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Tribes in Ancient India c45: Chapter XLI

Tribes in Ancient India c45

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Chapter XLI

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The Aśmakas or Assakas formed one of the Kṣatriya tribes of ancient India. They are not mentioned in the Vedic literature, but we find them referred to in the Epics and Purāṇas. In an enumeration of the countries in ‘Bhāratavarṣa’, the land of the Aśmakas is mentioned along with those of the most prominent Kṣatriya peoples of ancient India, such as the Kurus and Śūrasenas.¹ In the different recensions of the Mahābhārata, the name of the tribe varies, being spelt either Aśmaka or Aśvaka. In Pāli Buddhist literature, the name is Assaka which, as Rhys Davids points out, may be the vernacular equivalent of either Aśmaka or Aśvaka. He continues: ‘Either there were two distinct tribes so called, or the Sanskrit form Aśvaka is a wrong reading or a blunder in the Sanskritization of Assaka.’² The Greek writers mention a people called the Assakenoi in eastern Afghanistan and the Kunar valley, with their chief town at Massaga or Maśakāvatī.

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¹ Bhīṣmaparvan, Chap. 9, p. 822.

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² Buddhist India, p. 28.

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In the Mahābhārata, there is some confusion between the Aśmakas and the Aśvakas, and some of the passages appear to contradict one another. In the Jayadrathavadhaparvādhyāya,³ the Aśmakas are found ranged on the Pāṇḍava side in the Kurukṣetra war; on the other hand, an ‘Aśmaka-dāyāda’, or a relative of the Aśmaka monarch, is said to have been killed in battle by Abhimanyu (VII, 37, 1605); and the same person is also referred to as ‘Aśmakasya suta’ (son of Aśmaka) in the verse immediately following (VII, 37, 1606). An Aśmakeśvara (king of Aśmaka) is also spoken of here (VII, 37, 1608). In a list of the tribes conquered by Karṇa, the Aśmakas are mentioned along with the Vatsas, Kaliṅgas, Ṛṣikas, etc. (VIII, 8, 237). In the Ādiparvan, a Rājarṣi Aśmaka, son of Vasiṣṭha and Madayantī, wife of Kalmāṣapāda, is mentioned, and the story of his birth is referred to.⁴ The same king, who is called a Vāśiṣṭha, is said to have founded Paudanya (I, 177, 6791).

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³ VII, 85, 3049.

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⁴ I, 122, 4737.

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Pāṇini mentions Aśmaka in one of his Sūtras (IV, I, 173).

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The Aṅguttara Nikāya,⁵ like the Purāṇas,⁶ tells us that Assaka was one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas of Jambudīpa (India). It had an abundance of food and gems, and was wealthy and prosperous. From the *Mahāgovinda Suttanta*, we learn that Potana was the (capital) city of the Assakas.¹

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⁵ I, p. 213; IV, pp. 252, 256, 260.

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⁶ Padmapurāṇa, Svargakhaṇḍa, Chap. III; Viṣṇudharmottaramahāpurāṇa, Chap. IX.

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¹ *Digha*, II, p. 235.

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In the *Suttanipāta*,² one of the oldest works of the Pāli Buddhist literature, the Assaka or Aśmaka country is associated with Mūlaka with its capital Patiṭṭhāna (Paithan), and mentioned as situated on the bank of the river Godāvarī, immediately to the south of Patiṭṭhāna. The same passage speaks of a Brāhman guru called Bāvarī who, having left the Kośala country, settled near a village on the Godāvarī in the Assaka territory in the Dakṣiṇāpatha.³

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² Verses 976-7.

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³ D. R. Bhandarkar, *Carmichael Lectures*, 1918, p. 4; and p. 53, n. 5.

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Rhys Davids points out that the country is mentioned together with Avanti, in the same way as Aṅga is with Magadha, and its position in the list of *Mahājanapadas*, between Śūrasena and Avanti, it makes it appear probable that when the list was drawn up, Aśmaka was situated immediately north-west of Avanti. In that case, the settlement on the Godāvarī was a later colony, and this is confirmed by the fact that there is no mention of Potana (or Potali) in the list.⁴ Further, Asaṅga in his *Sūtrālaṅkāra* mentions an Aśmaka country in the basin of the Indus; and we have already noted that the Greek writers knew of a people called the ‘Assakenoi’ in eastern Afghanistan.

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⁴ *Buddhist India*, pp. 27-8.

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The legendary story of the origin of Aśmaka, founder of the tribe, barely mentioned in the *Mahābhārata*, is narrated in full in the *Bṛhannāradīya Purāṇa*. Once Sudāsa, who is often identified with the Ṛgvedic hero who won the battle of the ten kings, went to the forest to hunt. He killed a tiger, and the dying animal took the shape of a terrible monster bent on wreaking vengeance on the king. An occasion soon presented itself. When Vasiṣṭha, the king’s priest, had departed after performing a sacrifice for Sudāsa, the monster assumed the form of the priest, appeared before the king, and asked him to prepare meat for him to eat. The monster once more changed his appearance, and appeared before King Sudāsa in the guise of a cook. When ordered by the king to prepare a dish of meat for Vasiṣṭha, he cooked human flesh; and the king offered the dish to the genuine Vasiṣṭha when he arrived. Vasiṣṭha thought the king to be wicked in offering him meat; and when, after meditation, he discovered that it was actually human flesh, he cursed the king, saying that he would become a monster, greedy for human flesh. When the king told him that it was (supposedly) by Vasiṣṭha’s own order that the dish had been prepared, the Ṛṣi meditated once more, learnt the whole truth, and modified his curse to have effect for twelve years only. The king, in his turn, was about to curse Vasiṣṭha, but his queen Madayantī entreated him to forbear, and appeased his wrath. The king washed his feet with the curse-water; his legs turned black, and thenceforward he was famous as Kalmāṣapāda (‘having speckled feet’).

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Every third night thenceforth the king took the shape of a rākṣasa, and strolling about the forest, used to kill human beings. One night he ate a Brāhmaṇī’s husband, and the Brāhmaṇī cursed him, saying, ‘You will die at the time of union with your wife’. After twelve years, the king was duly freed from the curse of Vasiṣṭha. He desired an heir, but recollecting the Brāhmaṇī’s curse, requested Vasiṣṭha to act as his proxy. Queen Madayantī conceived, and a son was born to her after the lapse of seven years. According to the legend, the boy was named Aśmaka because his mother smote her womb with a stone (aśman) before he was born, in order to hasten delivery. Aśmaka’s son was Mūlaka,¹ and his great-grandson is said to have been Dilīpa, the forefather of Rāma. Thus a connection is established between the Ikṣvākus and the Aśmakas.²

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¹ For the connection between the Aśmakas and Mūlakas, see Mūlaka chapter.

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² Brhannāradīya Purāṇa, Chap. 9.

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The Matsyapurāṇa (Chap. 272) gives us a list of twenty-five Aśmaka kings, contemporaries of the Śiśunāgas who reigned in Magadha before the Nandas.

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One of the Jātakas relates the following story. In Potali, the capital of Assaka, there reigned a king Assaka who had a queen of unique beauty. When she died, the king was overwhelmed with grief. The Bodhisattva, then dwelling at the foot of the Himālayas, got to know of the king’s sorrow, and appeared before him. He showed the king his queen, reincarnated as a tiny dungworm. The king made himself known to his queen who told him in human voice that she no longer loved him,—the worm was now dearer to her. Thus the king was consoled.³

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³ Jātaka (Fausböll), Vol. II, pp. 155 foll.

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In another Jātaka,⁴ we read that Assaka was the king of Potali in the Assaka country. At this time Kaliṅga was reigning in the city of Dantapura in the Kaliṅga kingdom. Kaliṅga had four daughters of surpassing beauty, whom he ordered to sit in a covered carriage to be driven to every village, town and city with an armed escort. Kaliṅga declared that if any king were desirous of taking them into his harem, he would join battle with him. Passing through various countries, the princesses reached Potali in the Assaka country. The gates were opened by order of Nandisena, the minister of the king of Assaka; and the four princesses were brought before the king who, acting on Nandisena’s advice, made them his queen-consorts and sent a message to King Kaliṅga informing him of this. Keeping his threat, Kaliṅga set out for Assaka with a large army, and a great battle was fought. Through Nandisena’s diplomacy, Assaka defeated Kaliṅga who fled to his own city. Assaka demanded from Kaliṅga a portion of the dowry of his daughters. King Kaliṅga sent a befitting dowry to Assaka, and thenceforth the two kings lived amicably. According to this story, the countries of the Assakas and the Kaliṅgas bordered on each other. Evidently it is the southern Aśmaka country, on the Godāvarī, that is here referred to.

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⁴ Ibid., III, pp. 3 foll.

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The Vimānavatthu Commentary tells us that a king named Assaka, whose capital was Potananagara, reigned in the country of Assaka. In fulfilment of a promise to grant a boon to his younger wife, he reluctantly sent Sujāta, his son by his first wife, to the forest, so that his younger wife’s son should succeed him on the throne. Whilst in the forest, Sujāta met the Elder Mahākaccāyana, was instructed in the Dhamma by him, and afterwards became a bhikkhu.¹

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¹ Vimānavatthu Commentary, pp. 259ff.

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