Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c23.85

c23.85

In these three rishis, ‘Vasiṣṭha,’ his son Śakti and his son Parāśara, occurs the first genuine pedigree⁵ in the genealogy (lines 1, 2), the first part of the first section. It goes on to say that Parāśara was father of Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana, that is, Vyāsa, by Kālī. Now Vyāsa was certainly son of a Parāśara and Kālī, as will be noticed, but he was born in king Śantanu’s reign and she became Santanu’s queen. There was a long interval with many kings between Sudās (Sudāsa) of N. Pañcāla and Śantanu (p. 148), and it is impossible that Śakti’s son Parāśara of Sudās’s time⁶ could have been Vyāsa’s father. Vyāsa then was son of a Parāśara but not of Parāśara Sāktya. Hence there must have been two Parāśaras. This is not improbable (p. 130), and certain particulars support this conclusion.