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Reference : Kalahana’s Rajatarangini. Translation by Ranjit Sitaram Pandit, Foreword by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Publishers : Sahitya Akademi. ISBN : 81-260-1236-6, Rs 200, first published in 1935, latest reprint 2006. (Page 30..)
Kalahana tells us that 52 kings passed into oblivion from the time of the Kauravas and The Pandavas to this Gonanda 3.
Gonanda 3 was a Hindu King and restored the worship of the Nagas as was customary in Ancient Kashmir. In his father’s time there was excessive snowfall.. which was understood to be the fault of Buddhists.
- (The Bhikshuks were seen as pests. This feeling is also reflected in a different fashion in Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Chanakya forbids people from becoming sanyasis, without completing the duties of the household stage.)
He restored the practices followed in the NilaPurana. Then the peril from the Bhikshuks and the snowfall abated. With his virtuous rule, he restored order in the country of Kasyapa.
- Here Kashmir is referred to as the country of Kasyapa. Please note that this is not Kasyapa, the husband of Aditi, (who was from Andhra/Telangana), but it is Kasyapa the husband of Aryavati, the forefather of the Aryans, as per the Bhavishya Purana. (See : Aryans to Asoka (Bhavishya Purana)). He was also the forefather of Gauthama Kasyapa Buddha, in whose line were born Sakya Muni, Suddhodana, Sakyasimha, Buddha Simha, Chandragupta (who married the daughter of Suluva the Yavana king of Pausasa), Bindusara, Asoka, as per the Bhavishya Purana.
Gonanda 3 was the first of the house of Gonandas. He ruled Kashmir for 35 years.
His son Vibhishana 1 ruled Kashmir for 53.5 years. Indrajit was the son of Vibhishana 1 and he ruled Kashmir for 35.5 years. Indrajit’s son was Kashmir’s own Ravana.
He ruled for 30 years. Kalahana tells us that the Siva Linga known as Vatesvara worshipped by Ravana was radiant even to his day and that its luminous dots and lines foretold events to come. The entire kingdom of Kashmir was dedicated to Vateswara, installed withing a quadrangular Matha. His son Vibishana 2 ruled Kashmir for 35.5 years.
- It is important to note that, in India as a general rule people are only named after heroes and not after the bad guys. The fact that the kings of the Gonanda dynasty were named after Ramayana’s Ravana, his brother Vibhishana and his son Indrajit, show a clear leaning towards that family of Siva’s devotees, rather than to Sri Rama or Sri Krishna. To this day, in Sri Lanka, ordinary people are named after Ravana and not after Rama. Whereas in mainland India, people are named after Rama.
- Vatesvara the Astronomer, possibly of Kashmir, was possibly named after this Vatesvara.
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