The Geographical Information in the Skanda-Purana (Based on the Tirtha-Yatra Portion)

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The present work is a thesis approved for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by the University of Bihar, Muzaffarpur. It consists of nineteen chapters and five hundred and eleven pages. It also contains a one hundred thirty eight page index stating the places of pilgrimage of different parts of India as adumberated in the work. The author has with all plausibility pointed out that religion is co-extensive with human life, and the history of the one is but the history of the other. He has also shown that the history of the ancient and mediaeval India is mainly an account in the sphere of religion. This religion constitutes the bed-rock of unity among the different states of this peninsula. The thesis gives the reader an impression that secularism is and has always been foreign to the Indian mind and India minus religion is only an abstract (unreal) concept. This religion finds expression in the different sacred places strewn over the diverse parts of this country. These places of pilgrimage also act as a cohesive force, and different peoples of different states forget their paro- chialism and come to regard India as a unity in diversity (avibhaktam vibhaktesu) and the whole of this country as their motherland.

The following pages embody the results of my sedulous study extending over a period of nine years. It is an avowed fact that India is the land of Tirthas and Tirthankaras. The History of ancient and mediaeval India is nothing but an account of achievements and edifications in the sphere of religion and culture. The Indians are under the sway of their religious leaders in spite of the diversity in their walks of life. Religion is 80 deeply rooted in the mental make-up of the Indians that it has influenced to a large extent even political movements and revolutions. That what lacks association with religion has failed to appeal to the masses inhabiting the different parts of this vast tract of land..