________________ Traditions of the Vaisali Region : 199 With Karandhama and Aviksita we leave the times of the kings who synthesized pacifism and priest-lore, farming and agriculture and knightly cbivalry; and we come now to the times of ruthless, martial, conquering and wide-ruling emperors. Karandhama-Taurvasi of the Reva and the Gomati region, who was grafted into the Vaisalika dynasty, carried out, as has already been said, a wide conquest and levied tributes; but the defeated princes (evidently Iksvaku remnants of the Vaisali region) combined to revolt, and besieged his capital. Karandhama however broke up the siege of Vaisali, and was chosen in 'svayamvara' by Vira, the daughter of Prince Vira or. Vira-candra, one of the chiefs of Vaisali (referred to before). His right to the Vaisali region was thus further legitimatised: their son Aviksita-Karandhama ("Aviksita' has the same meaning as 'Avalokitesvara') was a famous king, highly extolled in the Mahabharata (Asvamedha-Parva) which says that he was assisted by an Angirasa 'purohita' and flourished at the beginning of the Treta age, at the close of which Rama-Dasarathi lived. Aviksita was highly accomplished and was chosen at their 'svayamvara's by seven princesses successively, namely (i) Vara, daughter of Prince Hema-dharma (probably the same as Hema-candra, a prince of Vaisali); (ii) Gauri, daughter of Sudeva (probably a daughter of the family of Sudeva' of Kasi, ancestor of Vatsa-Pri of Vaisali); (iii) Subhadra, daughter of King Valin of Anga, Vanga, etc. (a contemporary of Aviksita and Marutta nd their priest, Samvartta); (iv) Lilavati, daughter of Prince Vira, and therefore Aviksita's mother's sister or half-sister; (v) Anibha, daughter of Virabhadra (apparently the same as Vira or Vira-candra above, and thus another sister or half-sister of Aviksita's mother); (vi) Manyavati, daughter of King Bhima, apparently Kratha'-Bhima of Vidarbha, a contemporary of Karandhama and Aviksita; and (vii) Kumudvati, daughter of Dambha (said to be a successor of the Asura Kujrmbha of Malava, who was a contemporary of Karandhama's predecessor Vatsa, as described before). Of these the first, second, fourth and fifth marriages were calculated to strengthen legitimacy in Vaisali; the third to strengthen association with the Angiras priests, who all along controlled the career of Karandhama's line for six generations after him, and who also controlled Valin's big kingdom in the east; and the sixth and seventh marriages were to continue the previous Vaisalika connexion with Vidarbha and Malava. Those princesses who did not choose him at their 'svayamvaras', Aviksita forcibly carried off by fighting rival princes. This high-bandedness produced a catastrophe, when he seized Vaisalini, daughter of King Visala' of Vaisali.
