Tribes in Ancient India c7.63

c7.63

Turning once more to the Buddhist literature, we find numerous stories of kings of the Kuru land. For instance the Bodhisattva is described in the Dhammapada commentary as having once been born to the chief queen of the Kuru king (Dhanañjaya, according to the Kurudhamma Jātaka, Fausböll, Vol. II, pp. 366 foll.), in the capital city, Indapatta (Indraprastha). He went to Taxila to complete his education, and was then appointed a viceroy by his father. When he came to the throne, he, together with his family and his chief officials, used to obey the ‘Kuru-dhamma’. This Kuru-dhamma consisted in the observance of the five ‘sīlas’ or rules of moral conduct, and it possessed the mystic virtue of bringing prosperity to the country. At this time the king of Kaliṅga was troubled by a dearth of rain in his kingdom. The Bodhisattva, king of the Kurus, had a royal elephant named Añjanavasabha, which was brought to the kingdom of Kaliṅga in the belief that its mere presence would bring rain. This device not having the expected result, it was concluded that rain did not fall in Kaliṅga because the Kuru-dhamma was not observed there; and Brahmins were sent to the kingdom of Kuru to make themselves acquainted with the Kuru-dhamma, and write it out for the king of Kaliṅga. Thereupon, King Kāliṅga observed the Kurudhamma faithfully, and forthwith the longed-for rain poured down in showers in his kingdom, and his crops were saved.¹ The Kurudhamma Jātaka, cited above, also narrates this story, and there are further references to King ‘Dhanañjaya Koravya’ in other Jātakas (Cowell, Vol. IV, pp. 227–231; Vol. V, pp. 31–7; and ibid., p. 246). In the latter passage we are told that the kingdom of Kuru extended over three hundred leagues. The king’s chief minister is called Sucīrata in one story.² and Vidhūra in another.¹ In each case the king is said to have been very righteous and charitable. In yet another Jātaka version of the story, we are told, as usual, that there reigned in the city of Indapattana, in the kingdom of the Kurus, a king named Dhanañjaya, of the race of Yudhiṭṭhila (Yudhiṣṭhira). The Bodhisattva was born in the house of his family priest (not in the king’s own family in this case). After learning all the arts at Taxila, he returned to Indapattana and after his father’s death he became family priest and adviser to the king. He was called Vidhūrapaṇḍita.²