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MAGADHAN KINGS
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(harlot) and the Māgadha. "In the eastern region (Prāchyām disi)” faith is his harlot, Mitra his Māgadha (bard or panegyrist). In the Srauta Sutras the equipment characteristic of the Vrātya is said to be given, when the latter is admitted into the Aryan Brāhmaṇical community, to the so-called Brāhmaṇas living in Magadha, Brahmabandhu Māgadhadesīya.? The Brāhmaṇas of Magadha are here spoken of in a disparaging tone as Brahmabandhu. In the Sankhāyana Aranyaka, however, the views of a Magadhavūsi Brāhmaṇa are quoted with respect. The Vedic dislike of the Magadhas in early times was due, according to Oldenbergo to the fact that the Magadhas were not wholly Brāhmaṇised. Pargiter suggests 5 that in Magadha the Aryans met and mingled with a body of invaders from the east by sea.
With the exception of Pramaganda no king of Magadha appears to be mentioned in the Vedic literature. The earliest dynasty of Magadha according to the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas is that founded by Bșihadratha, the son of Vasu Chaidya-Uparichara, and the father of Jarāsandha. Rāmāyana? makes Vasu himself the founder of Girivraja or Vasumati. A Bșihadratha is mentioned twice in the Ķig-Veda, but there is nothing to show that he is identical with the father of Jarāsandha. The Purāņas give lists of the “Brihadratha kings” from Jarāsandha's son Sahadeva to Hípuñjaya, and apparently make Senājit, seventh in descent from Sahadeva, the
I Cf. Weber, Hist. Ind. Lit., pp. 112. 2 Vedic Index, II, 116.
3 Note also the expression rājānaḥ kshatra-bandhavaḥ applied to Magadhan kings in the Purāṇas (Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age, p. 22).
4 Buddha, 400 n.
5 JASB, 1897, 111; J. R. A. S., 1908 pp. 851-53. Bodh. Dh. Sūtra, I, i. 29 refers to Angas and Magadhas as sankirna-yonayah, "of mixed origin". - 6 I. 63. 30.
7 I. 32, 7.
8 1. 36. 18; X. 49. 6. O. P. 90—15
