Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c19.69

c19.69

Next may be noticed various data which do not yield synchronisms proper, yet help to indicate the position of kings and rishis. They consist generally of brief allusions. Not every such allusion is worthy of consideration, but where the same fact is referred to in various passages, the consensus becomes important. Some of them are marital notices and the Paurava genealogy in the Mahābhārata (i, 95, 3764 ff.) goes so far as to name the wife of every king in it, but it is not wholly trustworthy, as shown in chapter IX, and it is highly improbable that every queen’s name could be remembered. Caution must also be shown in dealing with personal names, especially of rishis, and patronymics, as pointed out above. Thus Duṣyanta the Paurava married Śakuntalā, daughter of Viśvāmitra, as abundant passages declare;⁴ but the position of the first and great Viśvāmitra has been defined above by copious tradition as earlier than Duṣyanta’s period; hence she was not his daughter, but the daughter of a Viśvāmitra who was one of his near descendants. The genealogies of Ayodhyā say Satyavrata Triśaṅku married a Kaikeya princess,⁵ and this statement may be accepted because his story has been handed down in a kṣatriya ballad (p. 59). Hence the Kaikeya dynasty had come into existence before his time; and therefore according to the genealogies all the other Panjab kingdoms also, the Śivis, Madras, Sauvīras, &c. (chapter IX). Hence it is possible that his son Hariścandra’s queen was a Śaivya princess, as the Mārkaṇḍeya says (7, 35; &c.), though its story is a fable. Jyāmagha the Yādava, who was later, married a Śaivya princess.⁶