Varaha Purana 75.10: Adhyaya 75, Shloka 10
Description of Jambūdvīpa: its regions, mountains, measurements, and cosmic structure
Pūrva Bhāga · Cosmology & Sacred Geography (Jambūdvīpa-varṇana)
लवणेन समुद्रेण सर्वतः परिवारितः । जम्बूद्वीपस्य विस्तारात् समेन तु समन्ततः ॥ ७५.१० ॥
lavaṇena samudreṇa sarvataḥ parivāritaḥ | jambūdvīpasya vistārāt samena tu samantataḥ || 75.10 ||
lavaNena samudreNa sarvataH parivAritaH | jambUdvIpasya vistArAt samena tu samantataH || 75.10 ||
नमक वाला समुंदर इसके चारों तरफ है। यह पूरा जम्बुद्वीप के बराबर फैला है। चारों तरफ से सेम है।
Sandhi Notes
- ‘जम्बूद्वीपस्य’ is a तत्पुरुष compound
- ‘विस्तारात्’ is ablative singular
Varāha
Composed, absorbing boundary-structure; sense of protected enclosure
What surrounds Jambūdvīpa, and how does the surrounding ocean correspond in extent to the continent’s breadth?
Boundaries are part of cosmic harmony; containment enables stability and life within the world-field.
Respect maryādā (ethical and ecological limits); cultivate balanced living—measure and restraint as spiritual supports.
He completes the boundary description by stating the encircling Lavana (salt) ocean, reinforcing Earth’s cosmic containment and symmetry.
Encircling ocean as cosmic boundary (maryādā): the world is held within limits; symmetry (‘samen’) signals balance—creation is a harmonized enclosure sustained by the Lord’s ordering power.
Ocean-ring parallels the enclosing perimeter of a consecrated ritual space; ‘lavana’ can evoke the taste-element (rasa) and the purifying/liminal boundary between domains, like protective circumambulation around a vedi.
Limits and containment reflect māyā’s structuring function under Īśvara; contemplating boundaries supports discernment (viveka) between the conditioned field and the transcendent.
Varāha Purāṇa adhyāya 75: subsequent ring-continent/ocean descriptions in the dvīpa-samudra schema
FAQs
It reflects the Purāṇic cosmographical model in which continents (dvīpas) are described as being encircled by concentric oceans, preserving an important pre-modern South Asian framework for mapping the world in literary and ritual contexts.
Jambūdvīpa is named; in Purāṇic literature it functions as the central continent of the human world. Scholarly comparisons often treat it as a cosmological construct rather than a single one-to-one modern landmass.
The verse is primarily descriptive rather than prescriptive; its philosophical instruction lies in presenting an ordered, bounded world-system where land and ocean are interrelated parts of a structured cosmos.
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