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THE SĀKYAS
247 exile, followed by many thousands of citizens. They were received by the king of Kāśi-Košala, and the people of Kāśi-Kośala were delighted with the bearing of the princes. The king, however, became envious and drove the princes out of his kingdom. At the foot of the Himalayas there lived a wise sage called Kapila. His hermitage was vast and charming, with fruits and flowers, adorned with a good many plants and with a dense forest. The princes went to the dense forest and lived there. Traders used to pass through there on their way to Kāśī and Košala. When asked whence they came, these traders replied that they had come from a certain part of the forest called Sākoțavana.
The people of Sāketa as well as the traders of Kośala visited the Sākoțavana. The princes took their brides from among their sisters by the same mother, because they did not wish their race to be contaminated by a mixture of blood. Hearing of this, King Sujāta asked his purohitas and learned Brahmins whether such a custom was permissible, and they replied in the affirmative.
Meanwhile the princes decided to build a town. They went to the sage Kapila and said that they desired to build a city and name it after him. The princes built a city, making the sage's hermitage a royal residence. As the hermitage was given by Kapila the sage, the city became known by the name of Kapilavastu. Kapilavastu was prosperous, wealthy and peaceful; there alms were easily obtainable, and the people were fond of trade and commerce, sociable, and fond of taking part in festivities.
The names of the five princes were Opura, Nipura, Karaņdaka, Ulkāmukha and Hastikaśīrsa. Opura was the eldest, and he was elected king of Kapilavastu.i
The story given in the Mahāvastu and the Sumangalavilāsini about the origin of the Sākyas by sister-marriage is referred to in the introduction to the Kunāla Jātaka. Here the story of the origin of the Sākyas exactly tallies with that in the Mahāvastu, but there is some difference in the story of the Koliyas. While the Mahāvastu says that they resided in a cave of a hill, the Jātaka story relates that they received the name Koliya because of having resided in the hollow of a Koli or jujube tree.
In the Mahāvastu the Sākyas are called ādityabandhus or 'kinsmen of the sun'. This refers to their descent from the Solar
1 Mahāvastu, Ed. Senart, Vol. I, pp. 348–52. It will be observed that Opura, Nipura, Karandaka, Ulkāmukha and Hastikaśirsa are represented in a former passage of the Mahāvastu as sons of King Sujāta. Here, however, the relationship between each prince and the one next mentioned is represented as that of father and son.
