Tribes in Ancient India c53.14

c53.14

The source of the accounts given in the Mahāvaṃsa and the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī is not, however, the Purāṇas, but such ancient Buddhistical works as the Mahāvastu. This latter work gives a detailed account of the foundation of Kapilavastu and the settlement of the Śākyas there. The story of the sister-marriage is given there, and, as in the Mahāvaṃsa, the Śākya family is traced back to Mahāsammata. The names of the kings that succeeded him agree in the two accounts, for the most part. The following story⁴ is told of Sujāta, king of the Śākyas, who reigned in the city of Sāketa. The king had five sons and five daughters, and also another son by a concubine, Jentī. Being pleased with Jentī, he promised her a boon. She demanded that her son, Jentī, should be recognised as heir-apparent; and the king, thought loath to consent, could not break his word. The five princes, his legitimate sons, went into exile, followed by many thousands of citizens. They were received by the king of Kāsī-Kośala, and the people of Kāsī-Kośala were delighted with the bearing of the princes. The king, however, became envious and drove the princes out of his kingdom. At the foot of the Himalayas there lived a wise sage called Kapila. His hermitage was vast and charming, with fruits and flowers, adorned with a good many plants and with a dense forest. The princes went to the dense forest and lived there. Traders used to pass through there on their way to Kāsī and Kośala. When asked whence they came, these traders replied that they had come from a certain part of the forest called Sākoṭavana.