Vedic and Pur

• The vast Vedic literature can be analyzed on its own terms by considering its
• various layers. The Vedic books, such as the Sam. hit as and the Br ahman.
• as (in particular, the Aitareya and the Satapatha), mention names of kings in an incidental fashion. But they do at times provide the genealogies of r.s.is. The Vedic books have been preserved with astonishing accuracy and a tradition has preserved the names of the authors of hymns or verses when a hymn has multiple authors. But not all the famous kings of the R.
• gvedic age are lauded in the hymns.

On the other hand, the bards (s utas) of the Pur an. as and the epics have
preserved genealogies of kings and other people. \As seen by good people in
the ancient times, the s uta's duty was to preserve the genealogies of gods,r.s.
is and glorious kings and the traditions of great men." (V ayu P. 1. 31-2)
According to the epics and the Pur an. as (e.g. Mah abh arata 1.63.2417, V ayu
P. 60. 11-12) the arranger of the Vedas was Par a sara's son Kr.s.n.a Dvaip  ayana Vy asa who lived at the time of the Bh arata battle. The most famous historical event mentioned in the R. gveda is \the Battle of the Ten Kings", (da sar aj~na), mentioned in four hymns of the seventh book of the R.gveda (18, 19, 33, 83). The battle took place between Sud as, the Tr.tsu king, and a confederacy of ten people that include Pakthas, Bh al anas, Alinas, Sivas, and Vis. an. ins. One of the hymns of the R. gveda (10.98) is, according to the indices, composed by Dev api, and this hymn mentions Santanu, Bh s.ma's father.

This appears to be the youngest hymn in the R. gveda, and thus the reference is supportive of the Indian tradition. The Yajurveda does not mention anyone later than Dhr.tar as.t. ra, and the Atharvaveda mentions a Par ks.it ruling over the Kurus. There is no mention in the Vedic Sam. hit as of any of the Pur an. ic kings who came much after the Bh arata battle.
.
Although the Pur an. as have su ered extensive revisions, the core Pur an. a
can be dated to Vedic times. Atharvaveda 11.7.24 mentions Pur an. a along
with the three other Vedas. Satapatha Br ahman.
a 11.5.6.8 refers speci cally to the itih asa-pur an. a and 13.4.3.13 refers to the recitation of the Pur an. a. There is a similar reference in the Ch andogya Upanis.ad 3.4.1.

According to the Vis.n.u Pur an. a, the original Pur an. a was transmitted to
Romahars.an.a byVy asa. Romahars.an. a taught it to his six disciples, including his son Ugra sravas. At that time the Pur an. a consisted of 4,000 verses. The oldest three Pur an. as|the V ayu, the Matsya, and the Brahm an.d.
a|are supposed to have been narrated in the reign of Adhis makr.s.n.a, the great-great grandson of Par ks.it. The V ayu Pur an. a was rst narrated to a gathering of r.s. is, performing their twelve-year sacri ce in the Naimis.a forest on the banks of the river Dr.s. advat .

A Pur an. a is supposed to have ve distinguishing marks: sarga (primary
creation of the universe), pratisarga (secondary creation), vam. sa (genealogy), manvantar an. i (the reigns of Manus in di erent yugas), and vam. s anucarita (history). Within this framework, the bards have found t to add new episodes, but king lists have always remained an important component of
the books. Over the centuries, the Pur an. as have become enlarged with additional material and reworking of old material. The Vis.n. u Pur an.a gives
genealogies of the various dynasties of which that of the Aiks. v akus is the
most complete, giving ninety-three generations from the mythical Manu to
Br.hadbala of the Bh arata battle. The dynasty of the P urus is assigned ftythree
generations for the same period. Clearly, the lists are not complete,
and in fact the Pur an. ic tradition itself claims that the lists are incomplete
(e.g. Matsya Pur an. a 49.72). This is true even of the Iks. v aku line, which
is the longest (e.g. V ayu Pur an. a 88.213). It appears therefore that some
other system of reckoning must have also been used, because we nd it is
still possible to obtain a consistent list by the use of internal synchronisms
and through cross-validation with independent sources.

The Vedic genealogies of r.s. is can be found in the Satapatha Br ahman. a
(10.6.5.9) and Br. had aran. yaka Upanis. ad (2.6; 4.6; 6.5), but such lists are
not characteristic of the Vedic books. However, the Anukraman. s provide
invaluable references to the composers of the hymns. The Vedic books do
not present history in any systematic fashion. Nevertheless, the isolated
references to kings and r.s. is can be compared usefully with the independent
references in the Pur an. as to obtain a chronological framework for the events
of the Vedic era. The famous kings of the epics and the Pur an. as were M andh atr., Hari scandra, Sagara, Bhag ratha, Da saratha, and R ama of Ayodhya; Sa sabindu and Arjuna K artav rya of the Y adavas; Dus.yanta, Bharata, Ajam d. ha, Kuru and Santanu of the Pauravas; Jahnu and G adhi of K anyakubja; Divod asa and Pratardana of K a s ; Vasu Caidya of Cedi and Magadha; Marutta Av ks.ita and Tr.n. abindu of the Vai s ala kingdom; and U s nara and Sivi of the Anavas. Of those that are mentioned in the R. gveda are Bharata (RV 6.14.4), Santanu (RV 10.98.1), Ajam d.ha (RV 4.44.6), M andh atr. (RV 1.112.13, 8.39.8, 8.40.12) and R ama (RV 10.93.14). FurthermoreR.
gveda 10.34 is attributed toM andh atr., 10.179.1 is attributed to Sivi, and 10.179.2 is attributed to Pratardana. Of the kings lauded in theR. gveda, Vadhrya sva, Divod asa, Sr.~njaya, Sud as, Sahadeva and Somaka appear as kings in the North Pa~nc ala genealogy, but there is no description of their exploits. On the other hand, other R. gvedic kings such as Abhy avartin C ayama na, S rutarvan A rks.a, Pla yogi A san_ ga and Svanaya Bh avya are unknown in the epics and the Pur an. as. That Sud as, the most famous king of the R .gveda, should just be a name in the Pur an. as can be explained in two ways. First, this king lived long before the compilation of the genealogies and second, the focus of his exploits was far from the region where the Pur an. ic genealogies were organized. The Pur an. as themselves claim that the s utas were originally from the eastern regions of Magadha and An upa, and this was far from the locale of the Sud as battle in north Punjab .

The Pur an. ic genealogies all begin with the mythical Manu Vaivasvata. He
had several o spring of whom his daughter Il a bore a son named Pur uravas
Aila; their further successors represent the Aila or Lunar branch of the Vedic
people. Manu's chief son Iks. v aku became the king of Madhyade sa with the capital at Ayodhy a. The Aiks. v akus are the Solar dynasty. Amongst the Ailas, Pur uravas was succeeded by Ayu; he in turn was succeeded by the famous king Nahus.a, whose son and successor was Yay ati. The kingdom expanded a great deal during his reign, and Yay ati divided up this state amongst his sons Yadu, Turvasu, Druhyu, Anu, and P uru.