The Vishnu Purana: Book IV: Chapter XXII (original) (raw)
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The Vishnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, [1840], at sacred-texts.com
p. 463
CHAP. XXII.
Future kings of the family of Ikshwáku, ending with Sumitra.
I WILL now repeat to you the future princes of the family of Ikshwáku 1.
The son of Vrihadbala 2 will be Vrihatkshańa 3; his son will be Urukshepa 4; his son will be Vatsa 5; his son will be Vatsavyúha 6; his son will be Prativyoman 7; his son will be Divákara; his son will be Sahadeva 8; his son will be Vrihadaśwa 9; his son will be Bhánuratha 10; his son will be Supratítha 11; his son will be Marudeva 12; his son will be Sunakshatra; his son will be Kinnara 13; his son will be Antaríksha; his son will be Suvarna 14; his son will be Amitrajit 15; his son will be Vrihadrája 16; his son will be Dharman 17; his son will be Kritanjaya; his son will be Rańanjaya; his son will be Sanjaya; his son will be Śákya 18; his son will be Śuddhodana 19; his son will be Rátula 20; his son will be
p. 464
[paragraph continues] Prasenajit; his son will be Kshudraka; his son will be Kuńd́aka 21; his son will be Suratha 22; his son will be Sumitra. These are the kings of the family of Ikshwáku, descended from Vrihadbala. This commemorative verse is current concerning them; "The race of the descendants of Ikshwáku will terminate with Sumitra: it will end in the Kali age with him 23."
Footnotes
463:2 Vrihadratha: Váyu,
463:3 Vrihatkshaya: Váyu. Vrihadrańa: Bhág. Omitted: Mats.
463:4 Omitted: Váyu. Urukshaya: Mats. Urukriya: Bhág.
463:5 Omitted by all three.
463:6 Vatsavriddha: Bhág.
463:7 Prativyúha: Váyu.
463:8 The Bhágavata inserts Bhánu. The Matsya says that Ayodhyá was the capital of Divákara. The Váyu omits the next twelve names; probably a defect in the copies.
463:9 Dhruváśwa: Mats.
463:10 Bhánumat: Bhág. Bhávyaratha or Bhávya: Mats.
463:11 Pratikáśwa: Bhág. Pratípáśwa: Mats.
463:12 The Bhágavata and Matsya prefix a Supratípa or Supratíka.
463:13 Pushkara: Bhág.
463:14 Suparvan or Sumantra: Mats. Sutapas: Bhág.
463:15 Amantravit: Matsya.
463:16 Vrihadbrája: Bhág,
463:17 Omitted: Mats. Varhish: Bhág.
463:18 The Bhágavata and Váyu have Śákya. My copy of the Matsya has Śádhya, but the Radcliffe MS., more correctly, no doubt, Śakya.
463:19 In some copies Krodhodana; but it is also Śuddhodana, Mats. and Váyu; Śuddhoda, Bhág.
463:20 Ráhula: Váyu. Siddhártha or Pushkala: Mats. Lángala: Bhág. This and the two preceding names are of considerable chronological interest; for Śákya is the name of the author or reviver of Buddhism, whose birth appears to have occurred in the seventh, and death in the sixth century before Christ (B. C. 621-543). There can be no doubt of the individual here intended, although he is out of his place, for he was the son, not the father, of Śuddhodana, and the father of Ráhula; as he is termed in the Amara p. 464 and Haima Koshas, Śaudhodani or Śuddhodana suta the son of Śuddhodana, and Ráhulasú the parent of Ráhula: so also in the Maháwanśo, Siddhártha or Śákya is the son of Śuddhodano, and father of Ráhulo. Turnour's translation, p. 9. Whether they are rightly included amongst the princes of the race of Ikshwáku is more questionable; for Śuddhodana is usually described as a petty prince, whose capital was not Ayodhyá, but Kapila or Kapilavastu. At the same time it appears that the provinces of the Doab had passed into the possession of princes of the lunar line, and the children of the sun may have been reduced to the country north of the Ganges, or the modern Gorakhpur, in which Kapila was situated. The Buddhists do usually consider their teacher Śákya to be descended from Ikshwáku. The chronology is less easily adjusted, but it is not altogether incompatible. According to the lists of the text, Śákya, as the twenty-second of the line of Ikshwáku, is cotemporary with Ripunjaya, the twenty-second and last of the kings of Magadhá, of the family of Jarásandha; but, agreeably to the Buddhist authorities, he was the friend of Bimbasára, a king who in the Pauráńik list appears to be the fifth of the Śaiśunága dynasty, and tenth from Ripunjaya. The same number of princes does not necessarily imply equal duration of dynasty, and Ikshwáku's descendants may have outlasted those of Jarásandha; or, as is more likely--for the dynasty was obscure, and is evidently imperfectly preserved--several descents may have been omitted, the insertion of which would reconcile the Pauráńik lists with those of the Buddhists, and bring Śákya down to the age of Bimbasára. It is evident, from what occurs in other authorities, that the Aikshwákava princes are regarded as cotemporaries even of the Śaiśunága dynasty: see c. 24. n. 17.
464:21 Kshulika: Váyu. Kulaka or Kshullaka: Mats. Omitted: Bhág. In the Mahávíra Charitra, a work written by the celebrated Hemachandra, in the twelfth century, we have a Prasenajit, king of Magadhá, residing at Rajgriha, succeeded by Śreníka, and he by Kúlika. The Bauddhas have a Prasenajit cotemporary with Śákya, son of Mahápadma, king of Magadhá. There is some confusion of persons either in the Pauráńik genealogies or in the Buddhist and Jain traditions, but they agree in bringing the same names together about the same period.
464:22 Omitted: Bhág.
464:23 The Váyu and Bhágavata have the same stanza. We have here twenty-nine or thirty princes of the later solar line, cotemporary with the preceding twenty-six or twenty-seven of the later dynasty of the moon.