Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c10.134

c10.134

In the first group may be mentioned the story of the rishi Saubhari’s marrying the fifty daughters of Māndhātṛ, king of Ayodhyā,² that of Jamadagni’s death and Rāma’s killing the kṣatriyas off the earth twenty-one times,³ and the extraordinary tale of Gālava and Yayāti’s daughter,⁴ to which was fabricated a sequel about Yayāti and his daughter’s sons,⁵ which is wholly fabulous. Some of such tales appear to have been developed out of incidental statements. Thus the story of Saubhari seems to have grown out of the statement in Rigveda viii, 19, 36, that Trasadasyu Paurukutsya gave Sobhari fifty maidens. That king was different from Trasadasyu Paurukutsa, grandson of Māndhātṛ, the Kākutstha, king of Ayodhyā, as will be shown in chapter XI, but the two Trasadasyus were confused, so that the Bṛhaddevatā says the maidens were Kākutstha maidens and thus implies that the Trasadasyu of the hymn was the Ayodhyā king, and adds that Sobhari obtained magnificent boons from Indra. The Viṣṇu improved thereon by definitely making the maidens Māndhātṛ's daughters, by describing those boons as in real existence and by adding many fanciful incidents. The Bhāgavata copied from the Viṣṇu.