Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.32

c9.s3.32

The *Bhāgavata Purāṇa* is no doubt a late work. But its evidence does not stand alone. This will be made clear by an examination of the names of the sons of Parikshit given in the Vedic texts and the Epic respectively. The Vedic Parikshit, we are told, had four sons namely, Janamejaya, Ugrasena, Bhīmasena and Śrutasena.³ The Epic Parikshit I, on the other hand, had only one son (Bhīmasena) according to Chapter 95, verse 42 of the *Ādiparva* of the *Mahābhārata*, and seven sons (Janamejaya, Kakshasena, Ugrasena, Chitrasena, Indrasena, Sushena and Bhīmasena) according to Chapter 94, verses 54-55, and among these the nameof Śrutasena does not occur. Even Janamejaya is omitted in Chapter 95 and in the *Java* text.¹ There is no king of that name immediately after Parikshit I, also in the Kuru-Pāṇḍu genealogy given in the Chellur or Cocanada grant of Vīrachoḍa.² The Epic poet and the writer of the Choḍa inscription, which is much older than many extant manuscripts of the *Mahābhārata*, therefore, were not quite sure as to whether this Parikshit (I) was the father of Janamejaya and Śrutasena. On the other hand, according to the unanimous testimony of the *Mahābhārata* and the *Purāṇas*, Parikshit II had undoubtedly a son named Janamejaya who succeeded him on the throne. Thus the *Mahābhārata*, referring to Parikshit II, the son of Abhimanyu, says.³