History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c13.s2.45

c13.s2.45

A passing reference to an Āpūraṇa the son of Kaśyapa is to be found in the *Mahābhārata*, where the word occurs in the enumeration of the names of *nāgas* inhabiting the subterranean city of Bhogavatī.² This is probably a coincidence, but it is not wholly impossible that the name found its way into the catalogue through an early editor who had heard of Pūraṇa ; on this hypothesis the extra syllable prefixed to the name might be accounted for by the necessity of avoiding an iambic cadence, which would otherwise occur throughout the *pāda*.