Tribes in Ancient India c18.5

c18.5

The earliest known king of the Kekayas was Aśvapati.³ He was a theologian who is said to have instructed a number of Brāhmaṇas. The name of a Kekaya king several times referred to in the *Rāmāyaṇa*⁴ was also Aśvapati; but it is difficult to say whether the two were identical. King Aśvapati of the *Rāmāyaṇa* was the father of Kaikeyī, second queen of Daśaratha, and maternal grandfather of Bharata (*Ayodhyākāṇḍa*, Chap. 70). The capital city of King Aśvapati, according to the *Rāmāyaṇa*, was Rājagṛha or Girivraja,⁵ identified by Cunningham with Jālālpur on the Jhelum (= Giryak: Cunningham’s *Arch. Sur. Rep.*, II). We learn from Jaina sources that one-half of the Kekaya kingdom was Aryan, and the Kekaya city was known as Seyaviya.¹