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The Tales in Mahabharata
195
The Kurus are antagonists of the Pāņdavas - the epic protagonists whose descendent Japamejaya again revives hostility against the Nāgas. Arjuna burnt the Khāndava-forest and the name of the Pāņdava-capital is Khăndava-prastha, also called Indra-prastha.85 This Khāndava forest is said to be the babitation of Nāgas whose King is Takşaka. 88
Vedic Index87 informs us that one "Dbstarāstra Vaicitravīrya .... is mentioned in .. .. Kāthaka Samhita .... But there is ro ground for supposing that he was a Kuru-Pāñcāla King; he seems rather to have lived at some distance from the Kuru-Pāñcālas. There is no good reason to deny his identity with the Dhịtarāștra of the Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, King of Kāśi, who was defeated, when he attempted to offer a horse sacrifice, by Satrajita Satāpīka. The fact that the latter was a Bhārata also points to Dhrtarăstra's not having been a Kuru-Pāñcāla at all .... It is true that in the Epic santanu and Vicit ravirya and Dhịtarăstra himself are all connected, but this connexion seems to be due, as so often in the Epic, to a confused derangement of great figures of the past." About Santanu all that is stated is in the Rgveda "that Devāpi Ārstisena obtained (no doubt as priest) rain for Samtanu (no doubt a king).88 Now, between Dhstarāştra and Parīk sit no other character of the Epic is found mentioned in any of the Vedic sources. Bhīşma, Satyavati, Pāņdu, Yudhisthira, Bhima, Arjuna, Sahadeva, Nakula, Draupadi, Drupada, Droņa, Karņa, Salya, Sakuni - none is mentioned. About Parik sit, we are informed that he "appears in the Atharvaveda as a king in whose realm, that of the Kurus, prosperity and peace abound .... the Brāhmaṇas explain that Agni is pari-kşit because he dwells among men. Hence Roth and Bloomfield regard Parikşit in the Atharvaveda not as a human king at all. This may be correct, but it is not certain. Both Zimmer and Oldenberg recognize Pariksit as a real king, a view supported by the fact that in later Vedic literature king Janamejaya bears the patronymic Pārīksita."'89 But the passage from Atharvaveda mentioned above refers to a 'Vaiśvāpara Parīksit'. Bloomfield translates the relevant portion thus : "Listen ye to the high praise of the king who rules over all peoples, the god who is above mortals, of Vaiśvānara Parikshit ! Parīkshit has procured for us a sucure 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 ..... The people thrive merrily in the kingdom of King Parīkshit,"90 In the notes he remarks thus : “The Ait.Br. and Gop.Br, advances as one of the two expositions the theory that Agoi is parikshit, 'since he lives about among the people, and the people live around him'. The text itself admits of no doubt : Agni Vaiśvānara, the typical god 85 AdiP 199.26 & 35. 86 AdiP, 215.6-7. 87 Vol. I. p.403. 88 Vedic Index, II, p.353. 89 Vedic Index, I, pp.493-4 90 Hymns of the Atharvaveda, Tr. Maurice Bloomfield, SBE, Vol. XLII, Delhi, 1964,
pp.197-98. $. T. 14
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