Historical Geography of Ancient India c6.416

c6.416

Uttarakāṇḍa, 56, 25; 59, 19; Ādikāṇḍa, 13th sarga, Kiṣkindhyākāṇḍa, 40th sarga). This city figures prominently in the Mahābhārata. Divodāsa who was the founder of the city of Benaras, fled to a forest after being defeated according to the Anuśāsanaparva of the Mahābhārata (Ch. 30, pp. 1899-1900). According to the Udyogaparva of the Mahābhārata (Ch. 117, p. 746) Divodāsa, son of Bhīmasena, king of Kāsī, had a son named Pratardana. We have another version of Divodāsa's life-story in the Harivamśa (Ch. 31; cf. Vāyupurāṇa, Ch. 92; Brahmapurāṇa, Ch. 13, 75). The Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas contain several stories about the kings of Kāsī (Ādiparva, 95, 105; Udyogaparva, Chs. 172-94, pp. 791-806; Sabhāparva, 30, 241-2; Virāṭaparva, 72, 16; Udyogaparva, 72, 714; Droṇaparva, 22, 38; Bhīṣmaparva, 50, 924, Vāyupurāṇa, Ch. 92; Viṣṇupurāṇa, 5th Amśa, Ch. 34). The Udyogaparva of the Mahābhārata alludes to Kṛṣṇa's repeated burning of the city. According to the Jainas Pārśvanātha was born in Benaras. Kāsī also figures in the stories of Mahāvīra, the founder of Jainism and his disciples.¹ Although Kāsī and Benaras feature fairly prominently in the Hindu and Jaina sources, it is the Buddhist books and particularly the Jātakas that give us a fuller information on the subject.² In the time of the Buddha Kāsī lost its political power. Kāsī's absorption into Kośala was an accomplished fact before the accession of Prasenajit of Kośala. His father Mahākośala gave his daughter named Kośaladevī a village of Kāsī (Kāsīgāma) as bath money on the occasion of her marriage with Bimbisāra of Magadha.³ Kāsī was finally conquered and incorporated into the Magadhan kingdom, when Ajātaśatru, king of Magadha, defeated the Kośalans and became the most powerful king of northern India.⁴