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HISTORICITY OF PARIKSHIT
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produced for us a secure dwelling when he, the most excellent one, went to his seat. (Thus) the husband in Kuru land, when he founds his household, converses with his wife.
“What may I bring to thee, curds, stirred drink or liquor ? (Thus) the wife asks her husband in the kingdom of king Pariksbit.
“Like light the ripe barley runs over beyond the mouth (of the vessels). The people thrive merrily in the kingdom of king Parikshit.""
Roth and Bloomfield regard Parikshit in the Atharva Veda as a divine being. But Zimmer and Oldenberg recognize him as a human king, a view supported by the .fact that in the Aitareya and Satapatha Brūhmanas the famous king Janamejaya bears the patronymic Parikshita (son of Parikshit). The Aitareya Brāhmana, for example, inforins us that tle priest Tura Kāvasheya “anointed Janamejaya Pārikshita with the great anointing of Indra":
“Etena ha vā Aindreņa mahābhishekena Tural. Kāvasheyo Janamejayain Pārikshitam abhishishecha.”
Referring to king Parikshit, Macdonell and Keith observe3 : "The epic makes him grandfather of Pratiśravas and great-grandfather of Pratīpa.” Now, the epic and the Purūnas have really two Parikshits. Regarding the parentage of one there is no unanimity. He is variously represented as the son of Avīkshit, Anaśvā, or Kuru, and is further mentioned as an ancestor of Pratiśravas and Pratipa. The other Parikshit was a descendant of Pratipa and, according to a unanimous tradition, a son
1 Bloomfield, Atharva Veda, pp. 197-98, with slight emendations. 2 VIII. 21. 3 Vedic Index, Vol. I, p. 494.
