Political History of Vatsa

The Vatsas (Pali Vainsas) and the JBhargavas (Pali Bhaggas) were two ruling olans that settled down and founded kingdoms side by side. Vatsa from whom the Vatsas claimed their descent and Bhrigu from whom the Bliargavas claimed their descent are said to have been two sons of king Pratardana of Kasi,^[1] Vatsa is accordingly credited with the foundation of Vatsabhumi, and Bhrigu with that of Bhrigubhumi.^[2] The capital of the Vatsa kingdom was Kaushambi from a very early time, and according to Buddhist tradition, the capital of the Bhagga kingdom was, at least at the time of the rise of Buddhism, Sumsumaragira, misspelt as Sumsumaragiri (Skt, Sisumaragiri). At about the rise of Buddhism in the 6th century B.C., the territory of the Bhaggas became a dependency of the Vatsa kingdom, governed by a viceroy of the royal family of Kaushambi.^[3] The location of Bhagga in relation to Vatsa. is unknown. Bhikshu Rahula Samkrityayana proposes-to identify the Bhagga country with the present Mirzapur district and its capital Sumsumaragiri with, the present Chunar hill.^[4] The name of the capital as Imown to Buddhaghosha was Sumsumaragira, and not Sumsumaragiri to justify any attempt on the part of any scholar to identity it with the Chunar hill. As Buddhaghosha rightly suggests, Sumsumaragira was the name of the principal town in the Bhagga country. The city was named Sumsumaragira for no other reason than the fact that while it was being founded, a sumsumara (crocodile) uttered 'sound from a Jake in which it lived.^[5]

According to the tradition in the Harivamsa, the Vatsabhumi was founded by a royal prince of Kasi, while according to the Great Epic, its capital Kaushambi was founded by the Chedi prince Kusamba. The Pali tradition tends to suggest that the Vatsas themselves founded their chief town which became known as-Koshambi, first, because it was founded.-near the hermitage of a rishi named Kusumba, and secondly because it abounded in the Kusamba trees. The Pali tradition in the Mahavamsa commentary also suggests that fourteen pre-Ikshvaku kings of the Solar dynasty, headed by Baladatta, ruled the Vatsa kingdom with their capital at Kaushambi.

The Great Epic contains traditions that suggest, as we noted, first, that Haryyasva or Haryyasya was once the ruler of Vatsa after killing whom the Haihayas of the Chedi country made themselves masters of it; and secondly that from the time of the Kurukshetra war the Vatsa king acknowledged the-suzerainty of the Pandavas. The Puranas definitely tell us that since Hastinapura was carried away by the Ganges, Nichakshu who was the fifth in descent from the Puru prince Parikshit, grandson of Arjuna, transferred his capital to Kaushambi where altogether twenty-five Puru kings,^[6] from Nichakshu to Kshemaka, reigned. In accordance with the ancient Brahmanical tradition, this dynasty of kings honoured by gods and rishis, as to reach its end in the Kali Age with Kshemaka as its last independent king. The list consists of the following names: Nichakshu (Vivakshu, Niravakha, Nemichakra), Ushna (Bhuri), Chitraratha, Sucidratha (Kaviratha, Kuviratha), Vrishnimat (Vrishtimat, Dhritimat), Sushena, Sunitha (Sutirtha), Rucha (Richa), Nrichakshu (Trichaksha), Sukhibala (Sukhabala, Sukhinaba), Pariplava (Paripluta, Parishnava), Medhavi,-Nripanjaya, Durva (Urva, Mridu, Hari), Tigmatman (Tigma), Brihadratha, Vasu-dana (Vasudama, Sudamaka, Sudasa), Satanika, Udayana (Udana, Durdamana), Vahinara (Mahinara, Ahmara), Danplapani (Khandapani), Niramitra (Naramitra) and Kshemaka.^[7]

In this genealogy, we are given the succession of the kings of Vatsa from Nichakshu to Kshemaka without the length of their reigns. In it Udayana who was a contemporary of the Buddha, is represented as the son and successor of Satanika. The four successors of Udayana are Vahinara, Dantfapani, Niramitra and Kshemaka. The evidence of Buddhist literature in general, and of the Pali Canon in particular, clearly proves the contemporaneity of Udayana, the king of Vatsa with Chanda Pradyota (Pali Chanda Pajjota), the king of Avanti, Prasenajit (Pali Pasenadi or Pasenaji), the king of Kosala, and Bimbisara and Ajatasatru, kings of Magadha. It is interesting to find that the Puranas mention just four kings who succeeded to the throne of Avanti after Chanda Pradyota, and four kings who succeeded to the throne of Kosala after Prasenajit.^[8] The total length of reign of the five longs of Avanti from Pradyota to Nandivardhana is given as 138 years, the four successors having reigned altogether for 115 years.^[9] Among the kings of Northern India who were contemporaries of the Buddha, Bimbisara pre-deceased him by about eight years, and Ajatasatru lived for sixteen years after the Buddha's demise; Prasenajit who was of the same age with the Buddha died almost in the same year; and though both Pradyota and Udayana survived the Buddha, they could not have lived or reigned for more than 10 or 15 years after the Buddha's demise. Thus, on the whole, it may be correctly surmised that Avanti, Kosala and Vatsa retained their independence for about a century after the Buddha's demise and lost their independence only during the reign of the Nandas. To risk with Dr. Pradhan and Mr. Ghosh any conjecture beyond this will be unwise.^[10] The truth in the above surmise receives confirmation from the fact that when king Ashoka ascended the throne of Magadha, the three ancient kingdoms of Kosala, Vatsa, and Avanti were already included in the Maurya Empire. Ujjeni or Avanti was placed under a Viceroy of Ashoka, while Kaushambi of Vvatsa was governed by a Mahamatra placed in charge of it.^[11]

The Lalitavistara contains a tradition according to which king Udayana was born on the same day as the Buddha.^[12] He appears to have strengthened his political position by matrimonial alliances with the neighbouring kings, particularly with king Chanda Pradyota of Avanti. During his reign the kingdom of Vatsa lay to the north-east of Avanti, and to the west and south-west of Kasi-Kosala. It extended along the bank of the Yamuna. The Brihat-Samhita places it in the middle part of Northern India. The Bhagga province was ruled by Prince Bodhi who was evidently a son of-Udayana by his queen Vasuladatta or Vasavadatta. Prince Bodhi enjoys a fasting fame in the history of India as the builder of a magnificent palace called Kokanada or ‘Lotus’ at Sumsumaragira.^[13]

Just prior to the rise of Buddhism the political history of ancient India presented a picture of four powerful monarchies in Northern India, each of which grew somewhat larger by the annexation of a neighbouring territory.^[14] Anga was annexed to Magadha, Kasi to Kosala, Bhagga to Vatsa, and Surasena to Avanti, The monarchs of these longdoms sought to strengthen their position by entering into matrimonial alliances. The sunshine of peace smiled over the land for the larger part of the Buddha career as a teacher. Troubles again arose when Ajatasatru, virtually deposed his father Bimbisara, the king of Magadha, and picked up a quarrel with the Vrijis of Vaisali, and Vidudabha or Virudaka deposed Prasenajit, the king of Kosala, and planned an attack on the territory of the Sakyas, The Majjhima-Nikaya embodies a reliable tradition of an expected attack of Rajagriha, the then capital of Magadha, by king Chanda Pradyota of Avanti. Between Magadha and Avanti on one hand, and between Avanti and Kosala on the other, the kingdom of Vatsa must have served as a buffer state. The Petavatthu Commentary definitely suggests that Udayana survived to the Buddha, though it does not mention for how many years.^[15] Bhasa in his Svapna-Vasavadatta, tells us that an upstart called Aruni ousted Udayana and Seized the throne of Vatsa.^[16] Thus a fresh struggle for supremacy began and continued for about a century after the Buddha's demise with the result that Magadha became an empire, which extended so far as to include in it not only Kasi-Kosala but Avanti of the Pradyotas and Vatsa of the Pauravas.^[17]

As in earlier days so during the reign of Ashoka in the 3rd century B.C., Kaushambi stood on the high road connecting Vidisa and Ujjayini with Benares and Pataliputra. King Ashoka appears to have placed the administration of Vatsa in charge of some Mahamatras with their headquarters at Kaushambi. Kaushambi was probably the place of residence of Ashoka's second queen Kaluvaki and her son Prince Tivala. Any how, the edict on her donations was promulgated only at Kaushambi.

The stupa of Bharhut was erected in the Vatsa country not earlier than the 2nd century B.C. The very first pillar of its main railing was donated by Chapadevi, wife of Revatimitra, of Vidisa.^[18] Revatimitra Was, in all probability, a member of the Suriga-Mitra family, stationed at Vidisa. If this is correctly surmised, we can say that when the Bharhut railing was erected, the Shunga dominions extended as far west as Vatsa and Avanti. As clearly proved by the inscriptions when the Bharhut gateways were erected by king Dhanabhuti not earlier than the 1st-century B.C., the Vatsa country was included in the Shunga empire (Suganam raje).^[19]

Both inscriptions and coin-legends record and preserve the name of a few Mitra kings. One of these inscriptions is to be found in the Pabhosa rock cave, situated 'about two miles west of Kosam, the site of ancient Kaushambi. In it, king Bahasatimita (Brihaspatimitra), son of Gopati, is described as thef nephew (sister's, son) of Ashadhasena of Ahichhatra. The.inscription was incised in the tenth year of Udaka. There is nothing in this inscription to suggest that either Bahasatimitra or Udaka was the king of Kaushambi or Vatsa kingdom. The same remark holds true of almost all the remaining inscriptions introducing the Mitra kings. But in the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, the contemporary king Bahasatimita is definitely represented as the ruler of Magadha (Magadhanam Raja). The inscriptions referring to the Mitra kings, palasogra-phically of the same age as Kharavela's epigraph, have been found incised at Bodha-Gaya, Pabhosa, Mora near Mathura, and the like. The key furnished in the Hathigumpha inscription is rather in favour of associating them with the throne of Magadha than with that of Kaushambi. The mere fact that a large number of Mitra coins have been found at Kosam and in Ramnagar of Bareilly district, among the ruins of Ahichhatra, the capital of Uttara Pafichala is not sufficient to prove that the Mitras who were matrimonially connected with the rulers of Ahichhatra, were the local rulers of Kaushambi. There seems to be much force in the argument of Mr. Ghosh that the Mitras had issued the coins as independent kings rather than as feudatory chiefs under the Shungas.^[20]

The real crux of the Pabhosa inscription of Ashadhasena lies in the statement of its date in such terms as: Uddkasa dasame savachkare in the tenth year of Udaka, a name which easily equates with Odaka or Odraka by which latter name the fifth Shunga king is designated in the Puranas. As a matter of fact, the late Dr. Jayaswal readily identified Udaka of the Pabhosa inscription with Odraka who figures in the Purana dynastic list as the fifth Shunga king.^[21] Mr. Ghosh, on the other hand, proposes to solve the difficulty by the assumption that Udaka was the ruler of Kaushambi when the Pabhosa rock cave was dedicated to the Kassapiya arhats.^[22] But we see no objection to representing Udaka or Odraka as a local ruler of the place under the Mitra kings. The personal relationship of the donor of the cave with king Bahasatimitra is mentioned, as may be supposed, as a basis of Ashadhasena's reason for persuading Udaka to allow him to excavate the cave in that locality outside his own kingdom. We may perhaps go further and suggest that king Dhanabhuti, the donor of Bharhut gateways, his father Agaraju and grandfather Visvadeva were all local chiefs of Vatsa under the Shungas.^[23] An inscription on the gateway on the fort-of Kara, dated in Samvat 1093 (1036 A.D.), records the grant of the village of Payalasa (modern Pras) ‘in the Kausamba-mandala to one Mathura-vikaia of Pabhosa together with its customary duties, royalties, taxes, gold and tithes in perpetuity to his descendants by Maha-Rajadhiraj Yasahpala’ who was the last Pratihara king of Kanauj. The history of Vatsa or the country of Kaushambi as a political with the rule of Yasahpiila of Kanauj.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For the close connection between the two. people sec, Ray Chaudhuri's Political History of Ancient India, 3rd ed., p. 92; Law, Ancient Mid-Indian Ksatriya Tribes, p. 138.

[2]:

Harivamsa 29. 73; Patardansay putrav dvav Vatsa-Bhargav babuvatah 1Vatsasya Vatabhumistu bhriya-bhu nist: Bhargavati.

[3]:

Dhonasakha–Jataka (F. No. 353).

[4]:

Buddhacrya, pp. 75, 175; Ghosh, Early History of Kaushambi, p. 32.

[5]:

Papanchasudani, II,II, p. 65: Bhaggesu ti evannamae janapade. Sumsumaragire ti evannanamake nagare. Tassa kira nagarssa vatthupariggahadivase avidure udeaKarahade sumsumaro saddan akasi, giram nichcharesi. Atha nagare nimmite Sumsumaragiran ty’ev’a assa namam akamsu.

[6]:

Rhys Davids (Cambridge History, Vol. I, p. 308), say: “The later list contains the names of twenty-nine Punt kings, who lived after the war. They reigned first at Hastin.ipura, the ancient capital of the Kurn princes, which is usually identified with a ruined site in the Meerut District on the old bed of the flanges, lat. 29°. 9'..N. long 78°. 3' E (Pargiter, Mark, Pur. p. 355); but when this city was destroyed by an inundation of the Ganges in the reign of Nichakshus, they removed the seat of their rule to Kaushambi Another of their capitals was Indrapraatha in the Kuru plain, the ancient city of the Pandu princes; it is the modern Indrapat near Delhi.”

[7]:

Pargiter, Dynasties ofthe Kali Age, pp. 65-66.

[8]:

Ibid., pp. 67-68.

[9]:

Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age, p. 68.

[10]:

Ghosh, Early History pp. 26 ff.

[11]:

Asoka's Kaushambi Schism Pillar Edict.

[12]:

Vide, Foucaux, Tr. of the Tibetan version of tie Lalita-vistara; of. Rockhill, The Life of the Buddha, pp. 16-17.

[13]:

Majjhima-Nikaya, IT, pp. 91 ff.

[14]:

Rhys Davids, Buddhist India, Ch. I.

[15]:

Pelavatthu Commy., pp. 140 foll.

[16]:

Svapna-Vasavadatla, Suktbankar's Transl., p,64.

[17]:

D. R. Bhandarkar, Carmiehad Lectures, 1918. pp. 81, 84.

[18]:

Barua and Sinha, Barhut Inscriptions, p. 3.

[19]:

Barua and Sinha, No. 1. p. 1.

[20]:

Ghosh, Early History, p. 46 ff.

[21]:

J. B. O. R. S., Dec. 1917, pp. 473-5; Fuhrer, E. I., H, pp. 240-3; Pargiter, Dynasties of the Kali Age, p. 31. Rapaoa (Cambridge History, Vol. I, p. 521), observes; “Jayaswsl has given good reasons for supposing that the original form from which all these varieties (Odmk and the rest) are derived was Odraka, and he has shown further that this name is raoat probably to be restored in the Pabhosa inscription No. 904, which should therefore be regarded as dated in the tenth year of Odraka”.

[22]:

Ghosh, Early History, p. 44: "I suggest that Odaka was actually reigning in Kaushambi when the eave was contructed."

[23]:

Barua, Barhut, Bk. I, pp. il-42, inclines tentatively to connect king Dhanabhati and hia predecessors with Mathura or a locality near about. Rapson, Cambridge History of India, Vol. I, pp. 523-24, observes: " We may conclude that this family ruled at Bharhut, and that it was connected in some way with the royal family at Mathura, more than 250 mile to the Northwest."