Note 1098 — Chapter LV

The most accessible statement of the geographical fancies here referred to is in Vishnu Purâna, Book II, chap. IV. The Sea of Milk is the sixth of the seven concentric seas which surround Jambudvîpa and Mt. Meru. It divides the sixth of the concentric continents or Śâkadvîpa from the seventh or Pushkara-dvîpa. The inhabitants of Śâkadvîpa worship Vishnu as the Sun and have this much reality that at any rate, according to the Vishnu and Bhavishya Purânas, they are clearly Iranian Sun-worshippers whose priests are called Magas or Mṛigas. Pushkara-dvîpa is a terrestrial paradise: the inhabitants live a thousand years, are of the same nature as the gods and free from sorrow and sin. "The three Vedas, the Purânas, Ethics and Polity are unknown" among them and "there are no distinctions of caste or order: there are no fixed institutes." The turn of fancy which located this non-Brahmanic Utopia in the north seems akin to that which led the Greeks to talk of Hyperboreans. Fairly early in the history of India it must have been discovered that the western, southern, and eastern coasts were washed by the sea so that the earthly paradise was naturally placed in the north. Thus we hear of an abode of the blessed called the country of the holy Uttara Kurus or northern Kurus. Here nothing can be perceived with human senses (Mahâbh. Sabhâ, 1045), and it is mentioned in the same breath as Heaven and the city of Indra (ib. Anusâs. 2841).

It is not quite clear (neither is it of much moment), whether the Mahâbhârata intends by Śvetadvîpa one of these concentric world divisions or a separate island. The Kûrma and Padma Purânas also mention it as the shining abode of Vishnu and his saintly servants.