48 LONGITUDE-CORRECTION Misitapuri and Taparni, too, remain unidentified. Sankaranārāyaṇa in his commentary on the Laghu-Bhaskariya¹ pronounces Misitapura as Nisitapura, so it is difficult to say which pronunciation is correct. The Sitavara mountain ("the excellent white mountain") is the Śvetasaila of Lalla, the Sitadri of Sripati, and the Sitaparvata of Bhaskara II. According to śripati, it is the seat of the six-faced god Svämikärtikey a. It can therefore be identified with Krauñca-giri or Kumāra-parvata, situated at a distance of 3 yojanas from Śrisaila.² Vätsy agulma is the town of Vatsarāja Udayana, usually called Vatsapattana. It has been identified with Kauśämbi (modern Kosam) situated on the river Jumna at a distance of about 38 miles from Allahabad. Vananagari³ is probably Tumba-vana-nagara (modern Tumain) in Madhya Bharata. Avanti is modern Ujjain. Sthäneśa is Sthaneśvara, a place in Kurukṣetra. Meru is the north pole. From the above identification we find that the places ment oned in the text do not lie precisely on one meridian. The places mentioned by other astronomers also do not satisfy this requirement. It has not been possible to give any satisfactory explanation to this discrepancy. Probably the geographical knowledge of ancient Hindu writers was not sound in respect of places other than their own. We give below the lists of places lying on the Hindu prime meridian according to other Hindu astronomers which will be useful for comparison and reference. (i) Lalla's list. Lankā, Kumāri, Kāñci(varam), Pārṇāṭā, Kṛṣṇā (the river), Svetaśaila ("the white mountain"), Vätsyagulma, Ujjayini, Gargarāt, Aśraya (? Aśrama), Mālavanagara, Cãyuśiva (?), Rohitaka (Rohtak), Kuruksetra (the battle field of the Bharata War), Himavân (the Himalayas), and Meru. ¹ i. 23. 2 See Kalyana, Tirthanka, pp. 310 and 330. 3 In case the correct reading is Varanagari, it may be identified with on KK, i. 13, Barnagar. 4 Mentioned in Āmarāja's comm.
