Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 109

80 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
Section III. THE LATER VAIDEHAS OF MITHILA :
NIMI AND KARĀLA.
The Purānas give long lists of the successors of Siradhvaja Janakal vhom Bhavabhūti seems to identify with the contemporary of Yājñavalkya. With one or two exceptions none of the kings in these lists can be satisfactorily identified with the Videhan monarchs mentioned in the Vedic, Buddhist and Jaina literature. It is, therefore, difficult to say how far the lists are reliable. The identification of any of the kings named in the bardic chronicles with the Vedic Janaka is the most knotty of all problems. We have already noted the arguments that can be urged in support of the view of Bhavabhūti. The mere fact that Sīradhvaja is placed high in the Puranic lists does not necessarily prove that he actually flourished long before the extinction of the dynasty. It should be remembered in this connection that Pradyota who was in reality a contemporary of Bimbisāra, king of Magadha, is placed by the Purāṇic chroniclers or scribes some nine generations before that ruler, and Sidahārtha of the Iksh vāku list, a contemporary of Prasenajit of Kosala, is represented as the grandfather of the latter. The evidence of the Vishnu Purāna 3 suggests that there were at times several collateral lines of Janakas who ruled contemporaneously. The problem of Sīradhvaja must, therefore, be regarded as sub judice. In view of the uncertainty about the identification of this king and his proper place in the
1 Vāyu, 89. 18-23; Vishnu IV, 5. 12-13; 4th edition of this work pp. 67 ff.
2 Mahāvira-charita, I, verse 14; II, verse 43; Uttara-Rāma-Charita, IV, verse 9.
3 VI. 6. 7 ff. Cf. Rāmāyana, I. 72. 18.