Kosala

Kingdom of Kosala कोसल राज्य
c. 7th century BCE Mahajanapadas in the Post Vedic period.
Capital	Ayodhya and Shravasti of Uttar Kosala
Common languages	Sanskrit
Religion	Historical Vedic religion Jainism Buddhism
Government	Monarchy
King
• ?	Ikshvaku (first)
• c. 5th century BCE	Sumitra (last)
Historical era	Iron Age
• Established	c. 7th century BCE[1]
• Disestablished	c. 5th century BCE
Preceded by Succeeded by Black and red ware culture Magadha
Today part of	India Nepal

Kosala, sometimes referred to as Uttara Kosala (lit. 'Northern Kosala') was one of the Mahajanapadas of ancient India.^[2][3] It emerged as a small state during the Late Vedic period^[4][5] and became (along with Magadha) one of the earliest states to transition from a lineage-based society to a monarchy.^[6] By the 6^th century BCE, it had consolidated into one of the four great powers of ancient northern India, along with Magadha, Vatsa, and Avanti.^[2][7]

Kosala belonged to the

One of India's two great epics, Ramayana is set in the "Kosala-Videha" realm in which the Kosalan prince Rama marries the Videhan princess Sita.

After a series of wars with neighbouring kingdoms, it was finally defeated and absorbed into the Magadha kingdom in the 5th century BCE. After the collapse of the Maurya Empire and before the expansion of the Kushan Empire, Kosala was ruled by the Deva dynasty, the Datta dynasty, and the Mitra dynasty.

Location

Geography

Kosala was bounded by the Gomti River in the west, Sarpika River in the south, Sadanira in the east which separated it from Videha, and the Nepal Hills in the north. It encompassed the territories of the Shakyans, Mallakas, Koliyas, Kālāmas and Moriyas at its peak. It roughly corresponds to modern-day Awadh region in India.^[12]

Cities and towns

The Kosala region had three major cities,

Kosala was situated at the crossroads of Vedic heartland of Kuru-Panchala and Greater Magadhan culture.^[17] According to Alexander Wynne, Kosala-Videha culture was at the center of unorthodox Vedic traditions, ascetic and speculative traditions, possibly reaching back to the late Ṛgveda.^[18] Kosala-Videha culture is thought to be the home of the Śukla school of the Yajurveda.^[19]

According to Michael Witzel and Joel Brenton, the Kāṇva school of Vedic traditions (and in turn the first Upanishad i.e, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad) was based in Kosala during the middle and late Vedic periods.^[20] Kosala had a significant presence of the muni tradition,^[21] which included Buddhists, Jains, Ajivikas, Naga, Yakṣa, and tree worshipers as well as Vedic munis.^[22][23] The muni tradition emphasized on "practicing yoga, meditation, renunciation and wandering mendicancy" as contrasted to the ṛṣis who "recited prayers, conducted homa, and led a householder lifestyle".^[22]

According to Samuel, there is "extensive iconographical evidence for a religion of fertility and auspiciousness".^[24] According to Hopkins, the region was marked by a

...world of female powers, natural transformation, sacred earth and sacred places, blood sacrifices, and ritualists who accepted pollution on behalf of their community.^[24]

Buddhism

Kosala had a particularly strong connection to the Buddha's life. Buddha introduced himself to the king of Magadha in the Suttanipata as a Kosalan.^[25] In the Majjhima Nikāya too, king Prasenajit refers to Buddha as a Kosalan.^[26] He spent much of his time teaching in Śrāvastī, especially in the Jetavana monastery.^[27] According to Samuels, early Buddhism was not a protest against an already established Vedic-Brahmanical system, which developed in Kuru-Pancala realm, but an opposition against the growing influence of this Vedic-Brahmanical system, and the superior position granted to Brahmins in it.^[28]

Religious textual references

In Buddhist and Jain texts

Kosala

Shravasti, the capital of the Kosala kingdom.

Gold carving depiction of the legendary Ayodhya at the Ajmer Jain temple

.

Main article:

Prasenajit (Pali: Pasenadi).^[35] According to the Ramayana, Rama ruled the Kosala kingdom from his capital, Ayodhya.^[36]

History

Pre-Mauryan

Map of the eastern Gangetic plain before Viḍūḍabha's conquests

Map of the eastern Gangetic plain after Viḍūḍabha's conquest of Kālāma, Sakya and Koliya

The eastern Gangetic plain after Viḍūḍabha's defeat by Ajātasattu of Magadha

Koshala's first capital of Shravasti was barely settled by the 6th century BCE, but there is the beginnings of a mud fort. By 500 BCE, Vedic people had spread to Koshala. ^[37]

By the 5th century BCE under the reign of King Mahakosala, the neighboring

Kingdom of Kashi had been conquered.^[38] Mahakosala's daughter was the first wife of King Bimbisara of Magadha. As a dowry, Bimbisara received a Kashi village that had a revenue of 100,000. This marriage temporarily eased tensions between Koshala and Magadha.^[37]

By the time of Mahākosala's son Pasenadi, Kosala had become the suzerain of the

Licchavi tribe which lived to the east of his kingdom.^[40]

During Pasenadi's reign, a

Viḍūḍabha usurp the throne of Kosala to avenge the death of Bandhula, after which Pasenadi fled from Kosala and died in front of the gates of the Māgadhī capital of Rājagaha.^[41]

At some point during his reign, Viḍūḍabha fully annexed the Kālāmas. That the Kālāmas did not request a share of the Buddha's relics after his death was possibly because they had lost their independence by then.[39]

Shortly after the Buddha's death, the Viḍūḍabha invaded the

Sakya and Koliya republics, seeking to conquer their territories because they had once been part of Kosala. Viḍūḍabha finally triumphed over the Sakyas and Koliyas and annexed their state after a long war with massive loss of lives on both sides. Details of this war were exaggerated by later Buddhist accounts, which claimed that Viḍūḍabha's invasion was in retaliation for having given in marriage to his father the slave girl who became Viḍūḍabha's mother, and that he exterminated the Sakyas. In actuality, Viḍūḍabha's invasion of Sakya might instead have had similar motivations to the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu's conquest of the Vajjika League because he was the son of a Vajjika princess and was therefore interested in the territory of his mother's homeland. The result of the Kauśalya invasion was that the Sakyas and Koliyas were absorbed into Viḍūḍabha's kingdom.^[42][43]

The massive life losses incurred by Kosala during its conquest of Sakya weakened it significantly enough that it was itself was soon annexed by its eastern neighbour, the kingdom of Magadha, and Viḍūḍabha was defeated and killed by the Māgadhī king Ajātasattu.^[42]

Under the reign of Mahapadma Nanda of Magadha, Koshala rebelled but the rebellion was put down.^[37]

Under Mauryan rule

It is assumed that during the

Maurya ruler Brihadratha or Pushyamitra Shunga.^[46]

Post-Mauryan period

• 
  Kashi coin, 400-300 BCE.

History of South Asia
Outline Palaeolithic (2,500,000–250,000 BC) Madrasian culture Soanian culture Edakkal culture (5000–3000 BC)
Chalcolithic (3500–1500 BC) Anarta tradition (c. 3950–1900 BC) Ahar-Banas culture (3000–1500 BC) Pandu culture (1600–1500 BC) Malwa culture (1600–1300 BC) Jorwe culture (1400–700 BC)
Bronze Age (3300–1300 BC) Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1300 BC)  – Early Harappan culture (3300–2600 BC)  – Mature Harappan culture (2600–1900 BC)  – Late Harappan culture (1900–1300 BC) Vedic Civilisation (2000–500 BC)  – Ochre Coloured Pottery culture (2000–1600 BC)  – Swat culture (1600–500 BC)
Macedonian Empire	(330–323 BC)
Maurya Empire	(321–184 BC)
Seleucid India	(312–303 BC)
Sangam period	(c. 600 BC – c. 300 AD)
Pandya Empire	(c. 300 BC – AD 1345)
Chera Kingdom	(c. 300 BC – AD 1102)
Chola Empire	(c. 300 BC – AD 1279)
Pallava Empire	(c. 250 AD – AD 800)
Maha-Megha-Vahana Empire	(c. 250 BC – c. AD 500)
Parthian Empire	(247 BC – AD 224)