Shloka 8
Adhyaya 57 — The Ninefold Divisions of Bharata: Mountains, Rivers, and Peoples
पूर्वे किराता यस्यान्ते पश्चिमे यवनास्तथा ।
ब्राह्मणाः क्षत्रिया वैश्याः शूद्राश्चान्तः स्थिताः द्विज ॥
pūrve kirātā yasyānte paścime yavanās tathā | brāhmaṇāḥ kṣatriyā vaiśyāḥ śūdrāś cāntaḥ sthitā dvija ||
അതിന്റെ കിഴക്കേ അറ്റത്ത് കിരാതർ, പടിഞ്ഞാറേ അറ്റത്ത് അതുപോലെ യവനർ. അതിരുകളിൽ ബ്രാഹ്മണർ, ക്ഷത്രിയർ, വൈശ്യർ, ശൂദ്രർ നിലകൊള്ളുന്നു, ഹേ ദ്വിജോത്തമാ.
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FAQs
The verse reflects a Purāṇic tendency to integrate diverse peoples into a single cosmological map, while also projecting an idealized social order (varṇa) onto geography. Ethically, it shows how tradition sought coherence between land, community, and duty—though historically such mappings can be schematic rather than descriptive.
‘Sthāna’ (world arrangement) with an ethnographic overlay; not primarily genealogy or manvantara.
Borders symbolize liminality—zones where the ‘known’ and ‘unknown’ meet. The placement of social categories at ‘edges’ can be read as an attempt to ritually stabilize the periphery of the world-map.