Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s2.10

c12.s2.10

The **Koliyas** claim to have been cadets from the royal house of Benares. Tradition connects them with the cities of Rāmagāma and Devadaha.¹ The river Rohiṇī separated their capital from that of the Sākyas, and helped to irrigate the fields of both the clans.² "Once upon a time in the month of *Jeṭṭhamūla* when the crops began to flag and droop, the labourers from amongst both the peoples assembled together." Then followed a scramble for water. Bloodshed was averted by the mediation of the Buddha.³ From the mutual recriminations in which they indulged, we learn that the Sākyas had the custom of marrying their own sisters. Cunningham places the Koliya country between the Kohāna and Aumi (Anomā) rivers. The Anomā seems to have formed the dividing line between the Koliyas on the one hand and the Mallas and Moriyas on the other.