Puranic literature marks the geographical existence of ‘India’ to the ‘south’ of Mt Meru, and it extends from there up to the ‘southern sea’.

Describing ancient India, the Markandeya purana says, ‘Dakhinaparato hasya purbena ca Mahaodahi, Himabanutarenasya karmukasya jatha gunah’.(on the south is Mt Meru, and on the east is the Sea….).

The Vayu purana says, ‘ UIttarem jasmamudrasya Himabadkhina ca jat, varsham tadvaram nama kshetrayam Bharati praja’(on the north is the Sea, and Mt Meru or the Himavata on the south, is the country whose people are called Bharati)

Rajsekhar describing the sphere of influence of a Cakravartin King says that it exists between the Kumaripura and Bindusagara.

Bharatavarsha is lying between the Himalaya and the Sea or as ‘bounded on the south, west, and the east by the sea, and in the north by the Himavant resembling the string of a bow’.

Sometimes it is referred to as the country extending from the Himalaya to Rama’s Bridge.

Asoka’s Minor Rock Edicts like the Kurma purana put the name of Jambudvipa to mark this ancient land. Chinese pilgrims’ accounts have taken this name to describe their visit to ancient India which is at the ‘centre of the earth’, same as Madhayabhubana, or Madhyapura or Madhyadesha.

Sometimes this country is said to have been lying between ‘four seas’ or ‘catuh samudra’. Skanda purana mentions a type of worship which goes by the name of ‘Catuh Samudra Puja’. This concept is also observed in the Vedic tradition which describes the four sides of the land as ‘antarikshas’, or the ‘sky’, connected with four seas. From this concept comes the idea of junction of seas.

According to Pali texts, ‘ In each Cakravala, between the Cakrabala-parbata and the outermost of the rocky-circles, which environ Meru, lies a vast ocean. In this ocean, are situated, equidistant from each other,  four Maha-dvipas, or the great islands. On the north is Uttara Kuru, on the south Jambudvipa, Purba Videha on the east, and on the west Aparagoyana.

In Kadambari of Bana, Kingdom’s boundary speaks of Gandhamardana on the north, Setubandha(Rama’s Bridge) on the south, Sun-Temple(or Sun-Rise Temple) on the east, and the Sun-Setting Temple on the west. Same description is observed in Harsa-carita also. But here, in case of Rama’ Bridge on the south, the writer puts Suvela( a hill in the Lanka) on its place.

Bana mentions a Satavahana King as ‘Lord of Three Seas’. The Calukyas of Badami also claims the same thing. The Malagundi inscription of Pancala similarly presents a three-seas geographical situation for its Kings, whose country is bounded by the eastern, western and the southern seas. The Periplus, the Bible, and the Quran also mention a place which they call as ‘junction of seas’. It identifies the place where the present Sun Temple of Konark now stands.