Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c11.25

c11.25

The Liṅga account is based on the ‘Vāyu version’, but adapts it to frame its own text. Often it has the same verses, but often also it modifies, curtails, and freely omits, especially incidental and descriptive matter; and it adds occasionally.¹ It also interpolates religious teaching, as where it introduces a long eulogy of Rudra (i, 65, 46 f.). It however shows traces of the influence of the Matsya version; thus it has the same verses sometimes,² and ends the Aikṣvāku genealogy with six kings instead of the Vāyu’s twenty-one, just as the Matsya does. The Liṅga is useful for collating with the ‘Vāyu version’ when the verses agree, and for comparison where they vary; thus, it suggests (i, 65, 42-3) that the Vāyu’s misplaced lines (88, 79b, c) about the Viṣṇuvṛddhas³ should probably come after verse 74.