Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.180

c9.s3.180

If the *Mahābhārata* is to be believed, Janamejaya sometimes held his court at Taxila, and it was at Taxila that Vaiśampāyana is said to have related to him the story of the great conflict between the Kurus and the Pāṇḍus¹ who had for their allies several peoples including the Sṛiñjayas. No direct independent proof of this war is forthcoming, but allusions to the hostility of Kurus and Sṛiñjayas, which forms an important feature of the epic ballads, are met with in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa*.² Moreover Hopkins invites attention to a *gāthā* in the *Chhāndogya Upanishad*³ which alludes to the mare which saves the Kurus:—