Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c25.2

c25.2

The mythical rishi Atri has been noticed above (chapter XVI), and the name is also loosely applied to various Ātreyas, as will be noticed. The genealogy of the Ātreyas is given in Brahmāṇḍa iii, 8, 73-86, Vāyu 70, 67-78 and Liṅga i, 63, 68-78; and also partially in connexion with the Paurava dynasty in Brahma 13, 5-14 and Harivaṃśa 31, 1658, 1661-8. All these passages are closely alike and collated suggest the original text. The Matsya (197) gives a list of Ātreya rishis and gotras. The genealogy is very brief in its range,² confuses Prabhākara with the primaeval mythical Atri in making him father of Soma, and explains the names Prabhākara and Svastyātreya by a brahmanical fable evidently fabricated out of them. So far as it is genealogical it agrees with tradition elsewhere.