*. -.-I.-- BPe .jij^i|ij||i4»i,ij ^ YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE COLLEGE OF MISSIONS LIBRARY ...= at the YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL : II IMi V ; liiil 5^ ¥* THE PURANA TEXT OF THE DYNASTIES OF THE KALI AGE WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES EDITED BY r. E. PARGITER, M.A. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, RETIRED ; LATE JUDGE, HIGH COURT, CALCUTTA HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE AND BOMBAY 1913 r OXFORD: HORACE HART PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY o ^ :i^^^-''' CONTENTS PAGE Ikteoduction V The Parana authorities, §§ 1, 2. The Versions and their characters, §§ 3-6. The Bhavisya Pui-ana the original authority, §§ 7-9. Prophetic form of the account, §§ 10-14. Original language of the account, §§ 15-17. from Age of the compilation of the account—from its subject-matter, §§ 18-25 ; the scripts, §§ 26, 27. Sanskritization of the account, §§ 28, 29. Errors, omissions, and rare verses, §§ 30, 31. Formation of this text, §§ 32-36. Interpretation of the account—generally, §§ 37, 38; misreadings of letters, §§ 39-41 ; numerals, §§ 42-47. Conclusion, §§ 48-54. xxix List of Authorities : editions and MSS collated . .... .. XXXIV Abbreviations . The Pcbana Text of the Dynasties— Preface Pauravas (of Hastinapura and KauSambi) AiksvSkus (of Ayodhya) 8 Bai-hadrathas (of Magadha) . 13 17 Pradyotas . ... 20 SiiSunagas . .' • • • Early Contemporary Dynasties . Nandas Mauryas 26 Suugas ...... 30 iHliil mmmm- IV CONTENTS PAGE r Kanvayanas (Sungabhrtyas) .......... 33 Andhras ............. 35 Various Local Dynasties .......... 44 Djmasties of Vidila, &c. .......... 48 Dynasties of the Third Centui-y, a. d 50 Contemporary Dj^iasties of the early Fourth Century ..... 53 Evils of the Kali Age 55 Chronological and Astronomical Particulars 57 TeansiiAtion 65 Appendixes— I. The Account was originally in Prakrit 77 II. The oldest scripts used in the Account ....... 84 III. Janamejaya's dispute with the brahmans ...... 86 Index 89 — — INTRODUCTION AiiiAorities. Accounts of the dynasties that reigned in India during the Eali age are found in the Matsya, Vayu, Brahmanda, Visnu, Bhagavata, Garuda, and Bhavisya Puranas. All these, except the Matsya and Bhagavata, set out the ancient genea- logies down to the time of the great battle between the Pandavas and Kaoravas, and immediately afterwards deal with the dynasties that reigned in North India after that time, of which the three earliest and chief were the Pauravas who reigned at first at Hastinapura and moved in king Nicaksus' time to Kau^ambi, the Aiksvakus who reigned at Ayodhya, and the Barhadrathas who reigned in Magadha. But the Matsya and Bhagavata break these up. The Matsya adds only these later Pauravas to the ancient Paurava line in connexion with the ancient genealogies, and intro- duces all the rest of the Kali age dynasties separately in some of its latest chapters. The Bhagavata adds the later Aiksvakus to the ancient line, and the later Pauravas and Barhadrathas ^ immediately afber the ancient Paurava line in its ninth skandha, and deals with all the subsequent dynasties separately in its twelfth skandha. 2. The editions cited in this Introduction are these : Matsya and Vayu, Anandasrama editions of 1907 and 1905 (cited as ^Mt and ^Va). Brahmanda, Sri-Venka^esvara edition of 1906 (cited as Bd). Bhagavata, Ganpat Erishnaji edition of 1889 (cited as GBh) 2. Visnu and Garuda^ Jivananda Vidyasagar's Calcutta editions of 1883 and 1890 (cited as CVs and CGr). The only copy of the Bhavisya that I have seen, containing the dynastic matter, is the Sri -Vefjkatesvara edition. The passages containing this dynastic matter are these ^: ^Matsya 50, 57-89, and 371, 1 to 273, 55. JVayu 99, 250-435. Brahmanda iii, 7i, 104-248. * The Barhadratha line was an ofishoot ' The first few kings of the future Pauravas from the Paurava linej see JRAS, 1910, are named in MBh i, 95, 3835-8 (which pp. 11, 22, 29, 51. agrees with these aathorities) ; and also in ' The edition begun by Burnouf cannot be Brahma 13, 123-141, and Harivamfia 191, adopted for reference, because it does not 11063-81 (which are wholly unlike these contain the Sanskrit text of skandha xii. authorities and are obviously absurd). VI INTRODUCTION CVisnu iv, 20, 13 to <24, 44. GBhSgavata ix, 13, 9-16 ; 33, 34-49 ; and xii, 1, 2 to 3, 36. CGwada 140, 40 and 141, 1-12. Bhavisya III, i, 3 and 6. The accounts are in verse in the ^loka metre in all except the Visnu, which is mainly in prose except in the final portion. Tie Fer»ioH» and their Characters. 3. The versions of the Matsya, Vayu, and Brahmanda present a remarkable similarity. The two latter agree so closely that they resemble two recensions of the same text, and the Matsya, though not in sach marked agreement, contains a text very similar. There can be no doubt that their versions are based upon one original compilation, and this appears from four facts : Jirtt, they all declare they are taken from the Bhavisya Purana ^ ; secondly, where the Vayu and Brahmanda diflPer from each other, one of them not seldom agrees with the Matsya * ; thirdly, single MSS of them sometimes vary so as to agree with the reading of the Matsya ' ; and fourthly, one Purana occasionally omits a verse which appears in one or both of the two others, yet a single MS (or a very few MSS) of it has at times preserved that verse * and so testifies to their~ original harmony. These three versions therefore grew out of one and the same original text. At the same time the Matsya version has a character of its own which is clearly different from those of the Vayu and Brahmanda, and was prior to those two (see § 24). The similarity of the three is however such that, by collating all their MSS, copious material is available for estimating what the original compilation was. The verse is almost epic. One line is generally assigned to each king, and two or more are sometimes given to the more prominent kings ; and it is rare that two kings are dealt with in the same line, except in the early portions of the Paurava, Aiksvaku, and Barhadratha dynasties for which the chroniclers' mateiials were necessarily scanty, and in the latest dynasties which are treated succinctly. 4. The Visnu and Bhagavata have very much in common and their versions are generally alike, with the differences that the latter is in verse and the former in prose, and that the latter by the exigencies of its metre has less freedom and is often cramped. Both are distinguished from the Matsya, Vayu, and Brahmanda in being much condensed, so that their accounts are often little more than a string of names fitted in with connecting words and occasional terms of relationship ; yet they vary at times in important names and particulars so far as to indicate some independence. The Visnu has slokas at the end of the Paurava and Aiksvaku dynasties, and the » S€e§7. ' Especially eVa ; as to which see Liti of * Thus the Vayu agrees with the Matsya Authorities : Vayu. in p. 17, ]. 32; and the Brahmanda with * Thus p. 28, 11. 3, 4 of the Matsya version the Matsya in p. 22, 1. 13. Other instances do not occur in any copy of the Vayu or will be found in the notes. Brahmanda except eVa. - — THE BHAVISYA THE ORIGINAL AUTHORITY vii is in verse and it cites all whole of its final chronological and astronomical portion ; these as pre-existing i$lokas. The Bhagavata has at times fuller verses which resemble those of the three Puianas, and its final portion agrees largely with that of the Visnu. Wherever the Visnu and Bhagavata have the fuller fonn of verse, they agree with or approximate to the version of those three Puianas, and so testify that they have been derived from an original which was the same as or closely like the original of those Puranas, These peculiarities show that these two are condensed redactions. They are also later, for the Visnu elaborates its prose at times in the ornate classical style especially when referring to Krena -Visnu ^, and the age of the Bhagavata will be considered further on ^. 5. The Garuda stands by itself, for it gives only the Paurava, Aiksvaku, and Barhadratha dynasties, and its account of them is merely a string of bare names put into ^okas, more condensed than the Bhagavata. It is evidently a late version ; see I, .;--.:>. , Appendix § X. ^ 6. The only copy of the Bhavisya which contains this dynastic matter is the Veiakafesvara edition, but its account is altogether vitiated and worthless. It says each Paurava king reigned at least 1000 years, and Ksemaka's son was Pradyota (III, i, 3, 82-96) ; and it declares that Gautama founded Buddhism in Mahananda's time, that Gautama reigned ten years, and that his successors were Sakyamuni, Suddhodana, Sakyasimha, his son Buddhasimha, and his son Candragupta (ibid. 6, ' 35-43). It dilates, however, on more recent history ' with elaborate details, and with a great quantity of new matter boldly fabricated brings its prophecies down to the nineteenth century ^, In other copies the ancient matter has dropped out, and some very modem events have been particularized *. The Bhavi»ya the Original AMoritif. 7. The Bhavisya is declared to have been the original authority for these' dynasties. Both the Matsya and the Vayu expressly state that their accounts are based upon it. Thus in the Preface the Suta says he will declare all the fixture kings tan sarvan kirtayisyami Bhavisye kathitan nrpan. „ ; This is the Matsya version, and the Vayu, agreeing, makes it more precise by reading £havi»ye pathitdn Bhavisye ' ^ Here cannot mean simply in the future ', ' but must mean in the Bhavisya Purana '.