Tribes in Ancient India c32.73

c32.73

The story of the rivalry between Kāśī and Kośala has already been treated at some length in our chapter on the Kāśīs, so that a summary will suffice here. In the first stage, as brought out in the canonical legend of Dīghiti and his son Dīghāyu Kumāra, King Brahmadatta appears as the powerful king of Kāśī invading the kingdom of Kośala, led by a love of conquest, easily defeating the Kośalan king Dīghiti, and ordering the execution of the Kośalan king and queen when they were detected in the realm of Kāsī living harmlessly in disguise.¹ We then see how the Kośalan prince Dīghāyu, after having gained the favour of the king of Kāsī and risen to the position of a general, tried to avenge his parents, and was re-established in his father’s kingdom.²