Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c10.43

c10.43

The other was Vyāsa's son,¹ far later. It will be shown in chapter XIII that Brahmadatta was a contemporary of the Kaurava king Pratīpa, and that his great great grandson Janamejaya was a contemporary of Pratīpa's great grandson Bhīṣma and of Pṛṣata (Drupada's father). Bhīṣma was of about the same age as Satyavatī, the maiden-mother of Vyāsa,² for he was a youth when his father Śantanu married young Satyavatī;³ hence Vyāsa was younger than Bhīṣma, and his son Śuka was therefore at least a generation later. From Brahmadatta's grandfather Śuka down to Vyāsa's son Śuka there were therefore some six generations. The kṣatriya genealogies and traditions keep the two Śukas distinct, but the brahmanical vaṃśas in their attempt to construct Vyāsa's family identify the two, give Vyāsa's son Śuka a daughter Kīrtimatī, say she was Aṇuha's queen and Brahmadatta's mother, and so make Brahmadatta great grandson of Vyāsa,⁴ thus misplacing Aṇuha and Brahmadatta from their true position to one some six generations later. Kṣatriya tradition is right, and the brahmanical lack of the historical sense produces the absurdity that Aṇuha or Brahmadatta would have been king of south Pañcāla at the time of the Bhārata battle when, as the Mahābhārata shows, Drupada was reigning there.