________________ Tradition of the Vaisali Region 207 Nrsyanta or Narisyanta' is thus the same as Dusyanta, 'and Dama or Damana is the same as Bharata-Damana', the son of Sakuntala. Dusyanta's fathers' name was Tstsu (often wrongly written in Puranic texts as Tamsua copyist's error), and so it is fitting that the Bharatas, that is the Pauravas after Bharata, were also called Totsava-Bharatah in ancient passages. - In the Mahabharata (1, 68, 2801) and Bhagavata Purana (IX, 23, 17-18), Dusyanta is stated to have afterwards recovered the Paurava kingdom, revived the Paurava dynasty, and was hence called its 'vamsa-kara'. Hence his adoption must have taken place before he gained that position, that is while the Paurava kingdom of Matinara-Rceyu-Tftsu was in abeyance, owing to the Haihaya raids and military occupation of North India; and he could only have restored the Paurava prestige through the power of Marutta's empire, which passed on to him. This also explains how most of the Paurava branch families became, as the Puranus say, from now brahma-ksatra' families, largely under the influence of the Angirasa's of the Praci (inclusive of the Gotamas, Bharadvajas, etc.). According to the Mahabharata, Dusyanta not only ruled widely in North India, but also in the Daksinapatha, and the islands and coasts of the Indian Ocean; this latter expansion must have been helped by Dirghatamas and Angirasas, who, by all accounts, effectively controlled the extensive regions of Bali's kingdom extending from Magadha and Anga to Suhma, Vanga and Kalinga. (Dirghatamas consecrated Dusyanta's son, Bharata to the emperor's throne, just as his uucle, Samvartta, did the same function of Aindra' Mababhiseka for Marutta). The Puranas also say that branch Paurava-cum-Turvasa dynasties were started in Pandya, Cola, and Kerala of the South after Dusyanta descended from him, this corroborates the statement of the Mababharata. With this introduction, we can now take up the account of Nosyanta and Dama (=Dusyanta and Bharata-Dama), as given in the Markandeya Purana. This supplements what is known of these two great kings from other better known sources. Nosyanta's son, 'Dama', was a very famous king. He was so called as he was a 'tamer' of his foes and the wicked, very strong, yet self-restrained, with a muni's, temperament;-also because of his mother's great forbearance and self-restraint while he was with her (at her asrama), and because he himself grew there to be self-restrained in character. He was born of Indrasena, a 'princess' descended from Babbru-Kausika (evidently the same who was an adviser to King Nabhaga of Vaisali, and who was a son of the famous Visvamitra-Kausika the Great,-once king of Kanyakubja,- so that this princess' was about ninth in decceat from her great
