Uttara Kuru

[DEVARAKONDA VENKATA NARAYANA SARMA]

At 02:38 PM 1/9/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Dominique.Thillaud wrote:
>>
>> >Does anyone here have opinions on the location of Uttara Kuru?
>> >Please give your proposed boundaries and why you think that
>> >way.  I'm interested mainly in theories placing it somewhere near
>> >the subcontinent and not in Siberia, the North Pole or the Western
>> >hemisphere.
>>
>> The Uttarakurus are clearly a mythical people (long life,
>> happiness, &c.) and searching their exact location would be pointless,...
>
>This is not entirely true. In Greek and Latin sources Uttarakuru is
rendered Ottorokora (and
>variants). In the Geography of Ptolemy Ottorokora is a city, Ottorokoras
is a river and
>Ottorokorai a people, all of them situated in the southern part of Serike.
Serike, which is
>definitely not China as is often thought, included not only extensive
parts of Central Asia
>including Tibet, but very probably also Assam and adjacent areas.
>The Attacori of Pliny might also refer to the Uttarakuru people and are
explicitly identified
>by him with the Hyperboraeans. His description of their country as a
valley secluded by
>mountains and enjoying a beneficial climate (like the Hyperboreans) as
well as the rest of his
>geographical indications seem to me to point in the direction of Assam.
>
>
>Erik Seldeslachts
>Universiteit Gent
>Gent, Belgium
>
>

Here are the stanzas from MBh. describing Uttara kurus in the sabhA parvA.
There are some in bhISma parvA also where the longevity of the people there
is mentioned.

uttaraM kuruvarSantu sa samAsAdya pANDavaH
iyESa jEtuM taM dEzaM pAkazAsananandanaH.
tata EnaM mahAvIryaM mahAkAyA mahAbalAh
dvArapAlAh samAsAdya hRSTa vacanamabravIt.
pArtha nEdaM tvayA zakyaM puraM jEtuM kathaJcana
upAvartasva kalyaNa paryAptamidamacyuta.
idaM puraM yaH pravizEd dhruvaM na sa bhavEnnaraH
prIyAmahE tvayA vIra paryAptO vijayastava.

Though it starts with "uttaraM kuruvarSaM", in the last two slokAs the
reference is to a city. Perhaps the capital also is called Uttarakuru
puraM. This tallies with Ptolemy's description of Ottorokoro as city.

regards,

sarma.