The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c24.36

v1.c24.36

Fragments of historical fact may no doubt be found embedded even in the earliest lists; but these fragments have been carried down the stream of time and deposited far away from their original home. Thus, for instance, Purukutsa and his son Trasadasyu, who in the Rigveda are Pūrus living on the Sarasvatī, appear in the Purāṇas among the Solar kings of Kosala; Vadhryaçva, Divodāsa, Pijavana, and Sudās, who form a direct line in the succession of Bharata princes ruling in the country between the Sarasvatī and Dṛishadvatī, appear in this order, but with intervening reigns, among the kings of N. Pañchāla¹. It is probable that these apparently conflicting statements are not really contradictory: the chain of evidence which might bring the tradition of the Purāṇas into substantial agreement with the Rigveda has been broken.