Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s9: Section III. The Fall of Kāsi and the Ascendancy of Kosala
Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s9
- Language
- English
Section III. The Fall of Kāsi and the Ascendancy of Kosala
c9.s9.1
*Kośalo nāma muditaḥ sphīto janapado mahān*
—*Rāmāyaṇa*.
c9.s9.2
The flourishing period of the sixteen *Mahājanapadas* ended in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The history of the succeeding age is the story of the absorption of these states into a number of powerful kingdoms, and ultimately into one empire, namely, the empire of Magadha.
c9.s9.3
Kāsi was probably one of the first to fall. The *Mahāvagga* and the *Jātakas* refer to bitter conflicts between this kingdom and its neighbours, specially Kosala. The facts of the struggle are obscure, being wrapped up in legendary matter from which it is impossible to disentangle them. The Kāśis seem to have been successful at first, but the Kosalas were the gainers in the end.
c9.s9.4
In the *Mahāvagga*¹ and the *Kosambī Jātaka*² it is stated that Brahmadatta, king of Kāśi, robbed Dīghati, king of Kosala, of his realm, and put him to death. In the *Kunāla Jātaka*³ we are told that Brahmadatta, king of Kāśi, owing to his having an army, seized on the country of Kosala, slew its king, and carried off his chief queen to Benares, and there made her his consort. The *Brahāchatta*⁴ and *Sona-Nanda Jātakas*⁵ also refer to the victories of Kāśi monarchs over Kosala.
c9.s9.5
¹ S.B.E., XVII, 291-99.
c9.s9.6
² No. 428.
c9.s9.7
³ No. 536.
c9.s9.8
⁴ No. 336.
c9.s9.9
⁵ No. 532.
c9.s9.10
Success, however, did not remain long with the Kāśis.¹ In the *Mahāsīlava Jātaka*² king Mahāsīlava of Kāśi is said to have been deprived of his realm by the ruler of Kosala. In the *Ghata*³ and *Ekarāja Jātakas*⁴ Vaṅka and Dabbhasena, sovereigns of Kosala, are said to have won for their country a decided preponderance over Kāśi. The final conquest of the latter kingdom was probably the work of Kaṁsa, as the epithet *Barānasiggaho*, i.e., "seizer of Benares" or Kāśi is a standing addition to his name.⁵ The interval of time between Kaṁsa's conquest of Kāśi and the rise of Buddhism could not have been very long because the memory of Kāśi as an independent kingdom was still fresh in the minds of the people in the Buddha's time and even later when the *Aṅguttara Nikāya* was composed.
c9.s9.11
¹ *Cf. Jātaka* No. 100.
c9.s9.12
² No. 51.
c9.s9.13
³ No. 355.
c9.s9.14
⁴ No. 303.
c9.s9.15
⁵ The *Seyya Jātaka*, No. 282; the *Tesakuna Jātaka*, No. 521; *Buddhist India*, p. 25.
c9.s9.16
In the time of Mahākosala (about the middle of the sixth century B.C.) Kāśi formed an integral part of the Kosalan monarchy. When Mahākosala married his daughter, the lady Kosalādevī, to king Bimbisāra of Magadha, he gave a village of Kāśi producing a revenue of a hundred thousand for bath and perfume money.⁶
c9.s9.17
⁶ *Harita Māta Jātaka*, No. 239; *Vaḍḍhaki Sūkara Jātaka*, No. 283.
c9.s9.18
In the time of Mahākosala's son and successor, Pasenadi or Prasenajit, Kāśi still formed a part of the Kosalan empire. In the *Lohichcha Sutta*⁷ Buddha asks a person named Lohichcha the following questions: "Now what think you Lohichcha? Is not king Pasenadi of Kosala in possession of Kāśi and Kosala?" Lohichcha replies, " Yes, that is so, Gotama."¹ We learn from the *Mahāvagga*² that a brother of Pasenadi acted as the viceroy of Kāśi.
c9.s9.19
⁷ *Dialogues of the Buddha*, Part I, 288-97.
c9.s9.20
¹ *Cf.* *Gradual Sayings*, V. 40. "As far as the Kāsi-Kosalans extend, as far as the rule of Pasenadi, the Kosalan *rājā*, extends, therein Pasenadi, the Kosalan *Rājā*, is reckoned chief."
c9.s9.21
² *S.B.E.*, XVII, 195.
c9.s9.22
The *Saṃyukta Nikāya*³ speaks of Pasenadi as the head of a group of five *Rājās*. One these was probably his brother, the viceroy of Kāśi. Among the remaining princes and chiefs we should perhaps include the *rājanya* Pāyāsi of Setavyā mentioned in the *Pāyāsi Suttanta*⁴ and the ruler of the Kālāmas of Kesaputta.⁵
c9.s9.23
³ *The Book of the Kindred Sayings*, translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids, I., p. 106.
c9.s9.24
⁴ *Cf.* *Milinda*, IV. 4. 14; the *Vimāna-vatthu* commentary; Law, *Heaven and Hell*, 79, 83. Payāsi occurs as the name of a village in a Sahet Mahet Inscription. It has been identified with a village close to the findspot of the record (Ray, DHNI, I. p. 521).
c9.s9.25
⁵ *Indian Culture*, II. 808; *Aṅguttara*, I, 188.
c9.s9.26
Another *Rājā* of the group was apparently the Śākya chief of Kapilavāstu. His political subordination to the Kosalan monarchs appears from several texts.⁶ The ruler of Devadaha may have ranked as another notable vassal of Kosala.⁷
c9.s9.27
⁶ *See Supra*, p. 99.
c9.s9.28
⁷ Kapilavastu, Devadaha and Koliya are sometimes mentioned as three distinct states (*DPPN*, I, 102n). The subordination of the Sakyas to the King of Kosala necessarily implies the latter's control over Devadaha which was in part, at any rate, a Sākyan city.
c9.s9.29
It was probably during the reign of Mahākosala, that Bimbisāra was anointed king of Magadha. With the coronation of this famous ruler ends the period with which this part of the work deals.