________________
No. 42.]
DATES OF SOME EARLY KINGS OF KAUSAMBI.
299
not known if this legend is complete, for these coins are not illustrated there. Perhaps it is not, for I saw with Dr. A. S. Altekar some Kausambi coins from the collection of Rai Bahadur B. M. Vyasa, on which the king's name appears to be Vijayamagha. Some of the Kausimbi coins found in the excavations at Bhita had the incomplete legends (i) viya (? ja), (ii) vi- and (iii) yama. They also probably belong to the same king Vijayamagha.
From all this material we can arrange these kings chronologically as follows:
Places where stone records have been
found.
Name of King.
Title.
Years.
Places where sealing was
found.
Places where coins were
found.
1
Bhiță.
90
Väsishthiputra-Bhima- Rajan, Maha 51, 52 sēna.
raja. Prishthafriya, son of (Not known) 86 (1 76)
(1). Bhadramagha, son of Mahārāja, Ma- 81, 87, 88,
Mahārāja, Ma- 81, 87, 88, (2).
hasonapati. Vaisravana, son of (3) Rajan, Mahi- 107
rāja. Gautamiputra Siva Mahārāja (Date lost)
magha. Bhimavarman. Mahārāja 130, 139 Vijayamagha . .
Giñjā, Bāndho-Bhita .
garh. Bandhogarh . Kolam, Bandho
garh. Kosam . 1 Kosam. .
Bhita. Kosam . .
4 5
Fatehpur,
Kosam. Fatehpur, Kosam. Fatehpar. Fatehpur. Kosam, Bhita.
61
7
The order of succession from Bhimasēna to Vaisravana is settled by the relationship these kings bore to one another. I place Sivamagha after Vaisravana, because the characters of his Kosam record appear to be somewhat more cursive than those of Bhimasēna's record. Vijayamagha is tentatively placed last of all, because his coins have been found only in the vicinity of Kaušāmbi. These kings held the country from Kosam to Bandhogarh, a large part of which was included in the ancient Chēdi or Dāhala. It is not definitely known where they had their capital, but it is not unlikely that they ruled from Kaušāmbi, the ancient capital of the Vatsa country, where the records and coins of most of them have been found.
It will be noticed that the known dates of these kings range from the year 51 to the year 139. They evidently refer to one and the same reckoning, but it is nowhere specified. The inscriptions, again, do not mention any contemporary kings and thus afford no definite clue to the period in which these kings flourished. We have therefore to examine this question in the light
1 An. Rep. A. . I. for 1911-12, p. 67.
? I have suggested here that the year 86 found in a record of Prishthafriya from Bandhogarh is a mistake for 76, because it overlaps the dates of his son Bhadramagha. After this article had been sent to the press, Dr. B. Ch. Chhabra, in reply to an enquiry in this connection, informed me that as many as five records of the reign of Pothasiri (Prishthasriya) dated in the year 86 have been discovered at Bāndhogarh and that the reading of the number of the year is decidedly 86, as it is expressed not only in symbols but also in words (chhasite). He also informe me that there is another inscription pertaining to the reign of the same king, which is dated in the year 87. There is thus no mistake about the reading and the dates undoubtedly overlap. One way of explaining this would be to distinguish between Maharaja Bhadramagha and Mahäsēnapali Bhadrabäla or Bhadadēva (Bhadradéva) and to suppose that the former was ruling at Kosam and the latter, like his father Prishthasriya and son Vaisravana, was holding Bandhogarh. But as the coins of Prishthasriya and Vaibravana have been found at Bhita, at Kosam and near Fatehpur, it seems that the rule of these kings extended to the Vatea country in the north. Perhape Prishthafriya and his son Bhadramagha or Bhadrabāla were ruling jointly. For similar cases of joint rule in ancient India, see above, p. 297.
The Purinas state that nine kings named Megha ruled in Kosala which usually denotes modern Chhattis. parh. But no coins or records of the kings of this dynasty have been found there.
