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98 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA by the Brahmadattas of Kāsi.' The Assaka Jataka” refers to the city of Potali, the capital of Assaka on the Godāvarī, as a city of the kingdom of Kāsi. Evidently the reigning prince of Potali was a vassal of the sovereign of Kāsi. In the Sona-Nanda Jātaka: Manoja, king of Benares, is said to have subdued the kings of Kosala, Anga and Magadha. In the Mahabharata * Pratardana, king of Kāsi, is said to have crushed the power of the Vitahavyas or Haihayas. In the absence of corroborative evidence it is difficult to say how far the account of the achievements of individual kings, mentioned in the Jātakas and the epic, is authentic. But the combined testimony of many Jātakas and the Mahāvagga clearly proves that Kāsi was at one time a great, almost an imperial power, stronger than many of its neighbours including Kosala.
We learn from the Bhojājāniya Jātaka6 that "all the kings round coveted the kingdom of Benares." We are told that on one occassion seven kings encompassed Benares. Benares in this respect resembled ancient Babylon and mediæval Rome, being the coveted prize of its more warlike but less civilized neighbours.
1 The reference in the Mahābhārata (I. 105. 47. ff; 106. 2, 13; 113.43 ; 114. 3f; 126, 16; 127, 24 ) to Kāsi princesses, the mothers of Dhritarāshtra and Pāndu, as Kausalyä, possibly points to the traditional union of the two realms of Kāsi and Kosala in the period when the epic was compiled. The expression KāsiKausalya already occurs in the Gopatha Brāhmana ( Vedic Index. I. 195).
2 NO. 207. 3 No. 532. 4 XIII. 30.
5 Dr. Bhandarkar points out that several Kāsi monarchs, who figure in the Jatakas, are also mentioned in the Purānas, e.g., Vissasena of Jātaka No. 268 Udaya of Jātaka No. 458, and Bhallātiya of Jātaka No. 504 are mentioned in the Purānas as Vishvaksena, Udakasena and Bhallāta. Matsya, 49.57 et seq. Vāyu. 99. 180 et seq.; Vishnu, IV. 19. 13.
6 No. 23. 7 Jātaka, 191,
