Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c10.146

c10.146

Kṣatriya stories were often tampered with to subserve brahmanical interests, and different stages of this can be detected. Preliminary tampering is found in the Vāyu version of the story of Satyavrata Triśaṅku;¹ further tampering in the Vāyu account of king Janamejaya III’s contest with the brahmans;² and still more in the story of king Mitrasaha Kalmāṣapāda, as the various versions show.³ Where different versions do not exist, we can yet perceive that there has been tampering, as in the story of Agastya and Lopāmudrā.⁴ The furthest development occurs where the brahmans took some incident in kṣatriya tradition and enlarged it, till their story loses all resemblance to a kṣatriya tale and becomes a brahmanical fable, as in the above story of Aurva.