History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c15.s3.23

c15.s3.23

The number sapta, seven, the Vishṇu reads with Kosalā—‘sapta, Kosalāyām’ (a reading attested by the commentator and supported by Wilson's MSS. See J. Vidyasagara's ed., p. 584; Wilson, IV, 213, 214). In the preface the [e] Vāyu Purāṇa designates it ‘pañcha-Kosalāḥ’-‘the Five-Kosalas’ [Vaidīśāḥ pañcha-Kosalāḥ, while it mentions ‘Mekalāḥ Kosalāḥ’ separately [Pargiter, PT., p. 3]. With these two the seven provinces of the ‘Sapta-Kosalā’ would be complete. In the M.-Bh. also, there are two units in this region with the name Kosala; Sabhā, XXXI, 13 [‘the King of Kosala, the King of Veṇa-taṭa, the Kāntārakas, the King of the Eastern Kosalas’].