Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c23.2

c23.2

THE Vasiṣṭha family was connected with the kings of Ayodhyā from the earliest times and the Vasiṣṭhas were their hereditary priests.⁶ Thus a Vasiṣṭha is mentioned in connexion with Ikṣvāku and his son Vikukṣi-Śaśada,⁷ and with Ikṣvāku’s son Nimi the first king of Videha; but these particular allusions may be mythical and the fable about Nimi and Vasiṣṭha will be noticed infra. Many Vasiṣṭhas can be distinguished in tradition, but they have been sadly confused in brahmanic stories through the habit of referring to them only by their gotra name Vasiṣṭha. It is rare to find any Vasiṣṭha mentioned by his personal name until we reach Śakti, and the confusion may be illustrated in two ways. First, the epithet of the primaeval mythical Vasiṣṭha, ‘Brahmā’s son’, is applied to the fifth¹ of the Vasiṣṭhas distinguished here, and also to the fourth and seventh confused;² and similarly Arundhatī³ is the name of the wife of the mythical Vasiṣṭha and also of the fourth Vasiṣṭha,⁴ of the fifth,⁵ and of the seventh.⁶ Secondly the confusion went so far that it was declared that one Vasiṣṭha had been priest to many generations of Aikṣvākus,⁷ and finally that there was only one great Vasiṣṭha who had lived through all the ages.⁸