Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s16.179

v1.c3.s16.179

Jahnu occurs only in the plural in the legend of Śunaḥśepa, who is said to have obtained, as Devarāta, both the lordship of the Jahnus and the divine lore of the Gāthins.¹ A Jāhnava, or descendant of Jahnu, was, according to the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa,² Viśvāmitra, who is said, by means of a certain catu-rātra or ‘four-night’ ritual, to have secured the kingdom for the Jahnus in their conflict with the Vṛcīvants. He is here described as a king. Again, in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa,³ Viśvāmitra is addressed as a rāja-putra, ‘prince,’ and Bharata-ṛṣabha, ‘bull of the Bharatas.’ It is therefore clear that the Brāhmaṇas, though not the Saṃhitās, saw in him at once a priest and a prince by origin, though there is no trace whatever of their seeing in him a prince who won Brahmanhood as in the version of the later texts.⁴