Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c16.20

c16.20

Sometimes the connecting link between variant names is found readily in the Prakrit form. Ancient names do occur in both Sanskrit and Prakrit shape, for the famous Kānyakubja king appears as Gāthi and Gāthin in the brahmanical literature¹ and as Gādhi in the Epics and Puranas. The examination of names in this light is an interesting study. The most cogent illustration of connexion through Prakrit is the name of the famous Paurava king, who is called Duṣyanta (with a common variation Duṣmanta)² in the Mahābhārata and Puranas, but Duṣṣanta and Duḥṣanta in brahmanic tradition because his son Bharata is styled Dauṣṣanti and Dauḥṣanti in the Aitareya and Śatapatha Brāhmaṇas respectively.³ These forms can be reconciled through a Prakrit form Duṣṣanta or Dussanta, of which they are different Sanskrit equivalents, the form Duṣyanta being probably right and the brahmanic one mistaken. Similarly we have Nabhāka in Vedic literature and Nabhāga in the Puranic genealogies; and the Bhārgava rishi Apnavāna’s name was ‘emended’ to Ātmavant (see chapter XVII). Other variant names which can be explained through Prakrit forms are the following in the Videha dynasty: Bṛhaduktha (Brahmāṇḍa and Viṣṇu) and Bṛhaduttha (Vāyu), which, by an easy misreading of *dra* for *du*, appears as Bṛhadratha in the Rāmāyaṇa: Śakuni (Vāyu and Brahmāṇḍa), through *Sakuni*, *sa Kuni*, appears as Kuni (Viṣṇu), and by an easy mistake of *l* for *n* as Kuli (Garuḍa): and Svāgata (Vāyu and Brahmāṇḍa) appears as Śāśvata in the Viṣṇu, where the two forms may perhaps be connected through a possible Prakrit form read as Sāgata or Sāśata (*g* and *ś* being mistaken).