Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.499

v1.c3.s21.499

³ It is impossible to decide precisely what part the river played in the battle. It is usually held that the enemies of Sudās tried to divert the stream, but failed, and were drowned in its current. So Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 11; Macdonell, Sanskrit Literature, 154; Geldner, Rigveda, Kommentar, 103, holds that Sudās was caught between two opposing armies, and had to escape over the Paruṣṇī, that his enemies tried to divert it to render him more accessible to their attack, but failed, and were overwhelmed in the river. Hopkins, India, Old and New, 52 et seq., may be right in rejecting in toto the theory of the attempted diversion of the waters, though in the Journal of the American Oriental Society, 15, 261 et seq., he accepted the traditional view.