Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c9.s9.10

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.