The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c30.52

v1.c30.52

With the assassination of the dissolute Devabhūti the line of the Çuṅgas comes to a close. Of the deed the Harshacharita gives a fuller account than the Purāṇas: 'In a frenzy of passion the over-libidinous Çuṅga was at the instance of his minister Vasudeva reft of his life by a daughter of Devabhūti's slave woman disguised as his queen' (Trans. Cowell and Thomas, p. 193). This minister was a Kaṇva Brāhman; and the Purāṇas, in their present form, make him the founder of a line of Kaṇva kings, who were themselves succeeded by the Andhras. But, as we have seen (pp. 317–8), this is history distorted. The Purāṇas have been edited, and, in the process, much of their value as records has been destroyed. Certain incidental statements, however, have escaped the editor; and these seem to show that the Kaṇvas and the Çuṅgas were contemporary. The Kaṇvas, who are expressly called 'ministers of the Çuṅgas,' are, in some versions, said to have become kings 'among the Çuṅgas'³; and, as has been observed already, the Andhras are credited with sweeping away not only the Kaṇvas, but also 'what was left of the Çuṅgas' power' (*ibid.*). With regard to the Andhras, the more certain evidence of inscriptions assigns them to a period which is in flagrant contradiction to the position which they occupy in the Purāṇas (p. 530).