Ishwa helper Reged: 03/03/02 Posts: 553

Re: Question? [Re: nishi] #13822 - 03/23/02 11:38 AM Edit Reply Quote

Dear Nishi, This is what I found about the relations, described in the Mah�bh�rata: About Devakii, mother of Krshna Among the Y�davas, one branch had a Devaka, whose brother is Ugrasena. The son of that Ugrasena is Kamsa, who married the daughter of king Jar�sandha of Magadha. The (grand)daughter of Devaka is Devakii, who is the mother of Krishna V�sudeva. [Sabh�parva 22] According to the AgniPur�na Devakii was the granddaughter of Devaka. Also in the Puranic chronologies, they name Devaka as father of Dev�pi whose daughter is Devakii. Now putting these data together would make Devakii the niece of Kamsa. Maybe they're seen as cousins because of the approximity of age. About Kunti, mother of Arjuna Kunti was born as Prth� in the clan of a branch of Y�davas. She is named as the sister of Vasudeva, son of king Sh�rasena of Mathura. Kunti-Prth� got her name from Kuntibhoja, another Y�dava who was the son of the sister of Sh�rasena and had adopted Kunti-Prth� from Sh�rasena. [AadiParva III] Now Kunti is sister of Vasudeva. Her son is Arjuna, and Vasudeva begot on Devakii a daughter Subhadr�. Arjuna thus married his direct cousin Subhadr�. Jar�sandha...........Ugrasena...............Devaka daughter......x......Kamsa....................Dev�pi....................Sh�rasena..........(Kuntibhoja).......sister .........................Kamsa)....................Devakii........x.........Vasudeva...............Kunti-Prth�......Kuntibhoja ......................................................Krshna....................Subhadr�.......x......Arjuna There was thus a confusion regarding the generations: Devakii's uncle and not cousin is Kamsa, whose the son-in-law of Jar�sandha. Devakii's son is Krshna, who may fought his grandfather Kamsa, but had a long fight with his greatgrandfather and had to flee eventually from Mathura to Dvaraka in Gujarat. Sh�rasena's sister had a son named Kuntibhoja, who adopted his cousin Prth� as his daughter. That is not impossible if Kuntibhoja is far older than Prth�. (adopting daughters, for shure for offspring, was not uncommon, as in the case of Il� by Manu) What exactly is meant by sister is a difficult matter. If the sister of Sh�rasena is not of the same parents, she's a distant sister. But anyway she would still be family. Or we must see Kunti's father as distinct from the father of Vasudeva having the same names. Wouldn't that be inconsequent, though there are more inconsequences? The marriage of Subhadr� with Arjuna is thus a very odd thing. In this case it was a case among Y�davas. (Matrilinear organization?) I don't recall a case of this kind among other clans.