INDIA _Subdivisions_ More abundant and somewhat more accurate information was to be had regarding India. This name was applied loosely to cover all of Farther Asia: the anonymous report of the visit of the Patriarch John of India to Rome in 1122 calls India the ultimate border of the world. The Pseudo-Abdias[1272] had quoted “certain historiographers” as asserting that there are three Indias, the first facing Ethiopia, the second facing the country of the Medes, and the third occupying the end of the earth, with the realm of darkness on one side and the ocean on the other. The threefold division of India was found on many of the maps.[1273] It was adopted by Ordericus Vitalis in his _Historia ecclesiastica_.[1274] It undoubtedly inspired the declaration in the _Letter of Prester John_[1275] that that potentate rules over the “three Indias,” and probably with it in mind Gervase of Tilbury[1276] spoke of “India superior,” where St. Bartholomew, “India inferior,” where St. Thomas, and “India meridiana,” where St. Matthew preached. On the other hand, there is evidence of a twofold division of India in the _Elysaeus_[1277] account of Prester John’s kingdom. The broad and loose medieval usage of the term “India” is especially well shown in the _Image du monde_, where it comprises not only what we now know as Hindustan but also Persia.[1278] Limiting ourselves to the narrower definition of India, the tract between the Himalayas and the ocean, let us see what was believed to exist there. _Facts Known About India_