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VATSA
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Vamsa or Vatsa was the country south of the Ganges 1 of which Kaušāmbi, modern Kosam, on the Jumna, near Allahabad, was the capital. Oldenberg 3 is inclined to identify the Vamsas with the Vatsas of the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa. But the conjecture lacks proof. The Satapatha Brāhmaṇu mentions a teacher named Proti Kaušāmbeya+ whom Harisvāmin, the commentator, considers to be a native of the town of Kaušāmbi. Epic tradition attributes the foundation of this famous city to a Chedi prince.. The origin of the Vatsa people, however, is traced to a king of Kāsi.? It is stated in the Purānas that when the city of Hāstinapura was washed' away by the Ganges, Nichakshu, the great-great-grandson of Janamejaya, abandoned it, and removed his residence to Kaušāmbi. We have already seen that the Purāṇic tradition about the Bhārata or Kuru origin of the later kings of Kaušāmbi is confirmed by two plays attributed to Bhāsa. Udayana, king of Kaušāmbi, is described in the Svapnavāsavadatta and the Pratijñā Yaugandharāyana 8 as a scion of the Bhārata-kuba.
The Purāṇas give a list of Nichakshu's successors down to Kshemaka, and cite the following genealogical verse :
1 Râm. II. 52. 101. .
2 Nariman, Jackson and Ogden, Priyadarśikā, lxxvi; the Brihat Katha. A Śloka Sangraha (4. 14, cf. 8, 21) explicitly states that Kaušāmbi was on the Kālindi or Jumna. Malalasekera, DPPN, 694. The reference in one text to the position of the city on the Ganges is possibly due to its proximity to the confluence of the Ganges and the Jumna in ancient times, or to a copyist's error,
3 Buddha, 393 n. 4 Sat. Br., XII. 2, 2. 13. 5 See p. 70. ante. 6 Rām., I, 32. 3-6; Mbh. I. 63. 31. 7 Harivamśa, 29. 73 ; Mbh., XII. 49. 80.' 8 Svapna, ed. Ganapati Šāstri, p. 140 ; Pratijñā, pp. 61, 121.
