History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c90.108

v7.c90.108

Pargiter probably wants to identify the Bhaviṣyat of Āpastamba with the Bhaviṣya of later times. There is no evidence except the name to identify the two. It, therefore, appears that the extant Purāṇas base their narrative as to the three lines of Aila, Aikṣvāka and Paurava kings on the materials contained in the ancient Bhaviṣya and as to other lines and comparatively later kings they relied on other materials or oral traditions that they could collect. This inference receives support from other circumstances. The extant Purāṇas quote verses called Anuvaṁśa ślokas or gāthās about ancient kings, such as Kārtavīrya (in Vāyu 94. 20, Matsya 43. 24, Brahmāṇḍa III 68-20, Brahma 13. 17) and also about the last scions of the Aila and Aikṣvāka lines, viz. Sumitra and Kṣemaka. But so far as kings of comparatively later dynasties such as those of the Āndhras, Śuṅgas and others are concerned, no such gāthās or ślokas are quoted in the Purāṇas. There is absolutely no evidence to hold, as Pargiter does (p. XIII of ‘Purāna Texts’ &c.), that the ancient Bhaviṣya contained a reference to the Guptas. The ancient Bhaviṣya was composed before Āpastamba (i. e. before the 4th or 5th B. C.) and hence originally could have contained no reference to the Guptas (whose rule began about 320 A. D.). The Matsya does not refer to the Guptas and mentions only the downfall of the Āndhras. Therefore, the Matsya should be regarded as composed or revised about the middle (or end) of the 3rd century A. D., though the possibilities of some chapters or verses being added after that date cannot be ruled out. When the Vāyu (99. 383), Brahmāṇḍa (III. 74. 195), Viṣṇu (IV. 24. 18) and Bhāgavata (XII. 1 37) mentioned the Guptas as rulers the first two probably added these passages just about the time when Gupta rule began and the Viṣṇu and Bhāgavata (which present a corrupt text) might have borrowed the information from mss. of Vāyu or Brahmāṇḍa. It is clear, however, that the first two (out of the four) Purāṇas were composed or revised about 320-335 A. D. and the other two later still.