VICHITRA-VIRYA, son of Santanu, raja of Hastinapur, married Amba and Ambalika, daughters of the raja of ICasi, but he died without children. His widows were taken by his half-brother Vyasa, and were the mothers of Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Vyasa also begat Vidura out of a slave girl of Ambika. Dhritarashtra, Pandu, and Vidura were thus half-brothers. • Arrian gives the story thus : He (Hercules) had a daughter when he was advanced in years, and, being linable to find a husband worthy of her, he married her himself, that he might supply the throne of India with monarchs. Her name was Pandea, and he caused the whole province in which she was born to receive its name from her.' This, says Tod, is the very legend contained in the Parana of Vyasa (who was Heri-cul-es, or chief of the race of Heri), and his spiritual daughter Pandea, from whom sprang the grand race of the Pandu, and from whom Dehli and its dependencies were designated the Pandu sovereignty. Her issue ruled for 31 generations in direct descent, or from a.c. 1120 to 610, when the military minister, connected by blood, was chosen by the chiefs, who rebelled against the last Pandu king, represented as neglectful of all the cares of government,' and whose deposition and death introduced a new dynasty. Two other dynasties succeeded in like manner by the usurp ation of these military ministers, until Vikram aditya, when the Pandu sovereignty and era of Yudishtra were both overturned. According to a writer in the Westminster Review, Vich itra-vi rya died childless, and Vyaaa begot two sons' by his two widows, and a third son by a slave girl, whom the third widow, Ambika, substituted for herself.
This practice of a relative raising children for a deceased childless rdative is sanctioned by Menu, who says : ' On failure of issue by the husband, the desired offspring may bc procreated either by his brother or some other near relative, called Sapinda, ou the wife, who had been duly authorized.' Pan du also, when lamenting his childlessness, says to Pritha, In distress men desire a son from the oldest brother-in -law.' Menu, regarding the choice of a husband, enjoins parents to select a handsome son-in-law ; and adds, Three years let a damsel wait, though ahe be marriageable, but after that terra let her choose for herself a hus band of equal rank.' Another mode of ancient , Hindu marriage was - the Swayamvara or self choice, where a girl chose her own husband. In the Mahabharata, the cases of Pandu with Pritha, Yudishtra with Devika, Sahadeva with Vijaya, Sivi and Devaki, Nala and Damayanti, Draupadi and Arjuna, are mentioned. Menu describes eight modes of marriage, viz. Brahma, Deva, Arsha, Prajapatya, Asura, Gandliarref-Rakshasa, and the eighth and worst, Paisacha ; the first six for a Brahman, the four last for a warrior, and the same four, the Rakahasa excepted, for tho third and fourth chu3s.— !Vest. Rev., April 1868 ; Prinsep by Thomas; Tod's Rajasthan, i. p. 31.