About
Shami — Son of Andhaka, Brother of Kukura and Bhajamana
Shami · Shama · Shuchi (Vishnu Purana variant)
Shami is a son of Andhaka — himself a son of Satvata and Kaushalya — and belongs to the first generation of the Andhaka branch of the Satvata-Yadava lineage. He is one of four sons born to Andhaka by a princess of the Kashya line, the others being Kukura, Bhajamana, and Kambalabarhisha. As a son of Andhaka he is an uncle of the Bhajamana line that produced Hridika and Kritavarma. Shami appears in the Harivamsha (Harivamsha Parva, 1.37.17) and is noted in the Linga Purana (Chapter 69) among the sons of Andhaka. No descendants of this Shami are recorded in any primary source consulted, and no narrative episode involving him is attested.
This Shami must be carefully distinguished from the Shami of the Bhajamana dynastic line — a figure in the sixth generation of descent from Andhaka who was the son of Rajadhideva and the ancestor of Pratiksatra, Svayambhoja, and Hridika. The recurrence of the name Shami in two separate generations of the same broad Andhaka clan reflects a common Yadava naming practice and has caused confusion in secondary literature.
✦ The Name
Shami is a Sanskrit name carrying two distinct resonances. As a common noun, shami denotes the sacred Prosopis cineraria tree, widely used in Vedic fire rituals, whose wood generates heat by friction and is associated with the concealment of divine fire. As a personal epithet, shama and its derivatives connote calmness, restraint, and pacification. Both registers are present in Puranic naming. The Harivamsha (1.37.17) gives the name in the form shami; the Dutt prose translation renders it as Shama.
✦ Lineage
- Father: Andhaka — son of Satvata and Kaushalya, ancestor of the Andhaka branch of the Yadava confederation. Andhaka's four sons by the Kashya princess establish the principal sub-branches of the Andhaka clan.
- Mother: A princess of the Kashya line, identified in the Harivamsha (1.37.17) as the daughter of Dridhasrava of the Kashya dynasty. She is the mother of all four of Andhaka's sons in this account.
- Brothers: Kukura — the eldest, whose line through Dhrishnu, Kapotaroma, Tittiri, Punarvasu, Abhijit, and Ahuka produced the Ugrasena and Devaka families, and through them Kamsa and Devaki; Bhajamana — from whom the Andhaka-Bhajamana dynastic line descended through Viduratha, Rajadhideva, Shami (the younger namesake), Pratiksatra, Svayambhoja, Hridika, and Kritavarma; Kambalabarhisha — whose sons Devavan, Asamauja, and Naasamauja continued the fourth branch of Andhaka's line.
✦ Textual Variants and Inconsistencies
The most significant textual variant affecting this figure is the substitution of his name in the Vishnu Purana. Where the Harivamsha (1.37.17) and the Linga Purana (Chapter 69) give the four sons of Andhaka as Kukura, Bhajamana, Shami, and Kambalabarhisha, the Vishnu Purana (IV.14.5) replaces Shami with Shuchi — naming the four as Kukkura, Bhajamana, Shuchi, and Kambalavarhish. Shuchi in Sanskrit means pure or bright; the substitution may reflect a scribal variant, a separate manuscript tradition, or a genuine difference in source genealogy. The Harivamsha, as the primary and more expansive source for the Andhaka genealogy, is treated here as the authoritative witness, but the Vishnu Purana variant cannot be dismissed. No source gives descendants for either Shami or Shuchi, which makes it impossible to determine from genealogical continuity alone which name is correct.
A secondary point concerns the identity question between this Shami and the Shami who appears in the Bhajamana dynastic line. The Harivamsha (1.38.2–3) records a Shami as one of the sons of Rajadhideva — a figure in the sixth generation of the same broad Andhaka lineage. That Shami is described as the ancestor of Pratiksatra, Svayambhoja, Hridika, and Kritavarma. The two figures share a name, both belong to the Andhaka branch, and both are attested in chapters 37–38 of the same text. Their identities are however entirely distinct: the Shami of chapter 37 is a first-generation son of Andhaka himself; the Shami of chapter 38 is a sixth-generation descendant. The naming may be coincidental or may reflect a deliberate dynastic naming tradition honouring the founding ancestor.
✦ Connection to the Wider Genealogy
As a son of Andhaka and brother of Bhajamana and Kukura, Shami stands in the founding generation of the Andhaka clan. No descendants are recorded for him in the primary sources, making his sub-line genealogically terminal in the surviving textual record. His significance is thus structural — as one of the four founding branches of the Andhaka clan — rather than narrative or dynastic.
✦ References
- Harivamsha, Harivamsha Parva, 1.37.17: Names Shami (Shama) as the third of four sons born to Andhaka by the daughter of Dridhasrava of the Kashya line; no descendants recorded.
- Vishnu Purana, IV.14.5 (H. H. Wilson translation): Names the four sons of Andhaka as Kukkura, Bhajamana, Shuchi, and Kambalavarhish — substituting Shuchi for Shami of the Harivamsha.
- Linga Purana, Chapter 69 (Krishnamohan Ganguli reference): Includes Shami among the sons of Andhaka in the Satvata-Yadava genealogy, consistent with the Harivamsha.
- Wisdomlib, s.v. Bhajamana (Purana Index): Secondary reference noting the four sons of Andhaka across sources and the cross-Puranic name variation.