Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c14.s2.19

c14.s2.19

The second part begins with Sātvata’s sons, Bhajamāna, Devāvṛdha, Andhaka and Vṛṣṇi,³ and comprises the various families that developed from them. It is given by the same twelve Puranas, but the accounts are not all clear, for several reasons. Some of the pedigrees have become confused in some Puranas through mistakes in names, partly at least due to misreadings of old scripts; as where the Brahmāṇḍa and Vāyu misread Andhakāt as Satyakāt in giving Andhaka’s descendants; and the Brahma and Harivaṃśa misread Vṛṣṇer as Kroṣṭor in giving Vṛṣṇi’s descendants, and then seemingly regard him as Yadu’s son Kroṣṭu, so mentioning some of the lines of descent twice. Moreover some passages seem to have become misarranged, and lines have sometimes been lost. Some uncertainty was caused by the fact that there were several persons with the same names in these families, and thus it seems that Vṛṣṇi’s eldest son by one wife was Sumitra known also as Anamitra, and his youngest son by another wife was Anamitra too; while Vṛṣṇi was a favourite name. The difficulties can only be cleared up by collating the various passages in those Puranas, which are based on the same original metrical text more or less accurately.¹ That being done, the results are shown in the pedigrees set out infra.