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SECTION III. THE FALL OF KĀSI AND THE
ASCENDANCY OF Kosala.
Kosalo nāma muditah sphīto janapado mahān
-Rāmāyaṇa. The flourishing period of the sixteen Mahājanapadas ended in the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. The history of the succeeding age is the story of the absorption of these states into a number of powerful kingdoms, and ultimately into one empire, namely, the empire of Magadha.
Kāsi was probably one of the first to fall. The Mahāvagga and the Jatakas refer to bitter conflicts between this kingdom and its neighbours, specially Kogala. The facts of the struggle are obscure, being wrapped up in legendary matter from which it is impossible to disentangle them. The Kāśis seem to have been successful at first, but the Kosalas were the gainers in the end.
In the Mahāvaggal and the Kosambi Jataka? it is stated that Brahmadatta, king of Kāsi, robbed Dighati, king of Kosala, of his realm, and put him to death. In the Kunāla Jātakawe are told that Brahmadatta, king of Kāsi, owing to his having an army, seized on the country of Kosala, slew its king, and carried off his chief queen to Benares, and there made her his consort. The Brahāchatta* and Sona-Nanda Jātakas) also refer to the victories of Kāsi monarchs over Kosala.
• 1 S.B.E., XVII, 294-99.
2 No. 428. 3 No. 536. 4 No. 336.
5 No. 532. 0. P. 90-20.
