Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 81

52 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
estimating the average length of a patriarchate or generation (in lists relating to spiritual succession) at 30 years. To the five or six teachers from Indrota to Somasushma, and from Tura to Uddālaka Āruņi and Janaka, we may, therefore, assign a period of 150 or 180 years. It is, therefore, reasonable to think that Janaka flourished about 150 or 180 years after Janamejaya, and two centuries after Parikshit. If, following a Puranic tradition, we place Parikshit in the fourteenth century B. C., we must place Janaka in the twelfth century B.C. If, on the other hand, we accept a date for Gunakhya Sankhayana, the pupil's pupil of Uddālaka according to the Śānkhāyana Aranyaka, in the sixth century B.C., we must place Parikshit in the ninth century B.C., and Janaka in the seventh century B.C.
The kingdom of Videha, over which Janaka ruled seems to be mentioned for the first time in the Samhitas of the Yajur Veda. It corresponds roughly to the modern Tirhut in North Bihar. It was separated from Kosala by the river Sadānīrā, usually identified with the modern Gandak which, rising in Nepal, flows into the Ganges opposite Patna. Oldenberg, however, points outs
1 It has recently been urged by critics that pupils are not necessarily younger in age than their preceptors. It may freely be admitted that in particular cases pupils may be of the same age with, or even older than, the guru. But it is idle. to suggest that in a long list of successive acharyas and śishyas the presence of elderly pupils must be assumed except where the guru is known to be the father of the pupil. Individual cases of succession of elderly śishyas do not invalidate the conclusion that the average duration of a generation is as suggested by Jacobi and Rhys Davids.
2 Vedic Index, II. 298.
3 According to Pargiter JASB, 1897, 89-"Videha comprised the country from Gorakhpur on the Rapti to Darbhanga, with Kosala on the west and Anga on On the north it approached the hills, and on the south it was bounded. by the small kingdom of Vaiśālī."
the east.
4 Vedic Index II, 299.
5 Buddha, p. 398 n. Cf. Pargiter, JASB, 1897. 87. Mbh.11. 20. 27.