Princes of the Solar Line.
Ikshwaku was the son of Manu, and the first who moved to the eastward, and founded Ayodhya.
Budha (Mercury) founded the Lunar line; but we are not told who established their first capital, Prayag,[[3]] though we are authorized to infer that it was founded by Puru, the sixth in descent from Budha [33].
A succession of fifty-seven princes occupied Ayodhya from Ikshwaku to Rama. From Yäyati’s sons the Lunar races descend in unequal lengths. The lines from Yadu,[[4]] concluding with Krishna and his cousin Kansa, exhibit fifty-seven and fifty-nine descents from Yayati; while Yudhishthira,[[5]] Salya,[[6]] Jarasandha,[[7]] and Vahurita,[[8]] all contemporaries of Krishna and Kansa, are fifty-one, forty-six, and forty-seven generations respectively, from the common ancestor Yayati.
Solar and Lunar Genealogies.
Mr. Bentley’s[[9]] lists agree with Sir William Jones’s, exhibiting fifty-six and forty-six respectively for the last-mentioned Solar and Lunar races. But, on a close comparison, he has either copied them or taken from the same original source; afterwards transposing names which, though aiding a likely hypothesis, will not accord with their historical belief.
Colonel Wilford’s[[10]] Solar list is of no use; but his two dynasties of Puru and Yadu of the Lunar race are excellent, that part of the line of Puru, from Jarasandha to Chandragupta, being the only correct one in print.
It is surprising Wilford did not make use of Sir William Jones’s Solar chronology; but he appears to have dreaded bringing down Rama to the period of Krishna, as he is known to have preceded by four generations ‘the Great War’ of the Yadu races.
It is evident that the Lunar line has reached us defective. It is supposed so by their genealogists; and Wilford would have increased the error by taking it as the standard, and reducing the Solar to conform thereto.
Mr. Bentley’s method is therefore preferable; namely, to suppose eleven princes omitted in the Lunar between Janmejaya and Prachinvat. But as there is no [34] authority for this, the Lunar princes are distributed in the tables collaterally with the Solar, preserving contemporaneous affinity where synchronisms will authorise. By this means all hypothesis will be avoided, and the genealogies will speak for themselves.