Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c23.74

c23.74

Sudās’s Vasiṣṭha is not alluded to in Puranic tradition, but is mentioned in three stories in the epic, if he was the Vasiṣṭha who is connected with Saṃvaraṇa in them, namely, how Saṃvaraṇa was driven out of his kingdom of Hastināpura by a Pañcāla king (who was Sudās) and after obtaining ‘Vasiṣṭha’s’ aid recovered his kingdom;⁷ how afterwards ‘Vasiṣṭha’ obtained Tapaī as wife for Saṃvaraṇa; and how afterwards again ‘Vasiṣṭha’ governed the kingdom during twelve years of drought when Saṃvaraṇa was absent.⁸ No special epithet is applied to Vasiṣṭha in the latter two stories,⁹ but in the first he is called Suvarcas.¹⁰ This was a name, not uncommon,¹¹ hence it may reasonably be taken here also as a name, and Saṃvaraṇa’s Vasiṣṭha at that time may be distinguished as Vasiṣṭha Suvarcas. But Sudās’s Vasiṣṭha was an old man in Sudās’s reign, because his grandson Parāśara was old enough to take part in the hymn (vii, 18). He might be the Vasiṣṭha in the first story, but can hardly have been the Vasiṣṭha of the second and third stories.