Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c30.6

c30.6

According to tradition then Purūravas Aila and his lineage at Pratiṣṭhāna formed one stock, the chieftains of Gayā and eastern India formed a second stock, and all the kings and chiefs of the rest of India belonged to a third stock with their principal dominion in Oudh and North Bihar. The first is the well-known Aila or Aida² race, often called the ‘Lunar race’ because myth derived it from Soma, ‘the moon’. The second may be distinguished as the Saudyumna race,³ as already mentioned (p. 255), but it never played any noteworthy part. The third has no definite common name in tradition, yet being derived from the sons of Manu, son of Vivasvant, ‘the sun,’ it might be designated the *Mānava* and ‘Solar’ race. The term *Mānava* is used sometimes to denote particularly Manu’s immediate descendants,¹ and so is applied in the myth to Sudyumna.² It is also extended to distant descendants more as a racial term than as a patronymic,³ and is used as a definite racial term in distinction from Aila.⁴ But *Mānava* commonly meant simply ‘man’, and became hardly characteristic. The title ‘Solar’ is generally restricted to the Ikṣvāku⁵ dynasty of Ayodhyā, and so cannot well be applied to the whole stock. A general term is however needed, and this stock may be described and distinguished by the name *Mānva*,⁶ which is equivalent to *Mānava*, but not being found in Sanskrit is a neutral term.