Tribes in Ancient India c32.51

c32.51

Trasadasyu, the son of this Nāga queen, ascended the throne on his father’s death. His son Anaraṇya is said to have been killed by Rāvaṇa. Several generations after this, Prince Satyavrata, son of the Kośala king, Trayyāruṇa, was in disfavour with his father as well as with the family priest Vasiṣṭha, and was given the name of Triśaṅku. Vasiṣṭha’s rival, Viśvāmitra, however, espoused his cause, and placed him on the throne of Kośala. Triśaṅku’s son Hariścandra was a very great monarch of the Kośalas; he celebrated a Rājasūya sacrifice and became famous as a *samrāṭ* or emperor.² The story of how Hariścandra promised to sacrifice his son to Varuṇa, and how finally Śunaḥśepa, a Brāhmaṇ lad, was sacrificed instead, is told in the *Aitareya Brāhmaṇa* and *Bhāgavatapurāṇa*. The latter also adds that there was a long-standing quarrel between Vasiṣṭha and Viśvāmitra over this Kośala king Hariścandra. The *Mahābhārata*³ also speaks of the surpassing glories of King Hariścandra of Kośala.