Of the twenty-sixth prince, Manava, two sons devoted themselves to religion, and established celebrated sects, viz. Mahavira, whose descendants were the Pushkar Brahmans; and Sankriti, whose issue were learned in the Vedas.[Vedas.] From the line of Ajamidha these ministers of religion were continually branching off.
In the very early periods, the princes of the Solar line, like the Egyptians and Romans, combined the offices of the priesthood with kingly power, and this whether Brahmanical or Buddhist.[[4]] Many of the royal line, before and subsequent to Rama, passed great part of their lives as ascetics; and in ancient sculpture and drawings the head is as often adorned with the braided lock of the ascetic as with the diadem of royalty.[[5]]
The greatest monarchs bestowed their daughters on these royal hermits and sages [28]. Ahalya, the daughter of the powerful Panchala,[[6]] became the wife of the ascetic Gautama. The sage Jamadagni espoused the daughter of Sahasra[[7]] Arjuna, of Mahishmat,[[8]] king of the Haihaya tribe, a great branch of the Yadu race.
Among the Egyptians, according to Herodotus [ii. 37, 141], the priests succeeded to sovereignty, as they and the military class alone could hold lands; and Sethos, the priest of Vulcan, caused a revolution, by depriving the military of their estates.
We have various instances in India of the Brahmans from Jamadagni to the Mahratta Peshwa, contesting for sovereignty; power[[9]] and homage being still their great aim, as in the days of Vishvamitra[[10]] and Vasishtha, the royal sages [29] whom “Janaka sovereign of Mithila, addressed with folded hands in token of superiority.”
Relations of Rajputs with Brahmans.
The story of the King Vishvamitra of Gadhipura[[11]] and the Brahman Vasishtha, which fills so many sections of the first book of the Ramayana,[[12]] exemplifies, under the veil of allegory, the contests for power between the Brahmanical and military classes, and will serve to indicate the probable period when the castes became immutable. Stripped of its allegory, the legend appears to point to a time when the division of the classes was yet imperfect; though we may infer, from the violence of the struggle, that it was the last in which Brahmanhood could be obtained by the military.
Vishvamitra was the son of Gadhi (of the race of Kausika), King of Gadhipura, and contemporary of Ambarisha, King of Ayodhya or Oudh, the fortieth prince from Ikshwaku; consequently about two hundred years anterior to Rama. This event therefore, whence we infer that the system of castes was approaching perfection, was probably about one thousand four hundred years before Christ.
Dates of the Genealogies.
Vyasa, the author of the grand epic the Mahabharata, was son of Santanu (of the race of Hari),[[13]] sovereign of Delhi, by Yojanagandha, a fisherman’s daughter,[[14]] [30] consequently illegitimate. He became the spiritual father, or preceptor, of his nieces, the daughters of Vichitravirya, the son and successor of Santanu.