The History and Culture of the Indian People v1.c19.s3.t2.14

v1.c19.s3.t2.14

Kosala and Videha do not appear in the earlier Vedic literature, being first mentioned in the *Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa* (I. 4. 1. 10 ff.) which relates the story of the spread of the Aryan culture. Videgha Māthava, the king of the Videhas, accompanied by his priest Gotama Rāhūgaṇa, is spoken of as carrying the sacrificial fire from the bank of the Sarasvatī over Kosala (Oudh) eastwards across the Sadānīrā, and as establishing a settlement which was known as Videha (Tirhut) after the tribal name of Māthava. The story preserves the tradition that the Videhas received their culture from the west, that Kosala was Brahmanized before Videha, that the country as far as the Sadānīrā was conquered in one sweep, and that the progress was checked for a while after which Videha was founded across the river. The later division of Kosala into the northern and southern is not known to the Vedic literature.