A History of Sanskrit Literature c14.s5.3.2

c14.s5.3.2

They were followed by a Brahmanical Abhimanyu, who is stated to have favoured the study of the *Mahābhāṣya*, but whose historical character is unverifiable. Under him a pious Brahmin with the aid of Nīlanāga purifies Kashmir from Buddhist contagion and saves the land from snow, the tale being a mere *réchauffé* of the legend of the *Nīlamata* which makes Piçācas the sinners. The line of Gonanda kings after Gonanda III has little appearance of authenticity, and in Book II we find a new line of kings, unconnected with the old, and apparently with no claims to historicity. Book III gives the history of the restored Gonanda dynasty under Meghavāhana. In the new list Mātṛgupta's short reign figures, and possibly in him and his patron Vikramāditya Harṣa we have a reference to Çīlāditya¹ of Mālava, giving us a date in the sixth century. As a member of the Gonanda line figures Toramāṇa, who can hardly be other than the Hūṇa king of that name, and it is not enough to discount the fact that his father Mihirakula is given at a date 700 years earlier, for Kalhaṇa recognizes a reign of 300 years for Raṇāditya, who was the third last king of the dynasty and whose date would fall in quite historical times. A romantic tale ends the dynasty;