Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s7.184

c9.s7.184

With the exception of Pramaganda no king of Magadha appears to be mentioned in the Vedic literature. The earliest dynasty of Magadha according to the *Mahābhārata*⁶ and the Purāṇas is that founded by Brihadratha, the son of Vasu Chaidya-Uparichara, and the father of Jarāsandha. *Rāmāyaṇa*⁷ makes Vasu himself the founder of Girivraja or Vasumatī. A Bṛihadratha is mentioned twice in the *Ṛig-Veda*,⁸ but there is nothing to show that he is identical with the father of Jarāsandha. The Purāṇas give lists of the "Bṛihadratha kings" from Jarāsandha's son Sahadeva to Ripuñjaya, and apparently make Senājit, seventh in descent from Sahadeva, the contemporary of Adhisīma-Kṛishṇa of the Pārikshita family and Divākara of the Ikshvāku line. But in the absence of independent external corroboration it is not safe to accept the Purāṇic chronology and order of succession of the princes as authentic.¹ Bṛihadrathas and certain princes of Central India are said to have passed away when Pulika (Puṇika) placed his son Pradyota on the throne of Avanti,² *i.e.*, the Ujjain territory. As Pradyota was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha, and as the Purāṇic passage, “*Bṛihadratheshvatīteshu Vītīhotreshu-Avantīshu*, ‘when the Bṛihadrathas, Vītīhotras and Avantis (or the Vītīhotras in Avanti) passed away’,” suggests that the events alluded to here were synchronous, it is reasonable to conclude that the Bṛihadratha dynasty came to an end in the sixth century B.C.