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Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c14.s1: The Kānyakubja Dynasty

Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c14.s1

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The Kānyakubja Dynasty

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Two origins are alleged for the Kānyakubja dynasty. It was descended from Purūravas' son Amāvasu according to seven Puranas,¹ which give the first kings as Amāvasu, Bhīma, Kāñcanaprabha, Suhotra and Jahnu. The genealogy is also given by the Rāmāyaṇa, Agni and twice by the Mahābhārata.² The first Mahābhārata account and that in the Rāmāyaṇa leave the origin untouched, but the second account and the Agni derive Jahnu from the Paurava line, making him son of Ajamīḍha; and the Brahma and Harivaṃśa³ inconsistently give both versions. From Jahnu to Kuśa all the lists agree,⁴ there is variation as regards Kuśa's sons, and from Gādhi to Viśvāmitra and the end all agree generally.

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¹ Bd iii, 66, 22-68, 75: Vā 91, 51-96, 103: Br 10, 13-60, 68: and Hv 27, 1413-31, 1457, 1473: which all agree. Viṣ iv, 7, 2-17, Gar i, 139, 2-7 and Bhāg ix, 15, 3 to 16, 36 (which calls Amāvasu Vijaya) concur with them.

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² Rām i, 32, 1 to 34, 6. Ag 277, 16-18. MBh xii, 49, 1717-20, 1745; and xiii, 4, 201-5, 246 (with i, 94, 3722-3).

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³ Second version, Br 13, 82-92; Hv 32, 1756-76.

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⁴ Vedārth, introduction to Rigv iii, says Kuśika's father (Gāthin's grandfather) was Iṣīratha; this name does not occur in the genealogies. There is room for its insertion, see Table of genealogies, chap. XII.

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The derivation from Ajamīḍha is certainly wrong. He was the seventh successor of Bharata. Viśvāmitra was the descendant of Jahnu by some eight steps, and must, if Jahnu was son of Ajamīḍha, have been some fifteen generations below Bharata; but it is well known that Bharata was son of king Duṣyanta and Śakuntalā⁵ who was daughter of Viśvāmitra;⁶ so that Viśvāmitra was an ancestor of Bharata. Viśvāmitra cannot have been both an ancestor and a descendant of Bharata. The story of Śakuntalā is one of the best alleged tales in ancient tradition, so that Viśvāmitra was certainly prior to Bharata and therefore to Ajamīḍha, and the versions which make his ancestor Jahnu son of Ajamīḍha are certainly wrong. Moreover it will be seen from the discussion of Jahnu, Viśvāmitra and their contemporaries in chapter XIII, that they belonged to the age of the early Aikṣvāku, Haihaya and Paurava kings, long anterior to Bharata and Ajamīḍha. The error appears also from the condition, that it makes this kingdom arise at the same time as N. and S. Pañcāla, though they comprised all its territory.

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⁵ MBh i, 2, 371; 74, 2988, 3103-6; 95, 3782: vii, 68, 2387: xii, 29, 938: xiv, 3, 50: and Paurava genealogies.

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⁶ MBh i, 72 (in fabulous form), 2945; 95, 3782.

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The error probably arose out of Rigveda iii, 53, 12, which, referring to king Sudās, says ‘this prayer of Viśvāmitra safeguards the Bhārata folk’; and Aitareya Brāhmaṇa vii, 3, 5 and Śaṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra xv, 25, where Viśvāmitra is called Bharata-ṛṣabha, ‘leader of the Bharatas’. Sudās, or Sudāsa as he is called in the genealogy, was a king of the North Pañcāla dynasty, which was descended from Ajamīḍha and Bharata.¹ He and his dynasty were therefore Bharatas or Bhāratas, for the name Pañcāla (p. 75) had not come into approved use then.² One of Viśvāmitra’s descendants, called by his gotra name merely Viśvāmitra, was his priest, as the hymn shows, and therefore the religious guardian and leader of these Bharatas or Bhāratas. Afterwards misunderstanding began. That Viśvāmitra might, not inappropriately, be styled a Bharata-ṛṣabha, the term used in the Brāhmaṇa and Sūtra. These books however, through the brahmanical lack of the historical sense, confused him with his ancestor, the first Viśvāmitra, and applied this term to the first Viśvāmitra. It thus became wholly erroneous as mentioned above, and the Bharatas did not come into existence till after his time. Further, this term might be taken to imply that he was himself a Bhārata, and, as the brahmans were not learned in kṣatriya genealogies, or perhaps considered the above allusions as authoritative, it was so understood, with the result that Viśvāmitra was held to be a descendant of Bharata.³ Consequently it was necessary to introduce him and his well-known ancestor Jahnu into the Paurava genealogy somewhere after Bharata; and, as Ajamīḍha had three sons who ruled the separate kingdoms of Hastināpura and North and South Pañcāla, it was easy to assign Jahnu of the Kānyakubja kingdom¹ as another son to him, especially as Jahnu and Ajamīḍha had near ancestors named Suhotra. Connected with this mistake is the alteration which the Brahma and Harivaṃśa make in the ancestral name Paurorava (i.e. Paurūrava) applied rightly to Viśvāmitra in the Vāyu, namely, changing it to Paurava.²

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¹ See Table of Royal Genealogies, chap. XII.

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² JRAS, 1914, p. 284 : 1918, pp. 238-9.

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³ So Sāyaṇa on Rigv iii, 53, 24.

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¹ Oblivious of territorial confusion, as mentioned above.

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² He was a descendant of Purūravas but not of Pūru, Vā 91, 102. Br 10, 63 and Hv 27, 1468; 32, 1773 wrongly; and Bḍ substitutes yogeśvara (iii, 66, 74).

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