Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c17.12

c17.12

This practice, combined with the brahmans' lack of the historical sense, tended to blur historical differences and led to the confusion of persons having the same name or patronymic, so that, to cite the most striking instances, all the Vasiṣṭhas became jumbled into one Vasiṣṭha and all the Viśvāmitras into one Viśvāmitra. Hence the mention of a person by the simple name is no sure criterion that the original person of that name is intended, but often means a descendant. This must be especially observed when brahmans are mentioned only by their gotra names. Thus among the Bhārgavas Uśanas-Śukra,¹ Cyavana,² his descendant Ṛcīka,³ his grandson Rāma Jāmadagnya,⁴ and another late ṛṣi⁵ are all called Bhṛgu simply. The only safe way of distinguishing brahmans in references of an historical kind is to discriminate them according to the kings with whom they were associated, for the royal genealogies afford the only chronological criteria. Otherwise the confusion is inextricable, as may be seen in the perplexities attending the Vasiṣṭhas, Bharadvājas, Viśvāmitras, &c., in the *Vedic Index*.