Ancient Indian Historical Tradition c7.37

c7.37

*Śruti* generally means ‘sacred text’ or ‘sacred tradition’, but in the Puranas very often means ordinary tradition and not sacred tradition, because the phrase *iti śrutiḥ* occurs too often to be a clerical mistake, and because matters on which it is cited do not appear to be mentioned or even alluded to in the Vedic literature. For instance, the Vāyu (88, 28) says, ‘Bṛhadaśva’s son was Kuvalāśva, such is the *śruti*’; and both the Brahma (8, 68) and Harivaṃśa (15, 802) say, one of king Sagara’s two wives brought forth a gourd (out of which developed 60,000 sons), such is the *śruti*: but these citations are wholly unknown to Vedic literature.⁴ Again the Matsya (47, 186) says that Devayānī was born from Kāvya, such is the *śruti*, and the Rāmāyaṇa says of king Asita of Ayodhyā (called Bāhu in the Puranas), ‘his two wives were with child, such is the *śruti*,’⁵ though Vedic literature knows nothing about either statement.