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370 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
these kings as Sungas. One writer suggests that the sungas whose names ended in Mitra were Irāņians, worshippers of Mithra (the Sun). Others, regard them as Indian Brāhmaṇas. Curiously enough, Pāṇinia connects the Sungas with the well-known Brāhmaṇa family of the Bhāradvājas. Saungiputra, "son of a female descendant of Sunga," is the name of a teacher in the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad. 3 Saungāyani, "descendant of Saunga” is the name of a teacher in the Vamsa Brāhmana. Macdonell and Keith point out that the Sungas are known as teachers in the Ăśvalāyana Śrauta Sūtra. * In view of the conflicting statements in the Mālavikāgnimitram, the Purānas, etc., it is difficult to say whether Pushyamitra and his known descendants (down to Vasumitra) were sungas of the Bhāradvāja Gotra or Baimbikas of Kaśyapa lineage. The historic "Sungas” of the time of Dhanabhūti are assigned by competent scholars to the period B.C. 100-75. This accords with the testimony of the Harsha-charita which, while denying this dynastic epithet to Pugbyamitra, applies it to the latest kings of the Purānic list, the immediate predecessors of Vasudeva Kāņva.
It is not known for certain when and why 'the family of Pushyamitra, like the Kadambas of a later date, exchanged the quill for the sword. There is no reason to think that Asoka tyrannised over the Brāhmanas and that his oppression forced them to engage in non-priestly pursuits. Brāhmana Senāpatis were by no means rare in
1 JASB, 1912, 287. Cf. 1910. 260. 2 In Sūtra IV, 1, 117. Also Kramadiśvara, 763. 3 VI. 4. 31.
4 XII. 13. 5, etc. The Vamsa Brāhmana seems to associate the Sungas with the Madra country. Ved. Index, II, p. 123. For Tāranātha's reference to Pushyamitra, see JBORS, IV, pt. 3, 258. For Bhāradvājas as champions of autocracy and of ministerial usurpation, see Kauțiliya, 31, 316.
