The History of Indian Literature c8.80

c8.80

∗ *Maṇḍala* x. 98 is a dialogue between Devápi and Śaṃtanu, the two ‘*Kauravyau*,’ as Yáska calls them. In the Mahá-Bhárata Śaṃtanu is the name of the father of Bhíshma and Vichitravírya, by whose two wives, Ambiká and Ambáliká, Vyása became the father of Dhṛitaráshṭra and Páṇḍu. This Śaṃtanu is, therefore, the grandfather of these latter, or the great-grandfather of the Kauravas and Páṇḍavas, the belligerents in the Mahá-Bhárata. We should thus have to suppose that the feud described in this epic had been fought out long before the final arrangement of the Ṛik-Saṃhitá! It is, however, questionable whether the Śaṃtanu of the Mahá-Bhárata is identical with the Śaṃtanu mentioned in the Ṛik; or, even if we take this for granted, whether he may not merely have been associated with the epic legend in *majorem rei gloriam*. Devápi, at least, who, according to Yáska, is his brother, has in the Ṛik a different father from the one given in the epic. See *I. St.*, i. 203.