James Todd Annals/Chapter 3 Genealogies continued
Ref - •Read Online • Text Format
| Wikified by:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.), Jaipur |
- Genealogies continued - Comparisons between the lists of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Bentley, Captain Wilford, and the Author — Synchronisms.
Princes of the Solar Line
Vyasa gives but fifty-seven princes of the Solar line, from Vaivaswata Manu to Rama ; and no list which has come under my observation exhibits more than fifty-eight, for the same period, of the Lunar race. How different from the Egyptian priesthood, who, according to Herodotus, gave a list up to that period of three hundred and thirty 1 sovereigns from their first prince, also the ' sun-born Menes ! 2
Ikshwaku was the son of Manu, and the first who moved to the eastward, and founded Ayodhya.
Budha (Mercury) founded the Lunar line ; but we are not told who established their first capital, Prayag,3 though we are authorized to infer that it was founded by Puru, the sixth in descent from Budha [33].
A succession of fifty-seven princes occupied Ayodhya from Ikshwaku to Rama. From Yayati's sons the Lunar races descend
1 Herodotus ii. 99, 100.
2 The Egyptians claim the sun, also, as the first founder of the kingdom of Egypt.
3 The Jaisalmer annals give in succession Prayag, Mathura, Kusasthala, Dwaraka, as capitals of the Indu or Lunar race, in the ages preceding the Bharat or Great War. Hastinapur was founded twenty generations after, these, by Hastin, from whom ramified the three grand Sakha, viz. Ajamidha, Vimidha, and Purumidha, which diversified the Yadu race.
[p.40]: in unequal lengths. The lines from Yadu, 1 concluding with Krishna and his cousin Kansa, exhibit fifty-seven and fifty-nine descents from Yayati ; while Yudhishthira, 2 Salya, 3 Jarasandha, 4 and Vahurita, 5 all contemporaries of Krishna and Kansa, are fifty-one, forty-six, and forty-seven generations respectively, from the common ancestor Yayati.
Solar and Lunar Genealogies
There is a wide difference between the Solar and the Yadu branches of the Lunar lines ; yet is that now given fuller than any I have met with. Sir William Jones's lists of the Solar line give fifty-six, and of the Lunar (Budha to Yudhishthira) forty-six, being one less in each than in the tables now presented ; nor has he given the important branch terminating with Krishna. So close an affinity between lists, derived from such different authorities as this distinguished character and myself had access to, shows that there was some general source entitled to credit.
Mr. Bentley's 6 lists agree with Sir William Jones's, exhibiting fifty-six and forty-six respectively for the last-mentioned Solar and Lunar races. But, on a close comparison, he has either copied them or taken from the same original source ; afterwards transposing names which, though aiding a likely hypothesis, will not accord with their historical belief.
Colonel Wllford's 7 Solar list is of no use ; but his two dynasties of Puru and Yadu of the Lunar race are excellent, that part of the line of Puru, from Jarasandha to Chandragupta, being the only correct one in print.
It is surprising Wilford did not make use of Sir William Jones's Solar chronology ; but he appears to have dreaded bringing down Rama to the period of Krishna, as he is known to have preceded by four generations ' the Great War ' of the Yadu races.
It is evident that the Lunar line has reached us defective. It is supposed so by their genealogists ; and Wilford would have
1 See Table I. [not reprinted].
2 Of Delhi — Indraprastha.
3 Salya, the founder of Aror on the Indus, a capital I had the good fortune to discover. Salya is the Siharas of Abu-l Fazl. [Ain, ii. 343.]
4 Jarasandha of Bihar.
5 Vahoorita, unknown yet. [? Bahuratha.]
6 Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 341.
7 Ibid. vol. V. p. 241.
[p. 41]:
increased the error by taking it as the standard, and reducing the Solar to conform thereto.
Mr. Bentley's method is therefore preferable ; namely, to suppose eleven princes omitted in the Lunar between Janmejaya and Prachinvat. But as there is no [34] authority for this, the Lunar princes are distributed in the tables collaterally with the Solar, preserving contemporaneous affinity where synchronisms will authorise. By this means all hypothesis will be avoided, and the genealogies will speak for themselves.
There is very little difference between Sir William Jones's and Colonel Wilford's lists, in that main branch of the Lunar race, of which Puru, Hastin, Ajamidha, Kuru, Santanu, and Yudhishthira are the most distinguished links. The coincidence is so near as to warrant a supposition of identity of source ; but close inspection shows Wilford to have had a fuller supply, for he produces new branches, both of Hastin's and Kuru's progeny. He has also one name (Bhimasena) towards the close, which is in my lists, but not in Sir William Jones's ; and immediately following Bhimasena, both these lists exhibit Dilipa, wanting in my copy of the Bhagavat, though contained in the Agni Purana : proofs of the diversity of the sources of supply, and highly gratifying when the remoteness of those sources is considered. There is also in my lists Tansu, the nineteenth from Budha, who is not in the lists either of Sir William Jones or Wilford. Again ; Wilford has a Suhotra preceding Hastin, who is not in Sir William Jones's genealogies. 1
Again ; Jahnu is made the successor to Kuru ; whereas the Purana (whence my extracts) makes Parikshit the successor, who adopts the son of Jahnu. This son is Viduratha, who has a place in all three. Other variations are merely orthographical.
A comparison of Sir William Jones's Solar genealogies with my tables will yield nearly the same satisfactory result as to original authenticity. I say Sir William Jones's list, because there is no other efficient one. We first differ at the fourth from Ikshwaku. In my list this is Am-Prithu, of which he makes two names, Anenas and Prithu. Thence to Purukutsa, the eighteenth, the difference is only in orthography. To Irisuaka, the twenty-third in mine, the twenty-sixth in Sir William Jones's list, one name is above accounted for ; but here are two wanting in mine, Trasa-
1 I find them, however, in the Agni Purana.
[p.42]: dasyu and Haryaswa. There is, also, considerable difference in the orthography of those names which we have in common. Again ; we differ as to the successors of Champa, the twenty-seventh, the founder of Champapur in Bihar. In Sir William's, Sadeva succeeds, and he is followed by Vijaya ; but my authorities state these both to be sons of Champa, and that Vijaya, the [35] younger, was his successor, as the elder, Sadeva, took to religious austerity. The thirty-third and thirty-sixth, Kesi and Dilipa, are not noticed by Sir William Jones ; but there is a much more important person than either of these omitted, who is a grand link of connexion, and affording a good synchronism of the earliest history. This is Ambarisha, the fortieth, the contemporary of Gadhi, who was the founder of Gadhipura or Kanauj. Nala, Sarura, and Dilipa (Nos. 4i, 45, 54 of my lists) are all omitted by Sir William Jones.
This comparative analysis of the chronologies of both these grand races cannot fail to be satisfactory. Those which I furnish are from the sacred genealogies in the library of a prince who claims common origin with them, and are less liable to inter-polation. There is scarcely a chief of character for knowledge who cannot repeat the genealogy of his line. The Prince of Mewar has a peculiarly retentive memory in this way. The professed genealogists, the Bhats, must have them graven on their memory, and the Charanas (the encomiasts) ought to be well versed therein.
The first table exhibits two dynasties of the Solar race of Princes of Ayodhya and Mithila Des, or Tirhut, which latter I have seen nowhere else. It also exhibits four great and three lesser dynasties of the Lunar race ; and an eighth line is added, of the race of Yadu, from the annals of the Bhatti tribe at Jaisalmer.
Ere quitting this halting-place in the genealogical history of the ancient races, where the celebrated names of Rama, Krishna, and Yudhishthira close the brazen age of India, and whose issue introduce the present iron age, or Kali Yuga, I shall shortly refer to the few synchronic points which the various authorities admit.
Of periods so remote, approximations to truth are the utmost to be looked for ; and it is from the Ramayana and the Puranas these synchronisms are hazarded.
Harischandra
The first commences with a celebrated name of the Solar line, Harischandra, son of Trisanku, still proverbial for
[p. 43]: his humility. 1 He is the twenty-fourth, 2 and declared contemporary of Parasurama, who slew the celebrated Sahasra-Arjuna 3 of [36] the Haihaya (Lunar) race, Prince of Mahishmati on the Nerbudda. This is confirmed by the Ramayana, which details the destruction of the military class and assumption of political power by the Brahmans, under their chief Parasurama, marking the period when the military class ' lost the umbrella of royalty,' and, as the Brahmans ridiculously assert, their purity of blood.
This last, however, their own books sufficiently contradict, as the next synchronism will show.
Sagara
Sagara. — This synchronism we have in Sagara, the thirty - second prince of the Solar line, the contemporary of Talajangha, of the Lunar line, the sixth in descent from Sahasra Arjuna, who had five sons preserved from the general slaughter of the military class by Parasurama, whose names are given in the Bhavishya Purana.
Wars were constantly carried on between these great rival races, Surya and Indu, recorded in the Puranas and Ramayana. The Bhavishya describes that between Sagara and Talajangha
1. [The tragical story of Harischandra is told by J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts, i. 88 ff.]
2 Sahyadri Khanda of the Skanda Purana.
3 In the Bhavishya Purana this prince, Sahasra-Arjuna, is termed a Chakravartin, or paramount sovereign. It is said that he conquered Karkotaka of the Takshak, Turushka, or Snake race, and brought with him the population of Mahishmati, and founded Hemanagara in the north of India, on his expulsion from his dominions on the Nerbudda. Traditionary legends yet remain of this prince on the Nerbudda, where be is styled Sahasrabahu, or ' with a thousand arms,' figurative of his numerous progeny. The Takshak, or Snake race, here alluded to, will hereafter engage our attention.
The names of animals in early times, planets, and things inanimate, all furnished symbolic appellations for the various races. In Scruture we have the fly, the bee, the ram to describe the princes of Egypt, Assyria, and Macedonia ; here we have the snake, horse, monkey, etc. The Snake or Takshak race was one of the most extensive and earliest of Higher Asia, and celebrated in all its extent, and to which I shall have to recur hereafter. [By the Takshak race, so often referred to, the author seems to mean a body of Scythian snake-worshippers. There are instances of a serpent barrow, and of the use of the snake as a form of ornament among the Scythians ; but beyond this the evidence of worship of the serpent is scanty (E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks, 328 f., 66 note, 294, 318, 323, etc.). It was really the Takka, a Panjab tribe (Beal, Si-yu-ki, i. 165 ft". ; Cunningham, Ancient Geography of India, 148 ff. ; Stein, Rajatarangini, i. 204 f.).]
In the Ramayana it is stated that the sacrificial horse was stolen by " a serpent (Takshak) assuming the form of Ananta."
[p.44]:
" to resemble that of their ancestors, in which the Haihayas suffered as severely as before." But that they had recovered all their power since Parasurama is evident from their having completely retaliated on the Suryas, and expelled the father 1 of Sagara from his capital of Ayodhya. Sagara and Talajangha appear to have been contemporary with Hastin of Hastinapura, and with Anga, descended from Budha, the founder of Angadesa, 2 or Ongdesa, and the Anga race.
Ambarisha
Ambarisha. — The Ramayana affords another synchronism ; namely, that Ambarisha of Ayodhya, the fortieth prince of the Solar line, was the contemporary of Gadhi, the founder of Kanauj, and of Lomapada the Prince of Angadesa.
Krishna
Krishna. — The last synchronism is that of Krishna and Yudhishthira, which terminates the [37] brazen, and introduces the Kali Yuga or iron age. But this is in the Lunar line ; nor have we any guide by which the difference can be adjusted between the appearance of Rama of the Solar and Krishna of the Lunar races.
Thus of the race of Krostu we have Kansa, Prince of Mathura, the fifty-ninth, and his cousin Krishna, the fifty-eighth from Budha ; while of the line of Puru, descending through Ajamidha and Dvimidha, we have Salya, Jarasandha, and Yudhishthira, the fifty-first, fifty-third, and fifty-fourth respectively.
The race of Anga gives Prithusena as one of the actors and survivors of the Mahabharata, and the fifty-third from Budha.
Thus, taking an average of the whole, we may consider fifty- five princes to be the number of descents from Budha to Krishna
1. Asita, the father of Sagara, expelled by hostile kings of the Haihayas, the Talajanghas, and the Sasa-vindus, fled to the Himavat mountains, where he died, leaving his wives pregnant, and from one of these Sagara was born (Ramayana, i. 41). It was to preserve the Solar race from the destruction which threatened it from the prolific Lunar race, that the Brahman Parasurama armed : evidently proving that the Brahmanical faith was held by the Solar race ; while the religion of Budha, the great progenitor of the Lunar, still governed his descendants. This strengthened the opposition of the sages of the Solar line to Vishvamitra's (of Budha's or the Lunar line) obtaining Brahmanhood. That Krishna, of Lunar stock, prior to founding a new sect, worshipped Budha, is susceptible of proof.
2. Angdes, Ongdes, or Undes adjoins Tibet. The inhabitants call them- selves Hungias, and appear to be the Hong-niu of the Chinese authors, the Huns (Huns) of Europe and India, which prove this Tartar race to be Lunar, and of Budha. [Anga, the modern Bhagalpur, is confounded with Hundes or Tibet.]
[p.45]:
and Yudhishthira ; and, admitting an average of twenty years for each reign, a period of eleven hundred years ; which being added to a like period calculated from thence to Vikramaditya, who reigned fifty-six years before Christ, I venture to place the establishment in India Proper of these two grand races, distinctively called those of Surya and Chandra, at about 2256 years before the Christian era ; at which period, though somewhat later, the Egyptian, Chinese, and Assyrian monarchies are generally stated to have been established, 1 and about a century and a half after that great event, the Flood.
Though a passage in the Agni Purana indicates that the line of Surya, of which Ikshwaku was the head, was the first colony which entered India from Central Asia, yet we are compelled to place the patriarch Budha as his contemporary, he being stated to have come from a distant region, and married to Ila, the sister of Ikshwaku.
Ere we proceed to make any remarks on the descendants of Krishna and Arjuna, who carry on the Lunar line, or of the Kushites and Lavites, from Kusa and Lava, the sons of Rama, who carry on that of the Sun, a few observations on the chief kingdoms established by their progenitors on the continent of India will be hazarded in the ensuing Chapter [38].
1. Egyptian, under Misraim, 2188 B.C. ; Assyrian, 2059 ; Chinese, 2207. [The first Egyptian dynasty is now dated 5500 B.C. ; Chinese, 2852 B.C. ; Babylonian, 2300 B.C. Any attempt to establish an Indian chronology from the materials used by the Author does not promise to be successful.]
Back to James Todd Annals