Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c23.89

c23.89

Secondly, the Anukramaṇī, in its mention of Parāśara as part author of hymn ix, 97, seems conscious of a difference. It says that ‘Vasiṣṭha’ saw the first three verses, that the nine ‘Vasiṣṭhas’, Indrapramati, Vṛṣagaṇa, Manyu, Upamanyu, Vyāghrapad, Śakti, Karṇaśrut, Mṛlīka and Vasukra, each saw three more verses separately, and that Parāśara composed 14 and ‘Kutsa’ the rest. It thus knew that Śakti was a Vasiṣṭha, and also that he had a son Parāśara, for it attributes hymns i, 65 to 73 to Parāśara Śāktya, and so knew that Parāśara was a Vasiṣṭha. If then this Parāśara of ix, 97 was Śakti’s son, it might naturally have called him Vasiṣṭha or Śāktya, yet it does not do so and leaves his name without particularization. This suggests that there might be a Parāśara other than Śāktya.¹ The Vedārthadīpikā on the same hymn tends to confirm this doubt, for it specifies ‘Vasiṣṭha’ as Maitrāvaruṇi, calls the nine others ‘sons of Vasiṣṭha’, yet makes no reference to Parāśara, who as author of 14 verses was more important than any of them, thus suggesting that it was not clear who this Parāśara was. Those nine Vasiṣṭhas were not all sons of one Vasiṣṭha, for Upamanyu was Indrapramati’s grandson, as will appear, and the Vedārthadīpikā says they composed their verses all quite independently. The hymn therefore was not composed at one time, but grew in the course of time, so that Parāśara's later 14 verses may well have been added by a second Parāśara.