History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c26.282

v2.c26.282

A few interesting matters about pravaras are noted below. It is noteworthy that even as to the same gotra, there is great divergence among the sūtrakāras about the sages constituting the pravara e. g. as to Śāṇḍilyagotra. Āśv. gives two groups of the sages 'Śāṇḍila-Asita-Daivala-iti' or 'Kāśyapa-Asita-Daivala-iti', but Āp. states his own view that there are only two sages in the pravara viz. 'Daivala-Asita iti' and that some say they are three, Kāśyapa-Daivala-Asita-iti; while Baud. states four groups, 'Kāśyapa-Avatsāra-Daivala-iti, Kāśyapa-Avatsāra-Asita-iti; Śāṇḍila-Asita-Daivala-iti; Kāśyapa-Avatsāra-Śāṇḍila-iti.' No adequate reasons can be given why even at so early an age as the sūtras, not only the order of the names in the pravara, but the very names in the pravara and their number should have varied so much. Baud.¹¹⁵⁸ (pravarādhyāya sec. 44) notes that the Laugākṣis (or Laukākṣis) are Vasiṣṭhas by day and Kaśyapas by night and their pravaras also show this double relationship. The Smṛtyarthasāra says that this picturesque description of them has reference to the *prayājas* and the like i. e. by day they follow the procedure of prayājas peculiar to Vasiṣṭhas and by night that peculiar to the Kaśyapas.