Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s3.55

c9.s3.55

Did he flourish *before* or *after* the Bhārata War? The necessity felt for offering an explanation of the name Parikshit given to Abhimanyu's son at the end of the Bhārata War, and the explanation itself, probably suggest that the tradition of an *earlier* Kuru king with the name of Parikshit had not yet come into existence when the tenth book of the *Mahābhārata* was written.¹ Parikshit I was possibly invented by genealogists to account for such anachronisms as the mention of *Indrota-Pārikshita-saṁvāda* as an old story by Bhīshma in the twelfth book (Chapter 151). The wide divergence of opinion in regard to the name of the father of the so-called Parikshit I, and his position in the list, is also to be noted in this connection. It shows the absence of a clear tradition. On the other hand there is absolute unanimity in regard to the parentage and dynastic position of the so-called Parikshit II.²