Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s7.424

c9.s7.424

The *Harivaṁśa*, too, informs us (*Vishṇuparva*, 33, 4 ff.) that the residence of Kṛishṇa, who was already a *śrutidhara*, with his Guru Sāndīpani was due to his desire of receiving lessons in the science of the bow (*dhanurvedachikīrshārtham*). The *Veda* that he learnt from this teacher is not termed *akhila Veda*, or *Trayī*, but simply *sāṅga-Vedam*, the Veda with its auxiliary treatises. The only Veda that is expressly mentioned is the *Dhanurveda* (and not the *Trayī*) together with its four divisions (chātushpāda), etc. The compilers of the *Bhāgavata* and *Brahma Vaivarta Purāṇas* (*Bhāg.* X. 45. 31 ff.; BV, Janmakhaṇḍa, 101-102) introduce The final overthrow of the Vṛishṇis is ascribed to their irreverent conduct towards Brāhmaṇas.¹ It is interesting to note that the Vṛishṇis and the Andhakas are branded as *Vrātyas*, *i.e.*, deviators from orthodoxy in the *Droṇa parva* of the *Mahābhārata*.² It is a remarkable fact that the Vṛishṇi-Andhakas and other Vrātya clans, *e.g.*, the Lichchhavis and Mallas, are found in historical times on the southern and eastern fringe of the “ *Dhruvā Madhyamā diś*” occupied by the Kuru-Pañchālas and two other folks. It is not improbable that they represent an earlier swarm of Aryans who were pushed southwards and eastwards by the Pūru-Bharatas, the progenitors of the Kuru Pañchālas. It may be remembered that the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* actually refers to the defeat by Bharata of the Satvats—the progenitors of the Vṛishṇi-Andhakas. And the Great Epic refers to the **exodus of the Yādavas from Mathurā** owing to pressure from the Paurava line of Magadha, and probably also from the Kurus.³