Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.214

c9.s3.214

The Vedic texts do not refer in clear terms to any of these successors of Janamejaya or to the city of Hāstinapura which figures as the principal metropolis of the Kurus in the epic and the Purāṇas. The antiquity of the city is, however, clearly proved by the evidence of Pāṇini.³ As to the princes the *Ṛig-Veda* no doubt mentions a (Bhārata) king named Aśvamedha,⁴ but there is nothing to show that he is identical with Aśvamedhadatta. A Satānīka Sātrājita is mentioned in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* and the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* as a powerful king who defeated Dhṛitarāshṭra a prince of Kāsi, and took away his sacrificial horse. He, too, was probably a Bharata,¹ but the patronymic Sātrājita probably indicates that he was different from Satānīka, the son of Janamejaya. The *Pañchaviṁśa Brāhmaṇa*, the *Jaiminīya Upanishad Brāhmaṇa* and the *Chhāndogya Upanishad* mention a Kuru king named **Abhipratārin** Kākshaseni, who was a contemporary of Girikshit Auchchamanyava, Śaunaka Kāpeya and Dṛiti Aindrota. As Dṛiti was the son and pupil of Indrota Daivāpa (Daivāpi) Śaunaka, the priest of Janamejaya,² Abhipratārin, son of Kakshasena, appears to have been one of the immediate successors of the great king. We have already seen that Kakshasena appears in the *Mahābhārata*³ as the name of a brother of Janamejaya. Abhipratārin was thus Janamejaya's nephew. The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* and the *Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra*⁴ refer to a prince named **Vṛiddhadyumna** Ābhipratāriṇa, apparently the son of Abhipratārin. The *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa*⁵ possibly mentions his son Rathagritsa and priest Śuchivṛiksha Gaupālāyana.⁶ The *Śāṅkhāyana Śrauta Sūtra*⁷ informs us that Vṛiddhadyumna erred in a sacrifice, when a Brāhmaṇa uttered a curse that the result would be the expulsion of the Kurus from Kuru-kshetra, an event which actually came to pass.