| YouTube Channel

बल्हिकप्रातिपीय (balhikaprAtipIya)

 
Vedic Reference
English
2. Balhika Prātipīya is the name of a Kuru king in the
Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, ^1 where he appears as having been opposed
to the restoration of Duṣṭarītu Pauṃsāyana to his hereditary
sovereignty over the Sṛñjayas, but as having failed to prevent
the restoration being carried out by Revottaras Pāṭava Cākra
Sthapati. The epithet Prātipīya is curious: if it connects him
with Pratīpa (whose son he is in the Epic), the form is
remarkable, Zimmer^2 indeed tacitly altering it to Prātīpīya.
In the Epic and the Purāṇas^3 he is in the form of Vāhlīka
made a brother of Devāpi and Śantanu, and a son of Pratīpa.
To base chronological conclusions on this^4 would be utterly
misleading, for the facts are that Devāpi was son of Ṛṣṭiṣeṇa
and a priest, while Śantanu was a Kuru prince of unknown
parentage, but not probably a son of Pratīpa, who seems to be
a late figure in the Vedic age, later than Parikṣit, being his
great-grandson in the Epic. Very possibly Balhika was a
descendant of Pratīpa. Why he bore the name Balhika
must remain uncertain, for there is no evidence of any sort
regarding it.
1) xii. 9, 3, 3.
2) Altindisches Leben, 432.
3) See Muir, Sanskrit Texts, 12, 273
et seq.
Sieg, Die Sagenstoffe des Ṛgveda,
131-136.
4) Pargiter, Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society, 1910, 52.