History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.104

v7.c90.104

It has been shown above that Āpastamba mentions a Bhaviṣyatpurāṇa and quotes four verses from a Purāṇa (p. 817, note 1328). That Bhaviṣyat-purāṇa was probably so called because it contained in a prophetic vein the names and other details of kings that flourished after the Bhārata heroes and after a few generations of descendants of them and their contemporaries and probably purported to have been composed by some sage or by Vyāsa. As the Kali age is said to have started after the Bhārata war, as Parāśara, his son Vyāsa and Vyāsa's son Śuka were regarded as more or less contemporaries of the Pāṇḍavas that lived in the Dvāpara age and as all the 18 Purāṇas are deemed to have been composed by Vyāsa¹³⁸¹ in the Dvāpara age, the history of the kings of the Kali age from the descendants of Adhisīmakṛṣṇa and his contemporaries downwards has been furnished by the Purāṇas in the form of a prophetic style It has not been clearly noticed by both Pargiter and Kirfel that the so-called future kings are divided into two groups, viz. the kings of the Aila, Aikṣvāka and Māgadha lines from Adhisīmakṛṣṇa, Divākara and Senājit to the last scions of these lines (such¹³⁸² as Sumitra in the Aikṣvāka line, Kṣemaka in the Aila line) form one group and later kings in the lines of Pradyotas, Śuṅgas, Āndhras, Śakas and others form another group and further that the first group was most probably dealt with in the ancient Bhaviṣya-purāṇa or some other Purāṇa if we rely on Āpastamba, but the other group not having been in existence when the Bhaviṣyat was composed (before 500-400 B C) was dealt with by the extant Purāṇas from information received by them apart from the ancient Bhaviṣyat. This is clear from the passages of the Matsya and Vāyu quoted¹³⁸³ below. The Matsya says 'After this I shall proclaim those *future* kings in the Aida (Aila), Aikṣvāka and Paurava lines and those with whom those three benign (or virtuous) families will come to an end and I shall enumerate all of these kings that are narrated in the Bhaviṣya *Other kings different* from the preceding that will arise, such as Kṣatras (? of the Kṣatriya class), Pāraśavas (the Pārsī tribe or persons born of a śūdra father and brāhmaṇa mother?), Śūdras (as kings) and others that are foreigners, the Andhras, Śakas, Pulindas, Cūlikas, Yavanas, fishermen, Ābhīras and Śabaras and others born of Mleccha (tribes)—these kings I shall proclaim one after another in order and by name. Out of these (two groups) the first is Adhisīmakṛṣṇa who is now alive and I shall speak of the kings of his line that are narrated in the Bhaviṣya’. This passage makes it perfectly clear that in the ancient Bhaviṣyat kings of the three lines of Aila, Aikṣvāka and Paurava to the last of them were enumerated (vide note 1382), but that the later kings like the Āndhras and Śakas were not enumerated therein. I agree with Pargiter (p. VIII. in Intro to 'Purāṇa Texts' &c.) that the words ‘Bhaviṣye kathitān’ in Matsya (50. 77) or ‘Bhaviṣye pathitān’ in Vāyu (in 99.292) refer to the descendants mentioned in the Bhaviṣya and that they do not simply mean 'mentioned in future.’ I fail to understand, however, why he regards ‘Bhaviṣyat’ as a perversion of ‘Bhaviṣya’. Bhaviṣyat is as good a word as Bhaviṣya, being employed in several passages such as Varāha (177. 34), Matsya (53. 62).