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370 Eajendralala Mitra — An Imperial Assemblage [No. 3, 



true, profess to be exhaustive ; but the necessity felt for such a list and 

 its meagreness suffice to show, that the rite was but rarely performed, and 

 even the knowledge of its ritual among the priesthood was not common. 

 The Eamayana describes the rite as celebrated by Bamachandra, but there 

 is no description of it in any later work; and no manual for its per- 

 formance has yet been met with. 



The description of the Bajasuya in the Mahabharata is a popular poeti- 

 cal one, loaded with much that is mythical, and a considerable amount of 

 exaggeration ; but it is the best known all over India, and comprises the full- 

 est account of its exoteric characteristics. Yudhishthira, the hero of it, lived, 

 according to Hindu chronology, in the last century of the third cycle or 

 the Treta Yuga, i. e. five thousand one hundred and fifty years ago ; but 

 recent researches of oriental scholars are fatal to his claim to so remote 

 an antiquity. A careful study of the lists of ancient kings given in the 

 Puranas, allowing an average reign of sixteen years to each king, would bring 

 him to the twentieth century before the Christian era. But even this is 

 not tenable. On the other hand the existence, in the Aitareya Brahmana, 

 of the name of Janamejaya, son of Parikshit, who is evidently the same 

 with the sovereign named in the Mahabharata, and the grandson of Arjuna 

 brother of Yudhishthira, would force the inference that he lived long before 

 that portion of the Eig Veda came into existence ; and the lowest estimate 

 possible appears to be somewhat over twelve centuries before the era of 

 Christ. 



Yudhishthira and his four brothers lost their father Pandu,* king of 

 Hastinapura, at an early age ; and during their minority the management 

 of their paternal state fell into the hands of their uncle Dhritarashtra, under 

 whose guardianship they were brought up. Dhritarashtra was senior to 

 Pandu, and would have, under ordinary circumstances, inherited the 

 principality of Hastinapura. But as he was born blind, his claims were set 

 aside, according to Hindu law, in favour of his younger brother. The 

 principality having, however, come to his hands during the minority of his 

 nephews, court intrigue was brought into play, when the youths came of age, 

 to prevent their coming into possession of even a portion of their patrimony. 

 The sons of Dhritarashtra were most inimical to them, and domestic dissen- 

 fcions were frequent and serious. To prevent these unseemly disputes, the 



vana, by Vasishtha. 8. Marutta, son of Avikshit, by Samvarta, son of Angiras. 9. 

 Anga alias Alopanga by Udamaya, son of Atri. 10. Bharata, son of Dusbyanta, by 

 Dirghatamas, the son of an unmarried woman. 



* The word means " pale yellow" and is ordinarily used to indicate jaundice. Mr. 

 Wheeler opines that it is a euphemism for white leprosy, but there is nothing to justify 

 the theory, Kunti is said to have selected him from out of a whole host of princes at a 

 grand sayanvara ; and no damsel is ever likely to select a leper for her consort. 



