Paurāṇic Elements on Anundoram Borooah’s Geographical Idea of Ancient India

Abstract

Anundoram Borooah, a noble scholar of India has contributed a lot to the field of Sanskrit Literature. Out of his compositions, five works are lexical. The first lexical work is A Practical English-Sanskrit Dictionary of which three volumes are found. First volume is titled as A Practical English-Sanskrit Dictionary. Borooah named the second volume as Higher Sanskrit grammar which is published separately by him. The third volume titled as On the Ancient Geography of India: Geographical Names Rendered in Sanskrit. Later on it is reissued by the Publication Board, Assam as an independent book under the title Ancient Geography of India. In this book, Anundoram Borooah gives an exhaustive geographical idea of ancient India. He discusses the origin of the word India, derivations and divisions of it. This genius scholar presents a vast description of the places of ancient India in the light of historical and geographical significance. In the delineation of the origins of places names, mountains names, rivers names etc. Anundoram Borooah has given many references from Purāṇas. He uses most of places, rivers, mountains found in the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Matsyapurāṇa and Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa. For example, Borooah refers the names of seven principal mountains as found in the Viṣṇupurāṇa, Matsyapurāṇa and Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa. Again some rivers and their places are also mentioned by Anundoram Borooah with paurāṇic references. So his Ancient Geography of India is an