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THE KOSALAS
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include Suddhodana and Rahula, of Buddhist fame. The list in the Matsyapurana (Chap. 12) from Kuśa to the Bharata war is considerably shorter than the others already referred to. It speaks of Śrutaya as the king who fell in the Bharata war.
The history of Kośala in later times is known chiefly from Jaina and Buddhist literature. In the Jaina Kalpasutra we read that on the death of Mahavira, the eighteen confederate kings of Kāśī and Kośala, the nine Mallakis and nine Licchavis, on the day of the new-moon instituted an illumination on the Posada (fasting day) 1. Jacobi observes 2: 'According to the Jainas, the Licchavis and the Mallakis were the chiefs of Kāśī and Kośala. They seem to have succeeded the Aikṣvākas who ruled there in the time of the Rāmāyaṇa.' volglowing
The Pali Buddhist literature is full of information about Kośala, which occupied a very prominent position at the time of the Buddha, though it was already being eclipsed by the growing power of Magadha.
The Pali legends preserve the memory of kings of Kośala such One of these as Kālasena, Dighiti, Dighayu, Mallika and Vatika. had his capital at Ayodhya, some at Saketa and the rest at Śrāvasti.3 No connected chronology of Kośalan kings can as yet be made out of these stray names; but the legends are nevertheless important, first, as clearly indicating a succession of three capitals in the kingdom of Kośala, Ayodhya, Saketa and Śrāvasti; and, secondly, as broadly outlining the four main stages in the historical process which culminated at about the time of the rise of Buddhism in the unquestioned supremacy of Kośala over Kāśī.
With regard to the first of these questions, we have already seen that Ayodhya is mentioned in the Rāmāyaṇa as the earlier capital of Kośala, and Śrāvasti as its later capital. Ayodhya was an unimportant town in Buddha's time, while both Saketa and Śrāvasti stood out prominently among the six great cities of India.5
The story of the rivalry between Kāśī and Kośala has already been treated at some length in our chapter on the Kāśīs, so that a summary will suffice here. In the first stage, as brought out in the canonical legend of Dighiti and his son Dighayu Kumāra, King Brahmadatta appears as the powerful king of Kāśī invading the kingdom of Kośala, led by a love of conquest, easily defeating the Kośalan king Dighiti, and ordering the execution of the Kośalan
1 Kalpasutra, §128, S.B.E., Vol. XXII, p. 266.
2 Jaina Sutras, Pt. II, p. 321, n. 3.
8 Ray Chaudhuri's Political History, 4th Ed., p. 90.
4 Ibid., p. 90. Cf. Ghata Jataka (No. 454) and Nandiyamiga Jātaka (No. 385). 5 Digha Nikaya, II, p. 146. Ray Chaudhuri, op. cit., p. 90.
