Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s2.39

c9.s2.39

In a recent work Dr. Keith shows scepticism about the historical value of these texts, and wonders at the "naïve credulity" of those who believe in the historicity of any event not explicitly mentioned in the Vedas, *e.g.*, "a great *Bhāratan* war." It cannot be denied that the Epics and the *Purāṇas*, in their present shape, contain a good deal of what is untrustworthy; but it has been rightly said that "It is absurd to suppose that fiction completely ousted the truth." The epigraphic or numismatic records of the *Sātavāhanas*, *Ābhīras*, *Vākāṭakas*, *Nāgas*, *Guptas* and many other dynasties fully bear out the observation of Dr. Smith that "modern European writers have been inclined to disparage unduly the authority of the *Purāṇic* lists, but closer study finds in them much genuine and valuable historical tradition." As to the "*great Bhārata war*" we have indeed no epigraphic corroboration, because contemporary inscriptions are lacking. But, as will be pointed out in a subsequent chapter, Vedic literature contains many hints that the story of the great conflict is not wholly fictitious. Many of the figures in the *Kurukshetra* story, *e.g.*, Bālhīka Prātipeya¹ (Balhika Prātipīya), Dhṛitarāshṭra Vaichitravīrya, Kṛishṇa Devakīputra and perhaps Śikhaṇḍin Yājñasena, are mentioned in some of the early Vedic texts,² and we have a distinct allusion in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* to the unfriendly feeling between the first of these, a prince of the Kurus, and the Sṛiñjayas³. It will be remembered that the great war described in the epic often takes the shape of a trial of strength between these two peoples (*Kurūṇāṁ Sṛiñjayānāṁ cha jigīshūnāṁ parasparam*)⁴. In the *Jaiminīya Upanishad Brāhmaṇa*⁵ Kurus reproach the Dālbhyas, a clan closely connected with the Pañchālas who appear to have been among the principal antagonists of the Kuru leaders in the Bhārata War. The *Chhāndogya Upanishad*, as is well-known, contains a *gāthā* which eulogises the mare that comes to the rescue of the Kurus. Battle-songs describing the struggle of the Kurus against the Sṛiñjayas and associate tribes or clans must have been current at least as yearly as the fifth century B. C., because Vaiśampāyana and his version of the *Mahābhārata* are well-known to Āśvalāyana and Pāṇini. If, as suggested by Vedic evidence discussed in the following pages, the "great *Bhāratan* war" really took place in or about the ninth century B.C., the broad outlines of the story about the conflict dating from a period not later than the fifth century B.C., cannot be dismissed as wholly unworthy of credence.