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78 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA Pañchālas. In the epic Kosalas proper are distinguished from the Uttara-Kosalas, the Kosalas near the Venvā (Waingangā) and the Prāk-Kosalas. The last two peoples were clearly in South India. The Pūrva-Kosalas, apparently not identical with the Prāk-Kosalas of the Deccan, dwelt between the river Sarayū and Mithilā.3 .
The Vedic texts do not mention any city in Kosala. But if the Rāmāyana is to be believed the capital of Kosala (Kosalapura ) in the time of the Janakas was Ayodhyā. It stood on the banks of the Sarayū and covered twelve yojanas.* The Big-Veda mentions the river Sarayū and refers to an Aryan settlement on its banks. One of the Arya settlers bears the name of Chitraratha which occurs also in the Rāmāyana“ as the appellation of a contemporary of Dasaratha. A prince styled Dasaratha is eulogised in a Rigvedic hymn, but there is nothing to identify him with the Iksh vāku king of that name who appears in the Rāmāyana as the Kosalan contemporary of Siradh vaja Janaka. Dasaratha's eldest son, according to the epic, was Rāma who married Sitā, daughter of Janaka. The Rig Veda- mentions an Asura (powerful being) named Rāma but does not connect him with Kosala. The Dasaratha Jātaka makes Dasaratha and Rāma kings of Vārāṇasi and disavows Sītā's connection with Janaka.
1 Rām II. 68. 13; 71. 16-18 ; VII. 104. 15. (Kosalan king sacrificing in the Naimisha forest on the Gumti); cf. Mbh. XI, 355. 2 ; IX. 41. 3 (Panchālas apparently not far from Naimisha). In Rig V. 61. 17-19, the Dalbhyas, a Pañchāla people, are placed on the Gumti.
2 Mbh. II. 30. 2-3; 31. 12-13. 3 Mbh. II. 20. 28.
4 Rām., I. 55. 7. It is in the Fyzabad District of Oudh. For the name Kosalapura see Ram. II. 18. 38.
5 IV. 30. 18 6 II. 32. 17. 7 1. 126. 4. 8 X. 93. 14.
