Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c30.4

c30.4

Tradition thus alleged that at the earliest time all the kings and chiefs throughout India, with two exceptions, belonged to one common stock descended from Manu; and it says so doubly, because it declares, first, with regard to his sons that he divided the earth (that is, India) among them, and secondly, with regard to the offspring of his son Ikṣvāku that they were kings throughout the whole of India¹ according to both the versions given (p. 257). It also says that of that common stock four kingdoms were pre-eminent, namely, the Aikṣvākus at Ayodhyā, the Janakas in Videha, another (afterwards called the Vaiśālakas) in the country immediately north of Patna, and the Śāryātas at Kuśasthalī in Ānarta; with apparently three less prominent, the Kārūṣas in the country around Rewa, a kingdom at Māhiṣmatī on the R. Narbada, and another on the R. Payoṣṇī (p. 257, note ⁶); with perhaps an eighth, the Dhārṣṭakas in the Panjab (p. 256), and possibly a ninth, Nābhāga’s line, on the Jumna (p. 256). Those two exceptions were first, Purūravas Aila at Pratiṣṭhāna, and secondly, the Saudyumnas, who occupied the town Gayā, the country eastward of a line drawn roughly from Gayā to Cuttack, and the region north of the Ganges eastward of Videha and the Vaiśālaka kingdom.