race, that son as his heir-apparent. And Bhumanyu
begat upon his wife, Pushkarini six sons named Suhotra,
Suhotri, Suhavih, Sujeya, Diviratha and Kichika.
The eldest of them all, Suhotra, obtained the throne
and performed many Rajasuyas and horse-sacrifices.
And Suhotra brought under his sway the whole earth
surrounded by her belt of seas and full of elephants,
kine and horses, and all her wealth of gems of gold.
And the earth afflicted with the weight of numberless
human beings and elephants, horses, and cats, was,
as it were, about to sink. And during the virtuous
reign of Suhotra the surface of the whole earth was
dotted all over with hundreds and thousands, of sacrificial
stakes. And the lord of the earth, Suhotra, begat,
upon his wife Aikshaki three sons, viz., Ajamidha,
Sumidha, and Purumidha. The eldest of them, Ajamidha,
was the perpetuator of the royal line. And he
begat six sons,—Riksha was born of the
womb of Dhumini, Dushmanta and Parameshthin, of Nili,
and Jahnu, Jala and Rupina were born in that of Kesini.
All the tribes of the Panchalas are descended from
Dushmanta and Parameshthin. And the Kushikas are
the sons of Jahnu of immeasurable prowess. And
Riksha who was older than both Jala and Rupina became
king. And Riksha begat Samvarana, the perpetuator
of the royal line. And, O king, it hath been heard
by us that while Samvarana, the son of Riksha, was
ruling the earth, there happened a great loss of people
from famine, pestilence, drought, and disease.
And the Bharata princes were beaten by the troops
of enemies. And the Panchalas setting out to
invade the whole earth with their four kinds of troops
soon brought the whole earth under their sway.
And with their ten Akshauhinis the king of the Panchalas
defeated the Bharata prince. Samvarana then with
his wife and ministers, sons and relatives, fled in
fear, and took shelter in the forest on the banks of
the Sindhu extending to the foot of the mountains.
There the Bharatas lived for a full thousand years,
within their fort. And after they had lived there
a thousand years, one day the illustrious Rishi Vasishtha
approached the exiled Bharatas, who, on going out,
saluted the Rishi and worshipped him by the offer
of Arghya. And entertaining him with reverence,
they represented everything unto that illustrious
Rishi. And after he was seated on his seat, the
king himself approached the Rishi and addressed him,
saying, ’Be thou our priest, O illustrious one!
We will endeavour to regain our kingdom.’
And Vasishtha answered the Bharatas by saying, ‘Om’
(the sign of consent). It hath been heard by us
that Vasishtha then installed the Bharata prince in
the sovereignty of all the Kshatriyas on earth, making
by virtue of his Mantras this descendant of Puru the
veritable horns of the wild bull or the tusks of the
wild elephants. And the king retook the capital
that had been taken away from him and once more made
all monarchs pay tribute to him. The powerful
Samvarana, thus installed once more in the actual
sovereignty of the whole earth, performed many sacrifices
at which the presents to the Brahmanas were great.