Tribes in Ancient India c33.69

c33.69

As we have seen, the Bhagga or Bharga State was a dependency of the Vatsa kingdom. We learn from the preface to the Dhonasākha Jātaka, No. 353, that Prince Bodhi, the son of Udayana, king of the Vatsas (by his queen Vāsuladattā or Vāsavadattā), dwelt on the Sumsumāragiri and built a palace called Kokanada. Sumsumāragiri, according to Buddhist tradition, was the capital of the Bharga kingdom; so evidently in the sixth century B.C. the territory of the Bhargas was a dependency of the Vatsa kingdom, governed by a Viceroy of the royal family of Kauśāmbī. Bhikṣu Rāhula Saṃ- krityāyana proposes to identify the Bharga country with the present Mirzapur district, and its capital Sumsumāragiri with the present Chunar hill.¹ Buddhaghoṣa suggests, however, that Sumsumāragira (not Sumsumāragiri) was the name of the principal town in the Bhagga country. Originally the Vatsas and Bhārgavas (or Bhaggas) were two ruling clans that settled down and founded kingdoms side by side. Vatsa and Bhṛgu, from whom the Vatsas and Bhārgavas respectively claimed their descent, are said to have been sons of King Pratardana of Kāśī.²