Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c24.52

c24.52

Another Kakṣīvant was the author of Rigveda i, 116 and 117, where he calls himself Pajriya Kakṣīvant. These hymns and also 118 to 126 are attributed to Kakṣīvant Dairghatamasa Auśija, but this rishi cannot be the former Kakṣīvant (ante), because (1) Dīrghatamas and his son Kakṣīvant lived in the time of Duṣyanta and Bharata (p. 163), (2) this Pajriya Kakṣīvant speaks of Divodāsa⁴ (who appears to be the king of N. Pañcāla) but not of Pijavana nor Sudās, whence it seems he lived between them, (3) there was a long interval of many kings between Bharata and his descendant Divodāsa (p. 146), and (4) the description and treatment of this young rishi in the story of him and king Svanaya Bhāvayavya⁵ does not accord with the base birth of the earlier Kakṣīvant. The two Kakṣīvants therefore were different persons. This rishi belonged to the family of the Pajras,⁶ of whom there is no mention before Dīrghatamas. Moreover, it will be shown in the following section that the Kaṇvas did not come into existence till after Ajamīḍha, so that the reference in hymn 117, 8 to Kaṇva and that in i, 18 (attributed to Medhātithi Kāṇva) to ‘Kakṣīvant who is Auśija’ as a contemporary, both show that Pajriya Kakṣīvant could not be the earlier Kakṣīvant, but was a later descendant, for Pajra was an Auśija.⁷ Thus there were two Kakṣīvants, both Auśijas, the first son of Dīrghatamas in Bharata’s time and the second son (or descendant) of Pajra (and also probably a descendant of Dīrghatamas) soon after Divodāsa. The Anukramaṇī and Vedārthadīpikā have confused them. This fixes the time of king Svanaya as between Divodāsa and Sudās.⁸