Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s4.28

c9.s4.28

² It has been stated by certain writers that Janamejaya should be placed "only a step above Janaka." They point to the use of *laṅ* in the verb *bhū* in the interrogation *Kva Pārikshitā abhavan* quoted above. They further identify Dantābala Dhaumra, a contemporary of Janamejaya according to a legend narrated in the *Gopatha Brāhmaṇa*, with Dantāla Dhaumya of the *Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa*, who may be assigned to the period of Janaka. It is also suggested that Bhāllaveya of a certain Brāhmaṇa passage is no other than Indradyumna, *JIH.*, April 1936, 15 ff, etc. Apart from the fact that in the Vedic texts *laṅ* and *liṭ* are at times used alternatively to convey the same meaning (Cf. 37 *ante*,) it should be noted that the question '*Kva Pārikshitā abhavan*' with its answer was not *framed for the first time* at the court of Janaka. It is a *mūrdhābhishikta* (traditional)—*udāharaṇa* attributed to superhuman agency—and, therefore, it cannot be regarded as establishing the synchronism of Janamejaya Pārikshita and Janaka Vaideha. As to Dantābala it has already been pointed out (p. 39 above), that the *Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra* mentions Dhumras and Dhaumyas as distinct members of the Kaśyapa group. Janamejaya must have passed away in the days of Dṛiti and the Abhipratāriṇas. See *ante* p. 46. See also *IHQ*, Vol. VIII, 1932. 600 ff. As to Bhāllaveya, serious students should remember that it is a patronymic like Ātreya, Bhāradvāja etc. In the absence of the personal name, it is uncritical to identify every Bhāllaveya with Indradyumna himself as it is unreasonable to equate every Ātreya with Udamaya or every Bhāradvāja with Droṇa or Piṇḍola.