Varaha Purana 79.9: Adhyaya 79, Shloka 9
Description of the Inner Basins (Droṇīs): Śrīsaras, Śrīvana, Bilva Forest, and Tāla Grove
शतयोजनविस्तीर्णं द्वियोजनशतायतम् । अर्द्धक्रोशोच्छशिखरैर्महावृक्षैः समन्ततः । शाखासहस्रकलितैर्महास्कन्धैः समाकुलम् ॥ ७९.९ ॥
śatayojanavistīrṇaṃ dviyojanaśatāyatam | arddhakrośocchaśikharair mahāvṛkṣaiḥ samantataḥ | śākhāsahasrakalitair mahāskandhaiḥ samākulam || 79.9 ||
Rozciągał się na sto jojan w szerokości i dwieście jojan w długości; z każdej strony był otoczony wielkimi drzewami, których korony wznosiły się na wysokość pół krośi, i był gęsto wypełniony masywnymi pniami dźwigającymi tysiące gałęzi.
Varāha
Indirect: the ‘mahāvana’ scale resonates with later Vraja’s twelve-forest imagination, though no explicit Kṛṣṇa-līlā is invoked.
The hyperbolic measurements and world-filling trees mirror Purāṇic ‘cosmic geography’ where sacred space is a microcosm of the ordered universe.
Forest as a living yajña-maṇḍala: towering crowns like ritual canopies; innumerable branches like manifold śākhās (Vedic recensions) sustaining dharma.
Brahman-as-plenitude suggested through inexhaustible, branching abundance; the many (branches) resting in one (vast grove) hints at unity-in-diversity.
Pilgrimage space is not merely local; it is envisioned as cosmically vast to expand the pilgrim’s mind beyond narrow measure.
Cultivate ‘mahattva-dṛṣṭi’—see sacred places and nature with reverence that exceeds utilitarian measurement; restrain exploitation of old-growth forests.
Continuation of the grove description across 79.79.8–12 culminating in Śrīvana naming
FAQs
It preserves a Purāṇic style of describing large-scale landscapes using traditional units (yojana, krośa), offering evidence for how premodern Sanskrit texts conceptualized geography and environmental magnitude.
This verse, by itself, does not name a specific place; it describes an extensive forested region. A precise identification requires the surrounding verses of Adhyāya 79 that may supply a toponym or pilgrimage context.
Rather than issuing a direct injunction, the verse foregrounds the scale and density of a forest ecosystem, which can be cataloged as ecological imagery supporting a broader Purāṇic valuation of landscapes as culturally significant and worthy of preservation.
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