The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c17.123

v1.c17.123

The Sṛiñjayas also stood in this period in close relationship to the Kurus, and like the Kurus the Sṛiñjayas seem to have suffered disaster at some period. The Vaitahavyas, the Atharvaveda relates, offended the priestly family of the Bhṛigus and came to ruin: this tradition is confirmed by the notices of disasters in the Kāṭhaka and Taittirīya Saṃhitās. Of their history we have one definite glimpse: they rose against their king, Dushṭarītu Pauṃsāyana, despite the ten generations of his royal descent, and expelled him with his Sthapati, ‘minister,’ Chākra Revottaras Pāṭava; but the latter afterwards succeeded in restoring his master to power, despite the opposition of Balhika Prātipīya, whose patronymic reminds us of the Pratīpa who was a descendant of the Kuru king Parikshit, showing that the Kuru princes were probably anxious enough to use domestic strife as a means of securing a hold over a neighbouring kingdom. Perhaps in the long run the ruin of the Vaitahavyas took the shape of absorption in the Kuru realm. On the other hand, the defeats of the Satvants on the south by the Kurus were doubtless nothing more than mere raids.