Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c18.84

c18.84

According to the brahman vaṃśas there were two Āṅgirasa rishis, Ucathya and Uśija,⁶ and that the names are distinct is proved by the fact that Aucathya ⁷ occurs in Rigveda i, 158, 1, 4, and Auśija in i, 18, 1 and x, 99, 11. The former means Dīrghatamas by implication and he is so called in the Anukramaṇī as author of hymns i, 140-64. He is made son of Ucathya in the foregoing story by the Mahābhārata, Bṛhaddevatā and Vedārthadīpikā, but son of Uśija in the Purana version and called Auśija in the vamśas.¹ Presumably therefore both Ucathya and Uśija were his ancestors, and this is further corroborated. Auśija in the first passage above is Kakṣīvant, and in the second Ṛjiśvan. Kakṣīvant is called ‘born of Uśij’ by the Anukramaṇī and Vedārthadīpikā on Rigveda i, 116, and therefore Auśija ² in the latter, relying on the words Kakṣīvantam ya Auśijaḥ in i, 18, 1. This would be a metronymic, if the śūdra woman whom Dīrghatamas married was named Uśij.³ This may be true, yet seems rather to be a guess to explain the appellation, for it is unnecessary inasmuch as Kakṣīvant, being Dīrghatamas’s son, had the patronymic Auśija.⁴ Moreover, that derivation is not really a satisfactory explanation, for Ṛjiśvan was also Auśija as mentioned above, and it cannot hold good for him, because (1) he is called Vaidathina, ‘son (or descendant) of Vidathin’, in Rigveda iv. 16, 13, and Vidathin was the name of a Bharadvāja,⁵ and (2) it is said he was son of ‘Bharadvāja’.⁶ Thus Ṛjiśvan was descended from Vidathin Bharadvāja,⁷ and not from Dīrghatamas and that śūdra woman, and his appellation Auśija cannot be a metronymic, but is really a patronymic. It proves that his father or ancestor Vidathin Bharadvāja was descended from Uśija, and that there was an ancestor Uśija. ‘Uśij’ seems to have been invented to explain Auśija ⁸ through the lack of the historical sense. Uśija then was ancestor of both Dīrghatamas and Bharadvāja, and Dīrghatamas’s father was Ucathya. Uśija therefore must have been ancestor of their fathers,⁹ Ucathya and Bṛhaspati, who were thus not sons but descendants of Aṅgiras.¹ Ucathya and Bṛhaspati may have been brothers as stated above and Saṃvarta may have been their youngest brother;² and Uśija may well have been their father.³ The Puranas in the above story seem to have confused Uśija with his son or descendant Ucathya.