THE SEVEN KESHV,\RS OF THE EARTH

By
Prof. Lars-bar Ringbom.

Prof. Lars-lvar Ringbom was born in 1901 in Abo. He studied

history of Art under J. J. Tikkanen, Helsingfors, and Josef Strzygowski,
Vienna. He is author of works on European archaeology and art, and
from 1950 also he has published his books on the art and civilization of
Iran. He is a member of Societas Scientiarum Fennica (Helsingfors),
foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and
Antiquities (Stockholm), Honorary Fellow of The Asia Institute
(New York). His publications include :
Graltempel und Paradies, Beziehungen zwischen Iran und Europa
im ~ittelalter. Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letter;;,
History and Antiquities, Vol. 73. Stockholm 1951 (in German}.
Paradisus terrestris. Myt. bild och verklighet. Acta Societatis
Scientiarum Fennicae, Vol. C, 1. Helsingfors 19511, lin Swedish with
English Summary).
" Zur lkonographie der Gottin Ardvi Sura Anahita " in: Acta
" 1957 (in German).
Academiae Aboensis, Abo
" Die Burg der Magier " in : Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichtc Asiens
(In memoriam Ernst Diez), Istanbul 1963 (in German)
"Three Sasanian bronze salvers with 'paridacza' motifs" in :
Proceedi~gs of Fourth lnternation,al Congress for Iranian Art and
Archaeology, New York 1960.

According to Iranian cosmography the earth is divided

into seven regions.

Bwidahishn XI, 3 informs us that the name 'keshvar' is

applied to them, and that they exist side by side, a large one in the
middle and six smaller ones around it. On the east side is the
keshvar Savahi, on the west Arezahi; on the south side are the
keshvars Fradadhafshu and Vidadhafshu, and on the north
Vourubareshti and Vourujareshti. The keshvar in the middle is
Xvaniratha, 'the radiating wheel', superior to all regions of the
earth.

Various interpretations of this cosmological scheme have

been proposed. When in 1868 F. Justi published the Bundahislrn
10 SIR J. J. ZARTHOSHTI MADRESSA CE?-.TENARY \'OLlJME

he appended a sch~matic figure. in which the keshvars were

drawn as circular isles in the Ocean, six smaller around a larger'.
The scheme is reminiscent of the Indi;\p conception of the seven
'dvipas' which appear in the ,PuranasJ Later Germa'i1 scholars
(G. Hiising, W. Schultz ~nd F. W. Konig) have traced c.tn alleged
older division into nine regions behind the division into· seven
parts, and tried to reconstruct . a nine-keshvar scheme on this
somewhat uncertain basis. 2 In 1938 the Swedish scholar H. S.
Nyberg contented himself with cautiously giving a typographical
arrangement of the seven names of the keshvars summarily placed
at the different cardinal points. 3

Starting from another passage of the Bundald.~71 n, the end of

chapter five, I attempted to give a more precise definition of the
seven-keshvar earth in publications from the years 1951 and
1958. 4 My solution has in its main features been accepted by
Henry Corbin in a recent work/ the French scholar, however,
fits it into a predominantly mythi~al context, whereas I should
prefer to emphasize its geographical significance. It is this aspect
that I shall dwell upon here.
The text of Bunda}iislin V, 8 gives ·a kind of astronomical
computation of the seven regions. The boundaries between the
keshvars around Xvaniratha are defined by those four points (of
the horizon) where the sun rises and sets on the summer solstice
l· F. Juati, Der B1rndeliesh zum ereten Male herausgegeben ...... Leirzig 1868.
p, 21',

2. See Ernst Oie1, "Die Siegeatiirme in Ghazna als Weltbilder", Ku~st des Orients
I ( 1950 ), p, 42.

S. H. 8, Nyberg, Die Religlonen des alt_en Ira11s, Leipzig 1988, p. 400.

4. Le.ra-Ivar Ringbom, Graltem;;el u11d Parodies, Eezielw11gen ~wiscl,en lr, n
und Europa im Mttlelaller ( IL Vitterhets Ristorie o, Ant ikvitet• A kad., Har di. Ed. 78 ),
Stockholm 1951. pp 280 seg, a~d idem, Parndisus Terrestris, M1.t, bild och 1:eddighet
( Act" Societatia Socientiarum Fennicae, No\'a f"eries (J, '.l'om I), Helsingforo 1958 I in
I
Swddiah with an English summary), pp, 292 seq.
5. Henry Corbin, 'l'erre c1leste et cc,rp de r~s11rrectio11 cie l'lnn Ma,a{en Ii
l 'lran Shf'ile, Paria 1961 ( 1960) pp. 40 seq.
 1

-£·· ------ ··-----

Fig. 1. The seven-keshvar-earth according to Bundahishn, eh. v. 8.

 THE SEVEN KESHVARS OF THE EARTH 11

(June 22) and winter solstice I December 22). The passage runs
as follows:

"From the point where the sun rises on the longest day
to the point where it rises on the shortest day is the east
keshvar Savahi.

From the point where it rises on the shortest day to the

point where it sets on the shortest day is the direction of the
south keshvars Fradadhafshu and Vidadhafshu.

, From the point where it sets on the shortest day to the

point where it sets on the longest day is the west keshvar
Arezahi.

From the point where it sets on the longest day to

the point where it rises on the longest day is the direction
of the north keshvars Vourubareshti and Vourujareshti'' 1•

This description gives the precise disposition of the keshvar

earth. The central circle Xvaniratha is surrounded by an outer
circle, whose periphery corresponds to the horizon. On this
outer circle the solstitial rising and setting points form four (and
finally six) boundary points for the regions of the earth; the
boundary lines between the regions become radii and the regions
themselves attain the form of circle segments. The whole seven-
keshvar earth thus forms, as it were, an enormous wheel with six
spokes and a nave, which in itself is a wheel Xvaniratha, 'the
radiating wheel'. See Fig. 1.

1. Ea1enti~Jly quoted after the text edited by H. S. Nyberg, ' 1 Texte zum
malldayasnischen Kalender'', Uppsala Uni11ersitets ArsskriJt, 1954, 2, p. 25 and the
tranl!ation by E. W. West in Pahla11i. Texts, Part I ( SBE, Vo!, 5 ), Oxford 1888. As
pointed out by Nyberg ( p. 65) the name of the eant and the west keshvar ~omebimes change
places in the text,.
0
In the Avesta Arezahi ia to the wea~ ( Ya~ht 10, 67 ), although the
name• usually are enumerated without regards to place ( e.g. Yaaht 10, 15 and 12, 9 ), In
tha Pahlavi commentary to Vide11dat 19, I!, just aa in the B1111da1ifshn, the cardinal point.
are connected with the aoleticea ( see Pahlai;i Vendidad, ed. B. T. Ankleearia, Bcmlay 1949).
12 SIR J. J. ZARTHOSHTI MADRESSA CENTENARY VOLUME

The wheel with six spokes is well known both as a cosmogram

and a symbol. Suffice it to point to the Buddhist 'Bhavafakra'
the 'Wheel of Life and Death', o.r to certain types of the Monogram
of Christ. Btit more in1portant than the symbolism, are in this
context the geographical consequences.
Now, -of course, it is a fact that the sun at the~stices not
everywhere on earth rises and sets at the same points of the
h·orizon. The positions of these points depend on the latitude of
the place of observation. In my northern country, for instance,
the sun does not set at all on midsummer night, and on midwinter
day it scarcely rises above the horizon before setting again. In a
keshvar scheme based on observations in Finbnd the two northern
and the two southern regions could not thus be observed at all
according to Bundah·is~m's prescriptions.

In Iran, on the contrary, the scheme can make sense. Since

the six surrounding keshvars are conceived as equal in size, the
division is based on the observation that the point of sunrise on
June 2Z is situated. on such a distance from the point of sunrise
on December 22 that the interjacent portion forms exactly a sixth
of the entire horizon. It is, however, an astronomical fact that
this observation can be made and that this condition is satisfied
only on places of observa~ion situated on the latitude 36° 1 7' N'. 1
On this latitude, then, the observation point of the keshvar scheme
has to be situated, i.e. the same point which in the scheme forms
·the centre and there consequently represents the middle of the
circular disc of the earth. The nave of the Xvaniratha wheel is,
finally, an Iranian version of the ancient cartographers' medium
11wndi, the centre of the world.

In our figure we are thus entitled to draw the parallel 36°,7'

as a west-east central line dividing the whole earth into one
northern and one southern half. And we can note that this
1, I om indebte l to thl 1ntronomer, the late Dr. }I. 0. Grouet ra11d fer ki1.d
in'.ormation 011 thi• poin,. Cf. Ringbom, Gralte111ptl etc. p. 2S2.
 t
[ SOUTH]

Fig. 2. Medium mundi. Cosmogram in a 9th century lsidoros manuscript

in the Abbey Library, St. Gallen
 THE SEVEN KESHVARS OF THE EARTH 13

latitude actually cross~s Iran, from Media in the west to Bactria

in the east.
This geographical fixation of the seven-keshvar earth is not
so speculative or so rationalistic as it may seem at first sight; it
can, as a matter of fact, be clearly documented in the history of
cosmography. The same schematic figure that can be recon-
structed on the basis of the Bnndalti.~lrn text is namely to be found
in European cosmographies from the early Middle Ages, and
the same west-east parallel which forms the astronomic and
geographic premise of the keshvar division proves to be the most
important of all latitudes in the geography of the ancient Greeks.
In the Etymologiae by the Spanish bishop Isidoros of Seville
we find a wheel-shaped figure purporting to show how the
mediurn mund,: is to pe fixed through the observation of the points
of the horizon at which the sun rises and sets in midsummer and
midwinter. Ji'ig. 2 renders the cosmogram according to a ninth
century Isidoros manuscript in the Abbey Library, St. Gallen
( Cod. 237, p. 63 ). 1
Isidoros, who ?ied A. D. 636, expressly accepts the concep-
bon of the earthas ~ wheel (Etym. XIV, 2). His figure illustrates
the chapter "On the Orbit of Sun'' (Etyrn. III, 52) and is ·orienta-
ted with south upwards. The spokes above and to the lower left
signify the sunrise' in nativitate Domini (December 24) and in
nativitat~ Joannis (June 24), the spokes to the right, again, the
sunset on these same days. The both vertical spokes denote the
place of the sun at midday and midnight. But in addition to
these six radii two horizontal lines are drawn from the central
circle across the outer circle; these lines signify sunrise and
sunset at the vernal and autumn equinox (March 21 and
September 23 ), but since the circle here, too, is divided into six
equal parts, they also define the important latitude 36°, 7'.
1. The eame diagram ie alee found in a Calendar Ly the VenernLJe Bede, written
A. D. 809. fee IC '!llil!er, Mappae Mu11di Die altesleu TI'ctt,..arte11, Ed. VI. Stutt1,art
lS!lB, p 52.
14 SIR J. J ZARTHOSH I I MADHESSA CENTENARY VOLUMI~

This ''main parallel'' was regarded by the ancient geo-

graphers as the borderline between the northern and the southern
part of the inhabited earth, it was the di(l,iJ11rag11rn of the of'c11,n,en1.
According to Strabo (II. 1, 1) Eratosthenes (200 B. C.) had already
found that the latitude of the line was 36?. 5'. Strabo gave it as
36°, 3', while Pliny calculated it to 37° 1• The parallel was thought
as running from the vicinity of Gibraltar eastw .uds through the
straits of Sicily to the isle of Rhodos in the Greek Archipelago
reaching the Asian continent near Antioch. In Asia the line
continues with the Taurus mountains, running along these as far
as to India, for according to the geographers of that time 'Taurus'
divides the Eastern World into a northern and a southern part
in the same way as the Mediterranean divides the West. Strabo
(II, 5, 14), moreover, points out that along the entire length of
this line from Gibraltar to India, it l.'.an be observed that the longest
day (June 22) and the longest night (December 22) are of exactly
equal length on all points of the line. Even the sundials and the
winds agree on these places. 2

Observations made on places situated on the main paraliel

of ancient geography must form the foundation both for Isidoros'
diagram of the rota mundi and for the seven-keshvar wheel of the
Iranian cosmography. But whereas the Spanish encyclopaedist
calls the seventh, central part of the wheel m1dimn mund-i.
the Iranian cosmographers - as well as the Avestan texts - give
the seventh region the name Xvaniratha, 'the radiating wheel'.

There is in the Bitndaltishn (chap. 29, 3 according to West;

chap. 30 according to Justi) an obscure passage to the effect that
the central Xvaniratha in its turn is divided into seven parts, some
kind of provinces. According to Justi's translation the division .is
of the same kind as the division into keshvars. This is probably
· 1. Cf, Miller, op. clt., pp. 118, 15\1 and 145,
~- W. A. Heidel, The Frame of tlie A11cient Greek Maps, American Ge0grarh,
Soc., He,carch Series, no. 20, 1957, reconstru~te the oldest Greek, the Ao-called 'Ionian',
world map on this same basis.
 THE SEVEN KESHVA!~S OF THE EARTH 15

to be understood in such a manner that in the middle of the great

world wheel there is a smaller wheel with six provinces around a
seventh part in the centre. In any case one of these provinces is
given particular prominence, Eran Vej, in certain manuscripts
mentioned with the epithet 'chief and lord' 1• In Bu11dal1islm I,
26 it is expressly stated that "Eri'm Vej ris] in the ~icldle of the
earth"; Henry Corbin gives without hesitation this province the
dominating place in the middle of his reconstruction 2 •

The Eran Vej of the Pahlavi texts is the Airyanem Vaejah

of the Av:ista, thus nothing less than the incomparable, extolled
Paradise region of the Iranian world. Provided it was situated
in the middle of the world wheel, it stands out as the most
centrally situated province of the earth, a I ather extensive 1/ll'diwn
rn,mdi. If now its geographical positio11 is to be ascertained, the
search should tbus be made along the latitude 36°, 7'. For only
from a point of observation on that parallel the Iranian
cosmographers on June 22 and December 22 could, with their
own eyes, see the sun rise above the horizon and set below it in
the manner described in the Bw1daliish11.

Xvanitatha is generally regarded to have comprised, either

the entire inhabited earth, or only Iran with neighbouring districts,
while Era n Ve j at least since Parthian times was identified with
Azerbaijan, the mountain land in northwestern lran, the Media
Atropatene of the Romans. Its former capital Shiz was famous
as the main residence of the wise men of Media, the Magi,
further as the treasury for the holy texts of AMsta and as the site
of the royal fire Adhur Gushnasp. In other words a very holy
city, which in Sasanian times even became renowned as the birth
place of Zoroaster. The legendary obs_ervatory of the Magi can
also be thought to have been erected in this city situated high in
a mou.1tain district. Undoubtedly there are historical, geographical

L Weat, op. cit., p 116, note !.

2. Corbin, op . .cit., ,p. !ll,
16 SIR J. J. ZAHTHOSHTI MADRESSA CENTENAh Y VOLUME

and topographical grounds for believing that the remarkably

situated and built city may have been the place on the earth·
which was regarded as the centre of Xvaniratha and of Eran
Vej. 1 Shiz, the Takht-i-Sulayman of our day 2 , is in fact situated
near the latitude 36°1 7'.

But, it is true, on the same parallel. we also have, let us say,

Balkh (Bactra), another once splendid and holy city.

() ()

Abo Akada111i (Abo), 'llinlo.ud

1, Of, the works referred to above, p. 10 note 4. - lu Par(ldisiu Terre•·tris, pp 82!:i

aeq., I have connected the myth of good creation on the bauka of a river or a 1onrce in the
middle of the earth ( Bundahishn I, 25-27 ), aud the myth of the entrance of the evil·
spirit t.hrough a hole bored in the 111iddle of the earth ( 1bid1111, eh. IV', 5 a1 d ·rn) "it h
peculiar features in the topograi;hy of ::ihiz and ita viciuity ( 'l'akht-i-Sula~n,nn and
Zendau·i·Sula)·man ).

2. For the excavations being carried out by German archaeol giatl on this •ite 1ince
1959 1ee Takht-l.·811/e!niatt. Vorla11Jiger Bericht Fber die Awgrabungen 1959 ( Teheraner
Fou~hu 1gen brag. vom Dant1chen Arcba.olcgi.,chen ln•titut, Bd. 1, 1961 ). -"Takht i-Suleiman
und Zendan-i· luleiman '•, Au•grabu11g1berichte in Arel, aologischer Ameiger 1961 Sp. 28 - 67,
and 1962, Sp. 688-698. A four1h report i• to be found in Archaologisclzer Anuiger 1963,
which was not yet available to me at the time of writing.