The Geography in Vedic Texts

Based on the geographical data in the Vedic literature, we can analyse about the Aryan expansion in India.

The country of Aryans

The Aryans used the term Sapta Saindhavas as the region where they settled down. They used this term in the context of country. The country of the Aryan was also designated as Aryavarta in the latter Scriptures. The Rig-Vedic Aryans had not yet established settlements in the southern India.

The Sapta Saindhavas country of the Rig Vedic period was bounded by the Himalayas and Tibet in the east, Turkistan in the north, Afghanistan, in the west and the Aravallis in the south. The Ganga and the mountains of the Vindhya were the barriers not easy to cross in those days.

The Rivers

When the early Rig Vedic hymns were written, the focus of Aryan culture was the region between the Yamuna and Sutudri (Sutluj), and along the upper course of the river Saraswati. The Saraswati river is now an insignificant stream, losing itself in the desert of Rajasthan, but then it flowed broad and strong. Out of thirty-one river mentioned in the Vedic texts, about twenty-five names occur in the hymns of the Rig-Veda alone. In the Nadistuti, the Rig-Veda enumerates several streams most of which belong to the Indus system.

The Mountains

The Rig Vedic people knew about the Himalayas but did not mention about the land south of the Yamuna, and they did not mentioned the Vindhyas Mountains or Satpura even. The other hills referred to are Arjika, Mujavant, Silament (Suleman range), etc., which were all ridges of the Himalayas.

The Seas

The reference of seas in the early rig Vedic text is doubtful. However, in the later-Vedic literature, Samudram actually means the sea. There are references to eastern and western oceans in the Satapatha Brahmana, which indicate acquaintance with the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea in the later Vedic era.

The Deserts

The Rig Vedic Aryans were not familiar with any kind of desert. However, an implied reference to Maru as the country of desert mounds near Kurukshetra has been traced in Taittiriya Aryanka.

Name of the Places, Cities and Towns

Vedic culture was essentially a rural culture, and cities had not emerged; no important place name is hence recorded. In the Rig-Veda it was because of the migratory nature of the tribes and in the later-Vedic period of the regions comes to be known by the names of the tribes who controlled them.