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108 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN PARLY TEXTS
It .was included at one time, in the past, in the empire of Reņu and was ruled by Brahmadatta 1 who must have been a prince of the royal family of Käsi. At another time, as stated in the Agsaka Jātaka, the Assaka kingdom formed an integral part of the empire of Kāsī. In this instance, the Jätaka does not give us the personal name of the king. The Cullakāliäga Jätaka mentions Aruņa, the king of Assaka, who accepted the challenge of the contemporary powerful king of Kalinga and ultimately defeated him. The battle ended in a treaty which was solemnised by a matrimonial alliance between the two royal houses.3 The Godavari flowed between the two neighbouring kingdoms of Assaka and Mülaka or Alaka, the latter lying to the north of the former and at the foot of the Vindhyas. In the commentary on the Sutta-nipāta, the two kingdoms are represented as two Andhaka or Andhra principalities. According to the VimānavatthuCommentary, the ruler of Assaka at the time of the Buddha was a king whose son was Prince Sujata
Among the dwellers of the Vindhya region other than the Bhojas and 'Avantis including
i Digha, i, p. 288, - Jataka, ii, p. 166. 8 Jataka, üi, pp. 3-5. 4 Sutta-nipäta, verse 977. 6 Vimänavatthaliatthakatha, p. 259f.
