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Kingdom of Kāśī | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 1000 BCE–c. 600 BCE | |||||||
.png) The Kāśī kingdom and the otherMahajanapadas in the Post Vedic Era | |||||||
| Capital | Kāśī | ||||||
| Common languages | Sanskrit Prakrit Pali | ||||||
| Religion | Historical Vedic religion Jainism | ||||||
| Government | Monarchy | ||||||
| Historical era | Iron Age India | ||||||
• Established | c. 1000 BCE | ||||||
• Conquered by Kaṃsa of Kosala | c. 600 BCE | ||||||
| |||||||
| Today part of | India | ||||||
Kāśī (Pali:Kāsī) was an ancientkingdom of India whose existence is attested during theIron Age. The inhabitants of the Kāśī were named theKāsikas in Pāli and theKāśeyas andKāśikas in Sanskrit.[1]
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The Kāśī kingdom covered an area of 300 leagues.[1] The northern border of Kasi which separated it fromKosala was theSarpikā or Syandikā river,[2] and the riverSon formed its southern and eastern boundaries, separating it from Magadha in the east.[3][a]
The capital of Kāśī was the city ofVārāṇasī, which was also named Ketumatī, Surundhana, Sudassana, Brahmavaddhana, Pupphavatī, Ramma, and Molinī.[1]
The Kāśikas were first mentioned in thePaippalāda recension of theAtharvaveda.[1]
The ruling clan of Kāśī appears to have been member of theBhārata clan, and at one point Kāśī was ruled by one Dhṛtarāṣṭra (in Sanskrit) or Dhataraṭṭha (in Pāli) whom theMahāgovinda Suttanta calls a "Bharata prince." This Dhṛtarāṣṭra was defeated in battle by another Bharata king, named Śatānīka Sātrājita, after which the Kāśikas stopped kindling the sacred fire until the time of theŚatapatha Brāhmaṇa.[1][5]
However, the monarchs of Kāśī do not appear to have all belonged to the same dynasty, and theJātakas frequently mention the extinction of dynasties of the Kāśika kings or the deposition of Kāśika princes and their replacement with members from other families regarded as being more competent, with some kings of Kāśī havingMāgadhī orVaideha origins and bearing the epithet ofBrahmadatta: althoughBrahmadatta was a dynastic name, the Brahmadattas were not from the same dynasty, with the elected Brahmadatta of theDarīmuka Jātaka having been a Māgadhī prince, the king of Kāśī in theDummedha Jātaka and his son being both named Brahmadatta, the Kāśika king Udaya being called "Brahmadatta" in theGaṅgamāla Jātaka, while the Brahmadattas of theMatiposaka andSambulaJatakas were Vaidehas.[1]
The Kāśikas were closely connected to the Kausalyas and theVaidehas, and Jala Jātūkarṇya was the purohita of these three kingdoms during the reign of the Kāśika king Ajātaśatru, who was himself a contemporary of the famous Vaideha kingJanaka and ofUddālaka Āruṇi's sonŚvetaketu. Ajātaśatru appears in theUpaniṣads as engaging in philosophical discussions withGārgya Bālāki, and theKauśītaki Upaniṣad depicts Ajātaśatru as being jealous of Janaka's fame as a patron of learning. TheUddālaka Jātaka calls this Ajātaśatru of Kāsī "Brahmadatta," implying that he was himself was a Brahmadatta.[1]
TheŚatapatha Brāhmaṇa mentions a king of Kāsī named Bhadrasena Ajātaśatrava, who was likely the son and successor of Ajātaśatru, and had been bewitched by Uddālaka Āruṇi.[1]
Another king, named Janaka, who is not identical with the Vaideha king Janaka, is mentioned as ruling over Kāśī in theSattubhasta Jātaka.[1]
According to theDaśaratha Jātaka, the legendary heroesDaśaratha andRāma were kings of Kāśī, and not of Kosala as thePuranic tradition makes them out to be.[2]
Vedic texts mention two other kings of Kāśī, one named Divodāsa, and his son or descendant, named Daivadāsi Pratardana.[1]
During the 9th century BCE, the king of Kāsī was Aśvasena, the father of the 23rdJainTīrthaṅkara,Pārśvanātha.[5]
By the later Iron Age, the kingdom of Kāśī had become one of the most powerful states of Iron Age South Asia, with severalJātakas describing the Kāsika capital of Vārāṇasī as being superior to the other cities and the kingdom's rulers as having imperial ambitions. According to theseJātakas, the kings of Kāśī sought the status of King of All Kings (sabbarājunam aggarājā) and of Lord of all India (sakala-Jambudīpa). Vārāṇasī itself was twelve leagues in size, being much larger than the cities of Mithila and Indaprastha, which were both seven leagues in size, and theGuttila Jātaka called Vārāṇasī the "chief city" of all South Asia.[5]
According to theBrahācatta Jātaka, a Kāśika king and his large army fought against it northern neighbour of Kosala and seized its capital ofSrāvastī; theKosāmbī Jātaka and theMahāvagga claim that the Kāśika king Brahmadatta had annexed Kosala after executing the Kauśalya king Dīghati; theKunāla Jātaka mentions that Brahmadatta of Kāśī captured Kosala, killed its king, and carried of the chief Kauśalya queen to Vārāṇasī where he married her; according to theSona-Nanda Jātaka, the Kāśika king Manoja had sunjugated the kings ofKosala,Aṅga, andMagadha; theMahābhārata claims Kāśī had destroyed the power of the Vitahavyas or of the Haihayas; and according to theAssaka Jātaka, the kingdom of Aśmaka, in the Deccan, was under Kāśika suzerainty.[5]
Kāśī itself, in turn, was coveted by the other kingdoms around it, and at one point, seven kings besieged Vārāṇasī in an attempt to conquer the territory of Kāśī,[5] and theMahāsīlava Jātaka claims that the Kauśalya king had seized the kingdom of the king Mahāsīlava of Kāśī, while the kings Vanka and Dabbasena of Kosala were able to win suzerainty over Kāsī according to theGhata andEkarājaJātakas.[6]
Kāśī was finally conquered for good by Kosala under the latter's king Kaṃsa, shortly before the time of theBuddha, due to which Kaṃsa was nicknamedBarānasiggaho ("seizer of Vārāṇasī"}, and Kāśī was a full part of the kingdom of Kosala by the time of the Kauśalya king Mahākosala.[6]
When Mahākosala's daughter Kosalādevi married the kingBimbisāra ofMagadha, she was given as present a village in Kāśī which produced a revenue of a hundred thousand for bath and perfume money, while the rest of the former Kāśī kingdom remained part of the Kosala kingdom ruled by Mahākosala's sonPasenadi.[6]
Following Bimbisāra's murder and the usurpation of the throne of Magadha by his sonAjātaśatru, Pasenadi revoked his rights over the village in Kāśī, after which a war between Kosala and Magadha ensued which ended when Pasenadi captured Ajātasatru, gave him in marriage his daughter Vajirā, to whom he gifted the village in Kāśī, and restored him to his throne.[7]
Kāśī later became a part of the empire ofMagadha when Ajātasattu defeated Pasenadi's own usurper son,Viḍūḍabha, and annexed Kosala.[7]
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