The legends of the Panjâb

No.
XV.
THE LEGEND OF SAFIDON.
AS GENERALLY KNOWN IN THE PANJAB, AND AS
TOLD BY AN INHABITANT OF SAFIDON.
[The legends about Safidon, which pracfcioally relate the story of the holocaust
of snakes by Janamejaya, and the events leading thereto, are very widely
known throughout the Panjfib, and form perhaps one of the most impor.
tant groups of the legendary lore of the people. The story—overladen
however with much subsequent Brahmanical lore—is told in the Adi Pan&
of the MahdbMrata, and again partially in the Bhdgavata Pur&na, and has
beoQ the subject of endless speculation. It no doubt relates the war of
extermination carried on by the Aryans about Dehli (Dill!) against the N^a
race of the Panjab, and is thus a tale of much historical importance.]
[Throughout the legends, as related by the peasantry of the present day, the
N&ga people are confounded with the Udg, or poisonous snake, which was
perhaps their totem, and in this respect the tradition of to-day varies but
little from that of the Sanskrit classical times. But so strongly does the
humanity—so to speak—of the Nfigas of the story in all its forms come out
that, wherever the word N&g, and sometimes where the word S&mp (snake)j
has occurred, I have translated by the vague word Nag in preference to
snalce or setpent. It is well worth remarking how clearly the modern
Panj5.bi tradition tends to show that the real cause of the quarrel between
the Aryans and the NSgas was the abduction of a princess of the latter
race by Parikshit, the king of the former.]
[The scene of the story is always laid in the Panjdb at the place variously called
Safidam, Sattdon, Sapidan and Saphidan, which the more learned natives
say represents Sarpa-damana. This would make the name to mean " the
subduing of the snakes or NSgs."
Safidoii is a town in the Jind State.]
[I have not given the original of the following short prose legend of Saf!don>
as it is merely the ordinary Urdu of B uropeans and the polite natives.
only carries us as far as the abduction of the princess and does not relate
the subsequent murder () of the seducer Parikshit and the terrible reprisal
of his son Janamejaya. The MaMbh&rata story is mostly occupied
with the deeds of Janamejaya and the death of Parikshit.]
THE LEGEND OF SAFIDON.
The town was founded by the P^ndavaS*' and its modern
name is Safidam, or more populai'ly Safidon. In it there were
* Usually tte sons of Pandn and heroes of the Mahdhhdrata,_ but
here probably the descendants of Pandu, as Parikshit and Janamejaya,
tie usual heroes of this legend, were
' respectively grandson and greatgi-andaon
of Arjuua the PaadaTa. In modern language the whole race
are called Pandus.
It