Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c12.s5.12

c12.s5.12

In the *Nirayāvalī Sūtra* (*Nirayāvaliyā-Sutta*) it is related that when Kūṇika (Ajātaśatru) prepared to attack Cheṭaka of Vaiśālī the latter called together the eighteen Gaṇarājas² of Kāśi and Kosala, together with the Lichchhavis and Mallakis, and asked them whether they would satisfy Kūṇika's demands, or go to war with him. The good relations subsisting between Kosala and Vaiśālī are referred to in the *Majjhima Nikāya*.³ There is thus no reason to doubt the authenticity of the Jaina statement regarding the alliance between Kāśi-Kosala on the one hand and Vaiśālī on the other. It seems that all the enemies of Ajātaśatru including the rulers of Kāśi-Kosala and Vaiśālī offered a combined resistance. The Kosalan war and the Vajjian war were probably not isolated events but parts of a common movement directed against the establishment of the hegemony of Magadha. The flames fused together into one big conflagration.¹ We are reminded of the tussle of the Samnites, Etruscans and Gauls with the rising power of Rome.