PURU, the sixth king of the Lunar race. Ile was the youngest son of Yayati and Sarmishtha. Ile and his brother Yadu were founders of the two great branches of the I,unar race. The descendants of Puru were called the Paurava, and of this race caine the Kaurava and the Pan dava. Among the Yadava or descendants of Yadu was Krishna. In the time of Alexander there were two princely races belonging to the Puru or Paurava, both called Porus by the Greeks. When the Aryans had advanced southwards, and large portions of what is now termed India were under their sway, we read of one monarch with many names,—Divo Dasa, Atithigwa, As wateha, Prastoka, Srinjaga, and Puru. Three of these are found in one verse (vol. ii. p. 34): For Puru, the giver of offerings, for the mighty Divo Dasa, through Indra, has destroyed ninety cities. For Atithigwa the fierce (Indra) hurled Sarnbara from off the mountain, bestowing (upon the prince) immense treasure.' Divo Dasa was a warrior and a conqueror ; he is described as overcoming and destroying many cities of Satn bara, reserving one for his own use. He made a successful expedition as far as Parnaya (Query, the modern Purnia ?). In his old age, at the
head of a confederacy of twenty kings, Kusta and Ayu being the chief, he led an army of 60,000 against the mighty and youthful Sa-sravas, was defeated, and compelled to submit. And a writer in the Calcutta Review (No. 64, p. 432) views this war to be the historical foundation for the traditional great war of the Mahabharata. The era of Divo Dasa is estimated to have been about the tirne of Cyrus, and the engagement described to have been with some satrap (kshatrap) left by Cyrus when lie was occupied with his great Median, Lydian, or Babylonian compaigns. It may, however, have been during the rebellions and troubles of the early days of Darius Ilystaspes. And by a curious coincidence, Bentley places Garga (the bard of Divo Dasa) in B.C. 548, and the cautious Professor Wilson suspects an allusion to the Buddhists, which could not be earlier than B.C. 545. The Peru kingdom, according to Bunsen, was established B.C. 3000 by the Aryan iminigmnts, who afterwards made eonquests of Matmarn, Tansu, and Iliva.—Bunsen, iv. p. 556 ; Dowson.