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THE VATSAS
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had four sons by his queen Vaidarbhi, the youngest of them being Vasu. According to the Matsyapurāna, when Hastināpura was swept away by a Ganges flood, the Kuru or Bhārata king Nicaksu, who was fifth in descent from Pariksit, the grandson of Arjuna, abandoned Hastināpura and dwelt in Kausāmbi. There is, however, no suggestion made in the Purāņa that Nicaksu was himself the founder of the city. We are told in McCrindle's Ptolemy 3 that Kaušāmbi was a famous city on the river Jumna, which became the Pāndu capital after Hastinapura had been swept away by the Ganges, and which was noted as the shrine of the most sacred of all the statues of the Buddha. Its fame began only with the reign of Cakra, the eighth in descent from Arjuna the Pāņdava.4 It is stated in the Purānas that the three sons of Adhisāmakrsna, named Nirvakta, Nemicakra and Vivaksu, lived in Kausāmbi after the destruction of Hastināpura by the inundation of the Ganges.
Several explanations have been suggested to account for the name Kaušāmbi or Kosambi. Different traditions suggest (1) that the city was named after Prince Kuśāmba ® ; (2) that it was originally the dwelling place of the sage Kosamba?; (3) that the city came to be called Kosambi because when it was founded, numerous Kosamba trees were uprooted on the site,8 or because the town abounded in shady Kosamba trees.
Indian literature consistently refers to Kausāmbi as a royal city, i.e. the capital of a kingdom; but in the Si-yu-ki of Hsuan Tsang, Kaušāmbi (Kiao-shang-mi) is represented rather as a country with its capital, which was 'evidently named Kaušāmbī.' 10 The Chinese pilgrim must have followed the later usage which represented Kaušāmbi as a political unit instead of as a mere city.11
Kaušāmbi is described in the Trikāndaśesa (2, 1, 14) as Vatsapattana, 'the capital of Vatsa'.12 In the Buddhist literature, too,
1 Rāmāyana (Bombay Ed.), I, 32, 1-6. 2 Ray Chaudhuri, Political History of Ancient India (4th Ed.), p. 58. 3 McCrindle, Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, p. 72. 4 Cunningham, Ancient Geography, p. 391. 5 Matsyapurāna, Chap. 50; cf. Vāyu and Bhāgavata Purānas. 6 See B. C. Law, Kaušāmbi in Ancient Literature, p. 2.
7 Paramatthajotikā, Vol. II, p. 300. Ašvaghosa in his Saundarananda Kävya (B. C. Law's trsl., p. 9) refers to the hermitage (āśrama) of Kuśāmba, where the city of Kaušāmbi was built.
8 Papancasūdani, Pt. II, pp. 389-90. • Vividhatīrthakalpa, p. 23. 10 Watters, On Yuan Chwang, I, pp. 365-6.
11 E.g., Inscription of Yašapāla, dated Samvat 1093 (A.D. 1037)-Kauśāmbi is mentioned as Kosambamandala.
12 Ghosh, Early History of Kaušāmbi, Introd., p. xvii.
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