Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c26.18

c26.18

An important Viśvāmitra was the rishi who was connected with Sudās (Sudāsa) king of N. Pañcāla (p. 148), and was a rival of the seventh Vasiṣṭha noticed in chapter XVIII. Both these rishis were priests to Sudās, as the Rigveda shows,⁶ and one appears to have ousted the other; and the point for consideration here is which was first Sudās's priest, and which afterwards. It is said that Vasiṣṭha consecrated Sudās as king,⁷ and this if accepted would settle the question. Tradition says that this Vasiṣṭha's son Śakti was killed by Sudās's servants through Viśvāmitra's instigation (p. 208); and there are two facts, first, that there is no hymn by any Vasiṣṭha in praise of Sudās's son Sahadeva or grandson Somaka; and secondly, hymn iii, 33, attributed to Viśvāmitra, describes the Bharatas as crossing the rivers Śutudrī (Sutlej) and Vipāś (Beas), and appears to refer to Sudās and his Bharatas, because no Viśvāmitra is said to have been priest to the other Bhārata line, the Pauravas of Hastinā- pura; that is, it appears to refer to Sudās’s campaign against Saṃvaraṇa westwards into the Panjab. These considerations corroborate the point that Sudās’s first priest was Vasiṣṭha, that Vasiṣṭha’s son Śakti was killed through Viśvāmitra’s instigation, and that ultimately Vasiṣṭha departed to Saṃvaraṇa and Viśvāmitra became Sudās’s priest.¹ Manu’s story (p. 209) may help to explain how Viśvāmitra ousted Vasiṣṭha.