Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c29.300

c29.300

Dhṛtarāṣṭra after some years longer retired to the forest² and was consumed in a conflagration.³ The accounts of what happened subsequently, so far as tradition discloses events, are chiefly in the early and closing chapters of the Mahābhārata⁴ and the prophetic sketches of ‘future kings’ in the Puranas.⁵ Some years after the battle⁶ the Yādavas of Gujarat were ruined by fratricidal strife and Kṛṣṇa died. Under Arjuna’s leadership they abandoned Dvārakā (on which the sea encroached) and Gujarat and retreated northwards, but were attacked and broken up by the rude Ābhīras of Rajputana. Arjuna established Hārdikya’s son at Mārttikāvata, Yuyudhāna’s grandson on the R. Sarasvatī, and bringing the bulk of the people to Indraprastha (Delhi) placed Vajra, the surviving Vṛṣṇi prince, as king over them.⁷ Yudhiṣṭhira and his brothers then abdicated and placed Arjuna’s grandson Parikṣit II on the throne.⁸