Tribes in Ancient India c7.36

c7.36

The ancient capital of the Kurus was Hastināpura which was situated on the Ganges in what is now the Meerut district of the United Provinces. Indraprastha, the modern Indrapat near Delhi, was the second capital. According to the Epic story, the blind king Dhṛtarāṣṭra continued to rule at the old capital Hastināpura on the Ganges, while he assigned to his nephews, the five Pāṇḍus, a district on the Jumna where they founded Indraprastha.³ While the ancient capital of the Kurus sank into insignificance, the new city erected by the Pāṇḍavas has not only come down to our time, but has acquired a fresh lease of life as the seat of the central government of the British Indian Empire. Another city of the Kuru country, according to the Prākrit legend given in the commentary on the *Uttarādhyayana Sūtra*, was Ishukāra (Prākrit Usuyāra or Isuyāra), ‘a wealthy and famous town, beautiful like heaven’.⁴ We have already referred to the town of Kammāsadhamma, which must have been well known in the Buddha’s time. It is also called Kammāsadamma,—derived by popular etymology from Kammāsa (a prince) and damma (from dam, to tame), because Kammāsa was brought under control by the Bodhisattva when he was born as a son of King Jayaddisa of Pañcāla (*Papañcasūdanī*, pp. 226-7). The story of Kammāsa is narrated in full in the Jayaddisa Jātaka, in which we find that the Bodhisattva was born as the son of King Jayaddisa of Pañcāla. One of the King’s other sons was carried away by a Yakkhinī (ogress) who brought him up, and taught him cannibalistic habits. After many attempts to capture him had failed, he was at last brought under control by the Bodhisattva. He was called Kammāsa (‘spotted, blemished’) because of a boil which appeared on his leg.¹ It is apparent that this story is simply a variation of the Purānic story of Kalmāṣapāda.