In search of Saryati

Saryati, Saryati or SaryAta (Manava) is a king in Vedic history whose
identification seems to be evading the scholar. In this post, I will
be using the name Saryati to denote any /all of the above names and
identities.

I see that he is possibly connected to the early formation period of
Vedic rituals. He taught the second day rituals to Angiras (the
Asuric Brahmins who learnt rituals from the Ksatriyas: NabhAga,
another kshatriya taught them the sixth day rituals) and perhaps for
this reason, you would not find his name in any of the Upanishads.

Several things are mentioned about him in Vedas, Brahmanas and
Puranas, which is possibly making it more difficult to fix him.

For e.g., his connection with the famous Haiheyas, as mentioned in
MBh, was never established. Haiheyas are popularly accepted as
Yadavas but Saryati was the son of Vaivasvata Manu at one place and
(perhaps, another) Saryati was mentioned as Puru King in an
encyclopedia. Even being a Puru king will not make him the direct
ancestor of Yadavas. I remember reading elsewhere he was in the
lineage Pracinvat-Saryati-Ahamyati but I am sure this description
belongs to Samyati.

Saryati is also mentioned as being the ancestor of AnArta
(geographically, denoting Gujarat), Rewata and Raivata. This lineage
dispersed thanks to Raksasas and the dispersed peoples were called as
SaryatAs.

Interestingly, both the clans mentioned above are related to river
Narmada- Mahismati, the later capital of Haiheyas was on the banks of
Narmada and Rewata shares his name with Narmada (cf Rewa) Thus, we
can possibly assume that the dispersed peoples must have traversed
along Narmada.

Another prevalent connection of Saryati is with sage Cyavana.
Saryati gives away his daughter to the aged and perhaps, blinded
Cyavana, who becomes young again with the help of Aswins. He offers
libation to the Aswins in return defying Indra's wishes. This story
with variations had been told in kausikata, padma purana, MBh,
Jaiminiya Br. and Satapata Br.

Cyavana himself is difficult to place since he is connected with
Sagara , the Ishwaku King on one hand and King Kusika (the grand
father of Viswamitra) on the other. These two kings have good amount
of time lag between them, unless Kusika is only an ancestor of
Viswamitra and not grandfather. To complicate the issue, Cyavana
also figures during the times of Kartavirya Arjuna also –he curses
him. However, we have to agree that it is not uncommon for sages to
appear across times, because they were recognized more by their
Gotras than by their first names.

Rg veda mentions that Madhu chandhas is the purohit of Saryati.
Perhaps for this reason, since Viswamitras are Bhrigus, Saryati
adopts the gotra of Brhigus. (there is another story of vita harya,
a Haiheya king being converted into Brahminism, into the Gotra of
Bhrigu. His son is the celebrated Grtsamada) The above makes things
clear that he certainly belonged to the times of Viswamitra proper.

Yet, under these circumstances, it is apparently difficult to fix the
time. At most, we can say that SaryAta belongs to the lineage of
Saryati , the son of Manu and has married his daughter to Cyavana,
which still leaves many questions unanswered and many legends
unexplained in terms of dating.


I invite the corrections, references and views from the learned
members.


Kishore patnaik