[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922) › v1.c19.s6 # The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s6: IV. The Vaṁsas The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c19.s6 - **Language:** English ### IV. The Vaṁsas ### [v1.c19.s6.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.1) The King of the Vaṁsas in the Buddha’s time is called in the Canon Udena⁵. His father’s name was Parantapa, and his son’s name Bodhi Kumāra⁶. But Udena survived the Buddha⁷, and we are not informed whether Bodhi did or did not succeed him on the throne. Tradition has preserved a long story of the adventures of Udena and his three wives. We have it in two recensions—a Pāli one, the Udena-vatthu⁸; and a Sanskrit one, the Mākandika-avadāna⁹. It is quite a good story, but how far each episode may be founded on fact is another question. The capital was Kosambī, the site of which has been much discussed¹⁰. It seems to have been on the south bank of the Jumna, at a point about 400 miles by road from Ujjenī, and about 230 miles up stream from Benares¹. One route from Ujjenī to Kosambī lay through Vedisa, and other places whose names are given but of which nothing else is at present known². There were already in the time of the Buddha four establishments or settlements of the Order in or near Kosambī, each of them a group of huts under trees. One of them was in the \*ārāma\* or pleasaunce of Ghosita, two more in similar parks, and one in Pāvāriya's Mango Grove³. The Buddha was often there, at one or other of these settlements; and discourses he held on those occasions have been handed down in the Canon. King Udena was at first indifferent or even unfriendly. On one occasion, in a fit of drunken jealousy he tortured a leading member of the Order, Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja, by having a basket full of brown ants tied to his body⁴. But long afterwards, in consequence of a conversation he had with this same man Piṇḍola, he professed himself a disciple. We have no evidence that he progressed very far along the path; but his fame has lasted in a curious way in Buddhist legends. For instance there is an early list of the seven Con-natals (\*sahajātā\*), persons born on the same day as the Buddha⁵. The details of the lists differ; and already in the Lalita-vistara it has grown into several tens of thousands, still arranged however in seven groups⁶. Many centuries afterwards we find the name of Udena appearing in similar lists recurring in Tibetan and Chinese books⁷. ### [v1.c19.s6.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.2) ⁵ \*Udāna\* VII, 10; \*Saṁyutta\* IV, 110–113. ### [v1.c19.s6.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.3) ⁶ \*Vinaya\* II, 127; IV, 198; \*Majjhima\* II, 97; \*Jātaka\* III, 157. ### [v1.c19.s6.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.4) ⁷ \*Peta-vatthu Commentary\* 140. ### [v1.c19.s6.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.5) ⁸ In Norman's \*Dhammapada Commentary\* I, 161–230. ### [v1.c19.s6.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.6) ⁹ \*Divyāvadāna\* 515–544. (Ed. Cowell and Neil.) ### [v1.c19.s6.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.7) ¹⁰ For different views see T. Watters, \*On Yuan Chwang\*, I. 366–9 and Chapter XXI, p. 524, \*infra\*. ### [v1.c19.s6.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.8) ¹ \*Buddhist India\*, p. 36. ### [v1.c19.s6.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.9) ² \*Sutta Nipāta\*, 1011. ### [v1.c19.s6.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.10) ³ \*Vin.\* IV, 16; \*Sum.\* 319. ### [v1.c19.s6.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.11) ⁴ \*Jātaka\* IV, 375. ### [v1.c19.s6.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.12) ⁵ See Rh.D., \*Buddhist Birth Stories\*, note on p. 68. ### [v1.c19.s6.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.13) ⁶ \*Lalita-vistara\* ed. Rajendralal Mitra, p. 109. ### [v1.c19.s6.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6.14) ⁷ Rockhill, \*Life\*, 16, 17; T. Watters, \*On Yuan Chwang\*, I, 368. ## Linked texts (9) - [Jātaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.jataka.352) — Pāli - [Mahāvibhaṅga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp.suttavibhanga.maha.sk.51.1.20) — Pāli - [Cullavagga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp.khandhaka.cullavagga.5.20.7.7) — Pāli - [Bodhirājakumārasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.majjhima.85.61.1) — Pāli - [Bhāradvājasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta.4.35.127.5.1) — Pāli - [Vajjīsutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.samyutta.4.35.125.1.1) — Pāli - [Suttanipāta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.suttanipata) — Pāli - [Divyāvadāna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.divyavadana) — Sanskrit - [Udāna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.udana) — Pāli --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.rapson-1922.v1.c19.s6) · Pramāṇa