Pre-Buddhist India: A Political, Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey of Ancient India Based Mainly on the Jataka Stories c3.s2.t2.1

c3.s2.t2.1

The curious legend, given in the Cetiya Jātaka about the foundation of Uttarapañcāla by a Ceti Prince, may or may not have any historical value.⁴ The Jātakas, curiously enough, speak of Uttarapañcāla both as a capital city in the Kingdom of Kampilla⁵ and as a kingdom with Kampilla as its capital city.⁶ It is to be noted, however, that not a single gāthā in the whole of the Jātaka book mentions Uttarapañcāla, but that it is Pañcāla simply that finds repeated mention in a number of gāthās.⁷ The two terms must therefore be clearly understood. No trace of such a division of Pañcāla as the northern (Uttara) or the southern (Dakṣiṇa) is to be found in the Vedic or Brāhmaṇic Literature.⁸ They know the Pañcālas,⁹ and the town of Kampilla¹⁰ which is really known in later times to be their capital. It follows, then, that this division must be a later one. Even the Great Epic itself, if we condescend to believe it, clearly says that the division took place sometime before the Great war, when the Pāṇḍavas defeated Drupada king of Pañcāla and handed over the Pañcāla kingdom to their preceptor Droṇa as promised, who, by way of kindliness, kept the northern half of the kingdom for himself and returned the southern half to Drupada, river Bhāgīrathī forming the dividing line.¹¹ The capital of the former was at Ahicchatrā which is unknown to Vedic Literature, and that of the latter at Kāmpilya, Vedic Kampila. Ahicchatrā appears to be a later form of Adhicchatrā preserved in the famous Pabhosā cave Inscription of the second century B. C..¹ It seems probable therefore that the above division is a later product when perhaps Adhicchatrā rose into prominence and succeeded in securing for itself a separate part from out the renowned kingdom of Pañcāla.